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A global tourist trap
An exploration of the downside to mass travel is engaging but not wholly satisfying, says MIK SABIERS
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[Miltos Gikas/Flickr]
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The World in a Selfie: An Inquiry into the Tourist Age
Marco D’Eramo
(Verso, £20)
PREDICATED on the premise that there is nothing more annoying than a tourist blocking that perfect shot of the tower of Pisa or even the Mona Lisa, Marco D’Eramo’s The World in a Selfie is readable, well-researched and well-written. It takes not just tourists but tourism as a whole to task.
Whether touching on Mark Twain’s travel exploits as one of the world’s first globetrotters, admonishing Adam Smith over the “grand tour” or even imaging what aliens from another planet would make of the annual pilgrimage to pastures new, tourism is tackled head on. And it’s found wanting.
D’Eramo proclaims that “tourism is the most important industry of the century” and rolls out facts and figures backing that claim.
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