Tourism’s Dark Side

By Joshua | July 18th, 2007 | No Comments

World Hum contributing editor, Frank Bures, interviews the author of The Final Call about the sometimes dubious ethics and consequences of world travel, “from the environment, to culture, to plain-old exploitation.” Trying to determine “the true cost of travel” is a tricky job, but it is vital if we are to be responsible travelers. For The Final Call, Leo Hickman traveled to Thailand, Dubai, Spain, Costa Rica, India and other more “looking at everything from sex tourism to eco-travel to package tourism to party tourism. His findings were not encouraging.”  Brave New Traveler also tackles the dark side in a recent piece called “The 9 Paradoxes Of Modern Tourism” by Cheryl Shanks, in which she writes, “International tourism presents itself as straightforward, passive and benign, yet it is complex, interesting and important, full of contradictions and depths.” Indeed.