There's something new about tourism that goes beyond bucket lists.

Paige McClanahan believes we're waking up to the power and perils that our travels can unleash.

Be aware of the impact that we're going to have on the place that we're visiting.

Coming up, we'll examine how our travels can be a force for good if we start with an open mind and the right attitude.

You are a member of a vast and potent social force.

Journalist Sophie Roberts has been learning about Belgium's King Leopold

the second's ambitious plan for plundering the resources of Africa.

To do it, he shipped elephants from India to the Congo.

It's just a story of extraction and exploitation at a phenomenal level.

Sophie tells us how she uncovered this hidden history

from the African's point of view

by taking time to talk to people.

I could only find it by giving them hours

under a starlit sky,

and it was really beautiful. I loved that.

We'll hear what her travels revealed

in the hour ahead.

Come along. It's Travel with Rick Steves.

We're meeting with two journalists today on Travel with Rick Steves, who promised to help us see

the world and our travels in a new light.

Paige McClanahan has been looking into the contemporary forces

that have redefined mass tourism of the 20th century

...