This is a short, easy to read book exploring the rise of tourism and its impact. McClanahan starts with a quick exploration of the rise of tourism post WWII and the start of some of the guidebooks that have become synonymous with international travel like Lonely Planet, Fodors, and Rick Steves. Each subsequent chapter explores places where McClanahan has been and interviewed people about tourism and its impact on their life/home.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit but it does have its faults. This book doesn't set out to solve the problems brought around by the meteoric rise and lack of regulation around travel and it doesn't. What it does set out to do is make the reader think about their role as tourist, and I think she accomplished what she set out to do for me at least. Though I admit I had been wrestling with a lot of these questions in advance which is part of why I requested this book. While this doesn't provide the answers, it did give some more data and anecdotes that can help the reader make their own conclusion about if the benefits of tourism outweigh the detriments. Because yes, there are detriments to over tourism (ex: Barcelona, Hawaii, etc.) but it can also provide unmatched experiences. There's a part towards the end of the book where McClanahan is talking to a Saudi man about his trip to the United States and he says something like, America is nothing like what you see on the news... I couldn't believe it, and honestly I've had to say that to so many people about some of the places I've been. But at the same time, there's a balance between visiting the "tourist traps" and getting an "authentic" experience, and I think McClanahan does a good job of highlighting how there can be a time and place for both.

In short, I think this book is a worthwhile read for any traveler.

The New Tourist had the potential to be a fabulous nonfiction read about travel and tourism. There were a lot of really great, really interesting stories thought the book. However, I felt it to be too choppy. It was just story after story with no natural connections to create a smoother read. I also felt like this focused on the negative too much and would have loved to see more positives of tourism to balance out what the author was saying here. Worth a read if traveling is something you enjoy, I just felt it had the potential for a lot more.

The New Tourist allows you to think more about the impacts you have when exploring the world. McClanahan provides her own points of view of various destinations and what tourists have caused when trying to check off bucket list destinations. We often hit the must see places, and do not give much thought to how tourism effects those living in the area. Whether it allows communities to thrive or the infrastructure does not allow for keeping them up with the influx of travelers, McClanahan gives us a glimpse of how various areas are impacted. The book provides a great reminder of not just being a good tourist, but changing our ways to be a better global citizen.

I'm old enough to have used those old books for travel guides, and I still debate how best to learn about new places I want to visit. This book is a fascinating look at how tourism has changed, and how travel guides have changed with it.
The first part read as an exciting adventure -- I had no idea that some of the original people writing travel guides just gave up their day jobs and traveled the world learning and writing as they went.
World travel used to be something for the privileged, but that has changed dramatically. Many more people can travel, and they want to. While travel is good for people who want to learn and expand their horizons, it can also help the tourist locations, reviving economies and providing the locals with new friends and experiences. Conversely, there are also stories about how tourism has had negative impacts on some areas, as tourists flood areas they've learned about. Travel can also have a negative environmental impact, and there are last chance destinations that are disappearing.
Even though I've experienced these changes on a smaller scale in real time, I found this book so perceptive and interesting. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in travel. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

I had the honor of interviewing Paige McClanahan for the Storytime in Paris podcast. This is what I said:

Ep 78 - Paige McClanahan, “The New Tourist”

Are you a travel lover? How much do you think about the impact your travel has on the place you’re visiting while you’re visiting it? My guest this week is Paige McClanahan. Paige is an American journalist based in France, who can now add “author” to her list of accolades with the publication of “The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Perils of Travel” just last month.

Brilliantly researched, “The New Tourist” is part travel book, part memoir, and explores the impact that travel has had on the world, how our relationship to it has evolved, and what we can do to move ourselves from the old way of touristing to the new one.

What surprised her during her research and what advice would Paige have for those encountering the Old Tourist? Listen now to find out!

Listen here: https://bit.ly/4bUw0xD

Thank you, NetGalley and Scribner books for this free copy for review. This book was a fascinating study about travel and the effects on tourist's spots around the world. Tourism can be helpful to the economy of cities that can handle the increase in population in places, but as the author describes, it can be extremely detrimental to places that are unequipped to handle it or when tourists wreak havoc on natural habitats and the environment suffers. I grew up at the Jersey Shore, so I am very familiar with a type of tourism that is necessary to many people's survival who live there as many businesses make most of their annual income in the summer months when the tourists come, stay, and shop. The rest of us just 'lived' with the extra people who crowded our roadways for those months and were happy when they left in the winter. This book gave me a new perspective on the tourism idea when economy minded politicians sometimes out-rule and we also need a happy balance to those who care and protect for our beaches and dunes.

“The New Tourist” is a fascinating look at how travel shapes us — and how our tourism shapes the places we visit. Tourism is a big business —1 in 10 jobs in the world, generating nearly 10% of global GDP— significantly impacting the most popular destinations. The book is a powerful reminder that as much as we are shaped by the places we visit, we leave traces behind no matter how hard we try. As author McClanahan suggests, we should strive to be “new tourists,” travelers humbled by the places and people they see, try to make real connections, and use our presence to be and do good.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for this free ARC in return for my honest review

As someone who has done my share touring, I was quite interested in Paige McClanahan's new book. Paige is a wonderful travel writer who writes for the travel section of the New York Times and has quite a lot of insights that she has put together in this concise book about the travel industry and how things have changed in the past 50 years. Paige herself is an active tourist and has amassed over 2000 interviews to help give her a perspective on tourism in the 21st century. This is not a hard book to read, but it does show the trends that are ongoing in society. She begins with the story of, two individuals who decided to go from England to India in 1972 in a dilapidated vehicle and basically follow what is known as the Hippie Trail. Lots of good times on the Hippie Trail. Once they got to India, they decided to push onto Australia and when they eventually made it there they had 28 cents in their pocket. Their notes from this trip evolved into the "Lonely Planet Guide ", has gone from a few photocopied sheets of notes to a hugely successful travel guide. She also notes the change in touring, and how people learn about locations as the old travel guides are being replaced by travel influencers. Yes, now we have people who go to countries to photograph themselves or take videos of themselves at touristy locations. Thanks to them multitudes of their followers now go to those locations. That helps bring in tax dollars, but that also brings problems. You see there's both a good side and the bad side to tourism which Paige investigates in her book. Iceland is a country that was little known 30 years ago and now is become exceedingly popular, and then Justin Bieber did a video from Iceland, which turned it into a mega tourist site and unfortunately there were some ecological damage due to all the areas being overrun by tourists. But it is not just one singer making a video, rather it's many people who go to these locations for the thrill of having a picture/video made for sharing on social media.. My daughter just got back from Italy and was apalled to see how people just stop and click a photo and don't even look or examine the site or location. Instead, culture and history are now taking a backseat to being able to cross something off of a bucket list. Paige takes us to Barcelona back in 2013 and the beginning of the anti-tourist movement which has culminated this year and new laws, which will prohibit short term rentals in that town. But it's not the only location to face being overrun by tourists, as places in India, as well as Hawaii also are suffering from an onslaught of tourism, And Japan is also thinking of limiting tourism in the near future. There's responsible tourism and irresponsible tourism. And one of the things she points out is that everybody thought they could go and travel using what's known as carbon offset, Unfortunately, that theory of climate and environmental travel has proven not to be true, and now places are having higher degrees of pollution thanks to the onslaught of the masses. You must also take the consideration the fact that people want to see places before they go out of existence, and once those places are revealed here, come the tourists! This is a book that made me think a lot about traveling and while the days of the grand tour are over, the days of mass travel may very well cause the end of tourism since they're only so many people who can be in one location at any time. The author does us a favor by pointing out the benefits, as well as the evils of travel in this part of the 21st-century and we can only hope that as responsible tourists we will leave the world a
better place than we are finding it right now.

Paige McClanahan's The New Tourist is an extremely well-researched and thoughtful look at tourism and the impacts it has on the destinations. McClanahan visits a number of destinations around the world to conduct interviews, see how sights have changed over the years, and discover those in the industry who are working to make a change for the better.

I live in a tourist destination along the Oregon Coast where there is constant battle between residents and tourists, impacts of climate change, and population growth. We have many struggles that are being overlooked and efforts are not being made within the government to fix any of these issues. McClanahan portrays communities, such as mine, that have made efforts to improve resident-life and tourist experience and this book is definitely worth a read to anyone experiencing similar issues. Additionally, I would recommend this to anyone working in the tourism industry or anyone that likes to travel so that we can be the best examples of The New Tourist.

I really enjoyed this read, learned a lot, and will pass on recommendations to others that would benefit from learning more. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Paige McClanahan for this ARC.

The global tourism industry is massive and the resulting economic, social and environmental impacts are equally so. Author Paige McClanahan takes us on a journey to a few well known-tourist spots as she highlights how tourism has impacted - for better or worse - those locations and the people who live there. I enjoyed her interviews with locals to get their perspectives. Overall, people globally are willing to share their communities with tourists who are interested and respectful and are unwilling to with obnoxious ones. As well, strategic and thoughtful management of the impacts of tourism on their communities by countries is vital, for example, housing. I appreciated the unpretentious approach the author takes as well - she unabashedly heads to Amsterdam’s Red Light District - as she plays tourist. I enjoyed the book - it kept me interested and made me ruminate on my travels and my role as a tourist. In my opinion, the pros of tourism outweigh the cons. When managed well and tourists respect local people, customs and places, the positive impacts of tourism are boundless. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

What kind of traveler are you? Do you enjoy visiting a new place and seeing its most well known spots? Or do you like to go somewhere new and less well known? Or is your travel more of the last chance variety? In The New Tourist: Waking up to the Power and Perils of Travel Paige McClanahan discusses all these topics along with research about the history of travel and her own personal experiences in many different places. It’s a wide ranging exploration of the world of tourism with a plethora of interviews with industrial insiders and activists.

The book is divided into 7 chapters, each around its own theme. For each one McClanahan pulls from research and her own visits to talk through the topic. Chapter 1 details the rise of the Lonely Planet travel guides as the main example, while also sharing the history of the travel guide and how necessary and widespread they were pre internet before needed to adjust to the World Wide Web. Other chapters include: last chance, under the influence, tourists go home and tourist traps.

A key component of the book is learning about the costs environmentally, socially and culturally that are caused by tourism. McClanahan visits Hawaii, India, Angkor Wat, Liverpool, Disneyland Paris and most memorably Amsterdam’s red-light district. Each of these places fits in with the overall chapter theme, but McClanahan writes about their history as tourist destinations and the way that has shaped the locations and what it has cost the natural environments and the people who try to leave there year round. The research for the book was impacted by COVID and many of McClanahan’s interviewees use the evidence of lock down in their discussions. The Disneyland Europe section highlights a visit right when it was reopening for visitors following the lockdown.

You don’t have to give up exploring, but in your preparation ask what you’re looking for, an escape or the last chance to see?

Recommended for readers of travel writing, nonfiction or environmentalism.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoy this book. It was very interesting!

An informative, engaging, and thought-provoking look at tourism and its consequences. Recommended to anyone in the mood to learn and reflect on their travels (and consider how to be a more conscious traveler in the future).

Thank you very much to Scribner and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

Look, I wanted to love this book and learn something new about the post-pandemic restrictions to once beautiful, but bustling, tourist sites around the world. The book starts off well enough, with the history of guide books being a main focal point in Chapter 1, but after that, I just felt I was inundated with more information, instead of the personal anecdotes I was promised, and looked forward to, so that was a deflated bummer. Overall, good book and I would pick it up for knowledge enrichment, but the first time I picked it up, I was looking for personal fun.

I like armchair travel almost as much as real ones, so I read a lot of books about various journeys and expeditions - but this is something different. It focuses not on personal experiences or specific places (although the author visits many popular destinations and writes vividly about them), but on the tourism industry itself. Although I am an active participant in it, I had no idea of the size and scope of this part of the economy, so I found it very informative. Paige McClanah describes how this huge industry came to be and how it is now changing – and how, despite Instagram and influencers, this change may be for the better.

A useful and eye-opening book for anyone who loves to travel – after all, as the author writes, you can “call yourself a traveler, but never forget that you’re a tourist, too”.

Thanks to the publisher, Scribner, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Paige’s look at modern travel had me compulsively flipping the pages. I was fascinated by the look at the travel industry and its impact on world culture since the 1970s.

She used concrete examples in Hawaii, Iceland, Liverpool, Barcelona, and more to show the benefits and pitfalls of tourism on the environment, country finances, and local cultures.

Why I Love It: I read this captivating look at the travel industry while I was traveling. I was able to see the good and bad parts of travel in my destination (Cambridge, MD) which has recently been revitalized but still shows the aging and hardship of its pre-tourist days.

Perfect read for the traveler in me even if I’m experiencing the world from my reading chair. A very informative interesting look at the world of travel today.I really enjoyed this book.#netgalley #scribner

An interesting look on at how tourism has affected our world and traveling in general. I think it would be good for a frequent flyer/traveler.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

For anyone who has traveled by book this one is for you. An interesting foray into the history of modern travel and those who do it best. Perfect read for the plane ride to your next adventure.

As a scholar and tourism researcher, I was very interested in the topic of this book. I was hoping it might be something I could assign for undergraduate students to get them to think more deeply about their travels and the ramifications of the current-day broad-scale movements of human beings for pleasure or curiosity around the globe. This did not turn out to be the book I was seeking, but it is a good starting place for anyone curious about how tourism has transformed lives, for better or for worse. The book is very engagingly narrated, and most of what is presented is based on the author's travels and personal conversations with people involved in tourism. The author is a humble, likeable presence in the book and offers many compelling examples. There is a chapter that focuses heavily on over-tourism in Barcelona that everyone should read, as through personal stories it paints a picture of how a beloved tourist destination can transformed for the worse for locals by too much tourist-love. Some of the stories of how tourism has positively transformed cities are also inspiring (for example the case of Liverpool). What makes the book readable is also why I docked a star. For the author did not sufficiently articulate her informal interviews with the in-depth scholarship that has been done in the locales she discusses. I am not suggesting this should have been an academic book with volumes of embedded references--in fact, the appeal of this book is that it is engaging and personal. Loading it down with references and scholarship would have made it far less appealing. However, although the author periodically nods at older tourism concepts, the generalizability of some of those concepts have been debated in recent years (such as the Butler model of the life cycle of tourism destinations, which has been qualified by some subsequent writers). Hence the deduction of one star. However, most people will read the book and take in the broader important message--that tourism can have both very positive and very negative ramifications for local communities. The global planetary crisis and tourism's acceleration of it is also discussed and everyone should read her chapter on that. Overall, this book is useful and I recommend it as a starting place for the general reader interested in knowing more about how tourism has touched lives, for better or for worse, in different parts of the world.