No industry in the world employs more people or is the world's
largest foreign currency earner than tourism. Long billed as the
cleanest industry for developing countries to invest in, tourism
seems to offer everyone involved a positive experience. This is the
official line, anyway. In truth, the reality is much more complex .
For The Final Call Hickman travels the world on a range of holidays
and finds that behind the sunny facade of pools, smiling locals,
sightseeing trips and exquisite cuisine is an ugly reality and it
is spreading unchecked to all corners of the globe. But none of us
are going to stop holidaying and at the heart of this is a
heartfelt attempt to discover the best way to holiday wherever you
are.
Excellent. One of the clearest and most sobering analyses I've ever seen of the environmental, social, and economic damage done by tourism...This is a necessary book. Philip Pullman Well written, entertaining and hugely important. Zac Goldsmith Hickman is very persuasive and travels with heart and brain fully engaged to reveal the environmental havoc wreaked by the exponential growth in international travel. -- Barbara Gunnell New Statesman 20070628 Persuasive and sobering ... a page-turner unlikely to be found poolside. Financial Times A project [Hickman] pursues intelligently and thoroughly ... Other writers might have contented themselves with aloof tut-tutting. What makes The Final Call absorbing as well as persuasive is that Hickman illuminatingly talks to people ranging from fishermen and bar girls to developers and activists. Guardian 20080322
