Vacations are made of freedom. Pure freedom. Our busy lives, full of obligations, mean that vacations may be the only times we can do whatever we want, wherever we want. So just how weird is it that we all spend that precious time doing the same things? That we descend en masse on the same cities, cluster around the same attractions and all visit the same picturesque neighbourhoods that can't actually handle the influx? How to Be a Better Tourist offers a fresh perspective on making your vacation truly worthwhile. After all, what if all your vacations seem to be getting more and more the same? What if being a tourist is suddenly no longer quite as innocent as it first seemed? Or what if your long list of must-sees in fact stresses you out? As the writer Elbert Hubbard poignantly put it, "No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one." Find out why you should perhaps stay at home. Understand why you also need to work while on vacation. Read why tourists should visit supermarkets and residential districts too. Our typical vacation behaviour - visiting the maximum number of highlights in the minimum amount of time - is rarely the most rewarding. How to Be a Better Tourist helps you get the most out of your stay without damaging the soul of your destination. Because, ultimately, an imaginatively considered vacation is a genuinely rewarding experience.

Overcrowding. Lengthy queues. Increasing animosity from locals. Loss of authenticity. Disappointment. As tourists, how can we improve tourism for locals, their communities, their culture and the environment - as well as for ourselves?By taking steps to "be invisible," of course!Unbeknownst to most tourists, there is a hidden power within them. This handbook examines the lesser-known problems with overtourism, how they came to be and details practical solutions to help you unlock this power to use as a force for good.Packed with everything you need to know to tailor your own invisibility cloak, you'll learn how to: Plan a stress-free trip every time & ways to reduce disappointment; Enjoy popular destinations without contributing to overcrowding; Feel fulfilled by personal, authentic encounters with locals whilst helping their businesses; Avoid pickpockets & scammers for a safe travel experience; Preserve local cultures & identities instead of diluting them; Protect attractions of significant cultural heritage & the natural environment.Learn how to make the most of your next travel experience by "blending in!"

2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Gold Medal Winner 2021 National Indie Excellent Awards Finalist 2020 Bronze Award for Travel Book or Guide from the North American Travel Journalists Association 2020 Bronze Winner for Travel in the Foreword INDIES Both a memoir in travel essays and an anti-guidebook, Bad Tourist takes us across four continents to fifteen countries, showing us what not to do when traveling. A woman learning to claim her own desires and adventures, Suzanne Roberts encounters lightning and landslides, sharks and piranha-infested waters, a nightclub drugging, burning bodies, and brief affairs as she searches for the love of her life and finally herself. Throughout her travels Roberts tries hard not to be a bad tourist, but owing to her cultural blind spots, things don’t always go as planned. Fearlessly confessional, shamelessly funny, and wholly unapologetic, Roberts offers a refreshingly honest account of the joys and absurdities of confronting new landscapes and cultures, as well as new versions of herself. Raw, bawdy, and self-effacing, Bad Tourist is a journey packed with delights and surprises—both of the greater world and of the mysterious workings of the heart.

"Travel is no longer a past-time but a colossal industry, arguably one of the biggest in the world and second only to oil in importance for many poor countries. One out of 12 people in the world are employed by the tourism industry which contributes $6.5 trillion to the world's economy. To investigate the size and effect of this new industry, Elizabeth Becker traveled the globe. She speaks to the Minister of Tourism of Zambia who thinks licensing foreigners to kill wild animals is a good way to make money and then to a Zambian travel guide who takes her to see the rare endangered sable antelope. She travels to Venice where community groups are fighting to stop the tourism industry from pushing them out of their homes, to France where officials have made tourism their number one industry to save their cultural heritage; and on cruises speaking to waiters who earn $60 a month--then on to Miami to interview their CEO. Becker's sharp depiction reveals travel as a product; nations as stewards. Seeing the tourism industry from the inside out, the world offers a dizzying range of travel options but very few quiet getaways"--

A budget-conscious traveler who toured the world for eight years offers tips for saving thousands of dollars on the road, featuring advice on such topics as avoiding currency conversion fees and acquiring free frequent flyer points.

In The Art of Being a Touristat Home, Jenny Herbert takes us on a journey through our neighbourhood streets and our local parks, through museums and libraries, art galleries and bookshops. There’s wonder to be found in the theatre and music-making all around us, vibrancy in fresh-food markets, new friends to meet through hobbies and clubs, and so many lifetime learning opportunities to be had – all without the stress involved in planning a holiday. After all, why do we travel in the first place? It’s an urgent question in these days of climate crisis and global instability. Staying closer to home makes good sense: it’s cheaper, easier, less stressful and better for our health as well as the health of the planet. But Jenny doesn’t suggest that we should abandon all future travel plans. Instead, she shows travellers of all kinds how we can still harness the spirit of travel through the art of the ‘staycation’. With beautiful illustrations throughout, The Art of Being a Tourist demonstrates that travelling at home offers the greatest potential for us to discover what contributes to our wellbeing and our happiness.

COVID-19 put a temporary stop to the crisis of overtourism. Yet there is no question that travel will resume; the only question is, when it does, what will it look like? Overtourism: Lessons for a Better Future charts a path toward tourism that is truly sustainable, focusing on the triple bottom line of people, planet, and prosperity. This practical book examines the causes and effects of overtourism before turning to emerging management strategies. Visitor education, traffic planning, and redirection to lesser known sites are among the measures that can protect the economic benefit of tourism without overwhelming local communities. As tourism revives around the world, these innovations will guide government agencies, parks officials, site managers, civic groups, environmental NGOs, tourism operators, and others with a stake in protecting our most iconic places.

Shivya Nath quit her corporate job at age twenty-three to travel the world. She gave up her home and the need for a permanent address, sold most of her possessions and embarked on a nomadic journey that has taken her everywhere from remote Himalayan villages to the Amazon rainforests of Ecuador. Along the way, she lived with an indigenous Mayan community in Guatemala, hiked alone in the Ecuadorian Andes, got mugged in Costa Rica, swam across the border from Costa Rica to Panama, slept under a meteor shower in the cracked salt desert of Gujarat and learnt to conquer her deepest fears. With its vivid descriptions, cinematic landscapes, moving encounters and uplifting adventures, The Shooting Star is a travel memoir that maps not just the world but the human spirit.

While the number of domestic leisure travelers has increased dramatically in reform-era China, the persistent gap between urban and rural living standards attests to ongoing social, economic, and political inequalities. The state has widely touted tourism for its potential to bring wealth and modernity to rural ethnic minority communities, but the policies underlying the development of tourism obscure some complicated realities. In tourism, after all, one person’s leisure is another person’s labor. A Landscape of Travel investigates the contested meanings and unintended consequences of tourism for those people whose lives and livelihoods are most at stake in China’s rural ethnic tourism industry: the residents of village destinations. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Ping’an (a Zhuang village in Guangxi) and Upper Jidao (a Miao village in Guizhou), Jenny Chio analyzes the myriad challenges and possibilities confronted by villagers who are called upon to do the work of tourism. She addresses the shifting significance of migration and rural mobility, the visual politics of tourist photography, and the effects of touristic desires for “exotic difference” on village social relations. In this way, Chio illuminates the contemporary regimes of labor and leisure and the changing imagination of what it means to be rural, ethnic, and modern in China today.

Part memoir and part philosophical look at why we travel, filled with stories of Matt Kepnes' adventures abroad, an exploration of wanderlust and what it truly means to be a nomad. New York Times bestselling author of How to Travel the World on $50 a Day, Matthew Kepnes knows what it feels like to get the travel bug. After meeting some travelers on a trip to Thailand in 2005, he realized that living life meant more than simply meeting society's traditional milestones. Over 500,000 miles, 1,000 hostels, and 90 different countries later, Matt has compiled his favorite stories, experiences, and insights into this travel manifesto. Filled with the color and perspective that only hindsight and self-reflection can offer, these stories get to the real questions at the heart of wanderlust. Travel questions that transcend the basic "how-to," and plumb the depths of what drives us to travel — and what extended travel around the world can teach us about life, ourselves, and our place in the world. Ten Years a Nomad is a heartfelt comprehension of the insatiable craving for travel, unraveling the authenticity of being a vagabond, not for months but for a fulfilling decade.