Review: Vacation Nations

Overbooked | BCBusiness

A new book offers insight into the impact travellers’ dollars have on public policy and the world’s culture and environment


Are ski trips, themed cruises and travel agents the bedrock of the world’s biggest industry? In Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism, author Elizabeth Becker argues yes, and offers insight into the impact travellers’ dollars, euros and renminbi have on public policy, local economies and the world’s culture and environment. A fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and former senior foreign editor at NPR, Becker threads in-depth research, thoughtful analysis and personal accounts together in a lucid profile of the $6.5- trillion industry that employs one in 12 people around the globe and generates more foreign revenue in B.C. than any other industry except forestry (Simon & Schuster 2013, $32; chapters.indigo.ca).