Although international travel is often praised for making people broad-minded, tourism can paradoxically make travel prejudiced when encounters between visitors and hosts stay superficial or unequal. The problem arises not from international mobility itself but from the way tourism is organised and consumed for profit. Moreover, this essay argues that commercialised international travel and social segregation create prejudiced perceptions, and that education-focused measures can address these causes.

One major cause is mass tourism, which often limits interaction to scripted experiences that keep visitors distant and leave people prejudiced. For instance, tourists may stay in resorts, follow guides, and observe cultures as spectacles, so this travel encourages stereotypes rather than a broad-minded outlook. In addition, economic disparities between visitors and hosts can foster resentment, confirming the prejudiced assumptions that superficial international travel produces on both sides.

To address these causes, tourism should be reshaped so that international travel prioritises meaningful contact and cultural literacy. Furthermore, governments and tour operators can support small-scale, community-led tourism that requires longer visitor stays and shared activities. Therefore, one practical measure is pre-departure education that prepares people to interpret differences respectfully and become genuinely broad-minded rather than prejudiced.

Admittedly, international tourism does not inevitably make people broad-minded, especially when travel reproduces distance and inequality between visitors and hosts. Indeed, prejudiced attitudes emerge from shallow consumption of cultures and unbalanced encounters, yet these causes are not unavoidable for tourism. Ultimately, by promoting responsible tourism and informed visitors, international travel can become a genuine force that makes people broad-minded rather than prejudiced.