Somewhat empty meeting grounds: Travelers in South India

•First time-space budgeting survey in independent travel studies.•Both the travel and leisure days analyzed, with location, activity and human interaction.•Travelers spend their time in a consumerist manner, with service sector.•Travelers actively minimize their contacts with ‘genuine locals’.•Almost half of the travelers not keen on socializing with fellow travelers.

Making ‘genuine’ contacts with local people has been defined as one of the ‘pillars’ of the ideology of independent travel. In a groundbreaking time-space budgeting survey among travelers in Kerala, India, a contradictory reality was discovered. Western travelers interacted mainly with local service providers, in an instrumental manner. Spontaneous contacts occurred mostly during their travel days when situations such as sharing a train compartment ‘forced’ the interaction. Interestingly, the ‘genuine’ contacts with locals were least common on leisure days when there was maximum freedom to look for them. The interest for difference was apparently satisfied in less demanding engagements. An analysis of the spatiotemporalities of the traveler everyday challenged and gave measure to several assumed features of travel culture.