The end of elsewhere : travels among the tourists / Taras Grescoe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grescoe, Taras.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grescoe, Taras--Travel.

Grescoe, Taras.

Travel.

Europe--Description and travel.

Europe.

Asia--Description and travel.

Asia.

Travelers--Psychology.

Travelers.

Physical Description:

309 pages : map ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Serpent's Tail, 2004.

Summary:

Now that 700 million travellers leave home every year, there does not seem to be a single patch of earth untouched by the tourism industry. Lager louts vomit on Mediterranean beaches, extreme athletes race up the Matterhorn, and sex tourists head to Bangkok to hook up with underage girls. Taras Grescoe's epic search for what makes tourists tick starts at the tip of Spain and ends, nine months later, on the soldier-patrolled beaches of China's End of the Earth. Along the way, he tells the story of leisure travel - from Michelin-guided tours and ascetic religious pilgrimages to all-inclusive charters to tropical islands. A brilliant history of tourism, The End of Elsewhere is also a lament for the way we've turned the remotest corners of the globe into places where authenticity is a quaint performance put on by the locals. It's a book that will not leave your next holiday unscathed.

Contents:

Introduction: The Hotel at the End of the Earth 1

1 A Pilgrim's Regress 5

2 Mille Bornes 35

3 Seven Borders in Seven Days 61

4 Class, Dismissed 90

5 At Play in the Bear Gardens 115

6 The Grand Rut 141

7 Veni, Vidi, VISA 166

8 Prospero's Sty 178

9 Cruising in Grey Water 206

10 Shanti Town 231

11 I Shot the Tourist 261

12 The End of Elsewhere 291.

ISBN:

1852428678

OCLC:

56459581