The Case Against Mass Tourism and Zombie Tourism

By Richard Crasta

Though the right to travel and to move is precious, tourism on such a mass, industrial scale as at present has never been seen. Airports, roads, and many an ancient monument or historic city have millions of tourists descending on them. Is mass tourism destroying the environment and causing damage to native peoples and negatively affecting their rights, their lifestyles, and cultures? What about already overcrowded and otherwise resource-stressed countries, where the natives do not have enough water or electricity or living space, and hundreds of thousands of tourists come in, looking for exotic experiences or simply to mark a country as "visited", after being bussed to a few tourist sights and enjoying cheap food and luxuries the natives can ill afford? 

Even in affluent, better organized Europe, locals are in revolt against mass tourism. "[Tourists are] drunk, inconsiderate, noisy, dirty …" was the opinion of many Barcelona locals during a recent survey.
So how do we compromise between the right to travel and the disturbance and destruction wrought by mass tourism and zombie tourism on native cultures?

Richard Crasta, whose travel itch has (regrettably) taken him to over 40 countries and 200 airports or railway stations, many of which are now a blur, proposes a few bold and surprising solutions in this short book. 
Around 13,000 words or 52-pages

• Language: English
• Publisher: Invisible Man Press
• Release date: Mar 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781540175410

Richard Crasta

Richard Crasta is the India-born, long-time New York-resident author of "The Revised Kama Sutra: A Novel" and 12 other books, with at least 12 more conceived or in progress. "The Revised Kama Sutra," a novel about a young man growing up and making sense of the world and of sex, was described by Kurt Vonnegut as "very funny," and has been published in ten countries and in seven languages.Richard's books include fiction, nonfiction, essays, autobiography, humor, and satire with a political edge: anti-censorship, non-pc, pro-laughter, pro-food, pro-beer, and against fanaticism of any kind. His books have been described as "going where no Indian writer has gone before," and attempt to present an unedited, uncensored voice (James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, and Philip Roth are among the novelists who have inspired him.).Richard was born and grew up in India, joined the Indian Administrative Service, then moved to America to become a writer, and has traveled widely. Though technically still a New York resident, he spends most of his time in Asia working on his books in progress and part-time as a freelance book editor.

Book preview

The Case Against Mass Tourism and Zombie Tourism

Richard Crasta

Copyright © 2018 Richard Crasta

Published by The Invisible Man Press, New York

All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Author’s website: http://www.richardcrasta.com

Table of Contents

CopyrightPage

Preface

The Right to Immigrate and Freedom of Movement

Genghis the Tourist, or Against Destructive, Mindless, Meaningless, and Robotic Tourism

The Negative Consequences of Mass Tourism

Suggested Approaches

How to Curtail and Squash the Urge for Mindless Tourism: In Yourself, and Others

Other Books by Richard Crasta

Preface

The farther one travels , the less one knows —The Inner Light, The Beatles.

Travellers like poets are mostly an angry race.—Narrative of a trip to Harar.

[Tourists are] drunk, inconsiderate, noisy, dirty ... —from a survey of Barcelona locals.

Off and on, and mostly off, this book has been in the writing for 13 years now, though some of my perspectives come from experiences I had 20 and 30 years back. So, having published an early edition of the book online a few weeks back, I was surprised to find that the subject has been on thousands of other people’s minds, and that there has also been some writing about it.

For example, in The Guardian of August 10, 2017: Last month in Venice – which sees more than 20 million visitors a year and has just 55,000 residents – 2,000 locals marched through the city, voicing anger at rising rents and the impact of huge cruise ships and the pollution they cause to the city’s delicate environment. There have also been at least a couple of other books of various sizes on the same subject.

So what makes this different? Perhaps only that that it is one hundred percent organic and homegrown, retains some my no-holds-barred, sometimes unexpectedly comic style, comes with my unique insights and personal experiences, and offers a few possible solutions. I did not research the subject as a scholar does, and was completely unaware of other writings on it—my delay in completing and publishing it has been due to my personal challenges, including financial and health problems and a long-term Valium dependence. 

I am often a quiet observer, rarely speaking, let alone speaking loudly, when in strange surroundings. Thus, as a visitor to more than 40 countries over a period of 40 years, I have observed other people behave, listened to them talk, and reflected on the effect of the explosion of mass tourism on ancient cultures and societies from what is known as the developing world. Often, people assume from my appearance or silence that I don’t speak English, or wouldn’t know enough English (or sometimes, the local language) to understand what they are saying, and give away possibly more than they would have had they known me.

I am fully aware of the contradictions in my having visited so many different countries (though almost none of South America and Africa), in my professing to believe in human freedom, equality, and fairness and justice for all ...and then suggesting to you and all the rest of my fellow humans on this planet: Hold it, stop, let’s think this through, and let’s freeze this mass tourism madness until we know what we are doing!

And yet, I could never have arrived at this perspective, these insights, if you will, had I not visited these various countries and experienced and suffered through some of the banality, excess, and absurdities of mass tourism, and observed the phenomenon to be exploding, with Air Asia and similar low-cost airlines promising to take you to places whose existence you never knew of, whose names you still cannot spell, and where you have no business being.

For