A love letter to slow travel | Dr. Manuela Gutberlet | TEDxAl Qurum

In this thought-provoking TEDx talk, Dr. Manuela Gutberlet makes a heartfelt plea for more mindful and meaningful travel—a way of exploring the world that respects local communities, embraces cultural authenticity, and nurtures our natural environment. With over 1.4 billion people traveling globally each year, Manuela challenges the notion of “faster, farther, and longer” and instead invites us to travel with empathy, curiosity, and care. Drawing from her rich fieldwork and research in the Arabian Peninsula, she shares insights that reimagine tourism not just as a journey, but as an opportunity for connection and transformation. A passionate cosmopolitan, Manuela is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Academy for Tourism, Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, and the author of influential work on overtourism and cruise tourism in the Gulf region. Whether you're a globetrotter, a travel professional, or simply someone curious about our interconnected world, this talk will inspire you to see travel through a new lens—one guided by shared values, empathy, and an ethic of care. Dr. Manuela Gutberlet has lived in the Middle East for more than 20 years. Born and raised in Berlin, Germany, she later explored the world, living and working across three different continents, with a primary focus on the Middle East. Her journey has taken her to Cairo, Rabat, Sharjah, and Muscat, where she spent 17 years working in tourism, journalism, higher education, and public relations at one of the region’s top universities, the German University of Technology in Oman. She holds a PhD in Cultural Geography from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and currently serves as a Lecturer and Senior Researcher at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Her academic contributions include a recently published book, Over tourism and Cruise Tourism on the Arabian Peninsula, released by Routledge. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx