The Final Call: Investigating Who Really Pays for Our Holidays

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Whether it's clubbing in Ibiza, cruising the Caribbean; luxuriating in Dubai, skiing in the Alps, or backpacking in Thailand, everyone loves being a tourist. And tourism is the biggest service industry in the world, employing one in every 11 workers on the planet. Yet while it is built on the sale of fantasies, the unsettling truth is that behind the sunny façade of swimming pools, smiling locals, stunning sights, and exquisite cuisine, there is all too often an ugly, damaging reality, and it is spreading unchecked to all corners of the globe. This is an investigative travelogue, written as Hickman journeys around the world, from theme park to golf course, from sunlounger to ecolodge. At each destination we hear from the key protagonists?the vacationer, waiter, hotelier, souvenir-seller, prostitute, environmentalist, tour guide, chambermaid, and the local politician. All of them want us to ask ourselves some hard questions: Who really pays for our trip away? And is it even possible to have a "good" vacation?

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Leo Hickman is the ethical living columnist for The Guardian and the author of A Good Life: The Guide to Ethical Living and A Life Stripped Bare.