My take is that the productization of travel is a real and gradual long-term trend that's correlated with the number of people traveling for the sake of tourism. For decades international tourism has been getting cheaper and easier and more people have been doing it.

The algorithms just play a supporting role. If you went to Goa in the 1960s or drove a motorcycle across China in the 90s, you were adventurous as hell and you didn't need things to feel familiar. That was the whole point.

Most people going to Bali in 2018 not as creative as those pioneers, they are looking to have a relaxed time and down a few beers, take some Instagram shots at a temple, go scuba diving, they want a safe and predictable experience, bonus if there are many totems of home they can seek as refuges when the world gets too weird, like a Starbucks.

So as international tourism becomes a more mainstream activity, the destinations themselves grow more mainstream. This won't necessarily kill the trade either because there are a lot of first-time and occasional tourists for whom going to a good aquarium in the tropics that has unusual fish and coral, or something like that, is a pretty novel experience.

Trade you one for a probably-equivalent piece by the verge,

WELCOME TO AIRSPACE How Silicon Valley helps spread the same sterile aesthetic across the world https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-...