Elizabeth Becker > Quotes

“To make way for more resorts with spectacular views, developers destroy native habitats and ignore local concerns. Preservationists decry the growing propensity to bulldoze old hotels and buildings in favor of constructing new resorts, water holes and entertainment spots that look identical whether in Singapore, Dubai or Johannesburg; a world where diversity is replaced with homogeneity. Another catastrophe for countries betting on tourism has come from wealthy vacationers who fall in love with a country and buy so many second houses that locals can no longer afford to live in their own towns and villages. Among the more thoughtful questions is how mass tourism has changed cultures. African children told anthropologists that they want to grow up to be tourists so they could spend the day doing nothing but eating. The tourists who do not speak the local language and rely on guides to tell them what they are seeing and what to think marvel at countries like China with its new wealth and appearance of democracy. Environmentalists wonder how long the globe can continue to support 1 billion people racing around the world for a long weekend on a beach or a ten-day tour of an African game park.”
― Elizabeth Becker, Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism

“25 million tourist trips to foreign countries in 1960; 250 million in 1970; 536 million in 1995; 922 million in 2008; 1 billion in 2012.”
― Elizabeth Becker, Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism

“This noncompetitive sale of public property for private gain was being duplicated around the country. The government has orchestrated the sale of state assets to new private business ventures that had close ties to top officials and their families. The government used the same dictatorial powers to declare privately held lands part of new “development zones” to sell those, in turn, to business ventures tied to the government. This was all done behind closed doors with no competitive bidding, public hearings or judicial review.”
― Elizabeth Becker, Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism

“Tourism cannot be outsourced.” Philippe Maud’hui of ATOUT France made that declaration in his crowded office on the Place de Catalogne, surrounded by stacks of documents and data showing how much tourism contributes to the economy and how. It is so obvious it was startling.”
― Elizabeth Becker, Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism

“Komphot remembers one night when the sounds were so close to his hut “I thought they were coming to get us. I thought to myself: It is one thing to suffer to live, another thing to suffer only to die. I decided to give it two years. If nothing had changed I would commit suicide.”
― Elizabeth Becker, When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution, Revised Edition

“The concept of tourism has changed with industrialization, yes, and standardization,” said Harms. “You don’t see any difference anymore between one place and another. It’s easier to build that way and provide standard service, but how can you preserve a sense of place and culture? The complexity of the tourism industry works against sustainability.”
― Elizabeth Becker, Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism