Travel has improved over the years in some ways, but it has come off the rails in others. It’s great that a journey from Europe to the U.S. takes eight hours instead of several weeks in the hull of a rat-infested sailboat boat, but tourism is also homogenizing the planet’s cultures and growing unsustainably. How can Stockholm, for example, find room for twice as many tourists in the summer in popular areas where it’s already so crowded visitors can barely move down the street? And with the packaged, tight itineraries that bring visitors from one attractions to the next, how are visitors supposed to make natural contact with locals? Doug Lansky, travel writer, tourism industry advisor, and author of the thought-provoking new visual book TRAVEL: The Guide, takes us on a journey to find the Holy Grail of tourism: sustainable, profitable, and authentic travel. Find more on Doug here: www.douglansky.com
Doug Lansky is an American travel writer based in Sweden who has written books for Lonely Planet, Rough Guides and contributed to Esquire, Men’s Journal,The Guardian, National Geographic Adventure, Readers Digest and many others. He also wrote a nationally syndicated travel column in over 40 newspapers, hosted a Travel Channel show and served as travel editor for Scandinavian Airlines inflight magazine.
On the speaking circuit, Doug has given acclaimed lectures at nearly 100 universities, spoken to a sold-out audience at corporate events and at both public and industry travel/tourism conferences.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
