‘A leading food and travel journalist depicts and predicts the good, the bad, and the ugly about the future of travel — and how we can transcend the complications of climate change, AI, and touristification . . .‘
– The Future of Travel
[ About The Future of Travel ]
Travel is easier, more accessible, and more tempting than ever before in today’s world. But what impact is our globetrotting having on local communities and the environment?
From his own experiences spending time in countries from Spain to Argentina to Japan, travel writer Daniel Maurer has seen first-hand the impact of growing cultural homogenization and anger at the tourists driving it. Speaking to locals and immigrants, activists and protestors, he hears of the problems of rising living costs, overcrowding, anti-social behaviour and the erosion of local traditions and ways of life caused by overtourism.
Some cities already have plans in place to combat it, including tourist taxes, carbon emission targets and airbnb bans, and in the coming years, more will take drastic measures to tackle not only a flood of tourists but of a growing worldwide workforce of “location-independent professionals.”
Technological advances are also changing the way we interact with the world, and the future promises amazing things from flying cars to VR headsets to AI travel influencers and chatbots. But there’s a constant battle between technology making things more easily accessible, and the need to reduce human impact on the world.
What choices might we make when it comes to travelling in the future, and can we become more impact conscious, making more sustainable and thoughtful decisions?
[ My Review ]
The Future of Travel by Daniel Maurer published November 20th with Melville House UK and is part of The Future Series which launched in 2024. The objective of this series is ‘to present imaginative future visions on a wide range of subjects, written by experts, academics, journalists and leading pop-culture figures…to inspire readers to imagine what might lie ahead, to figure out how they might like the future to look, and think about how, collectively, we might get there.’
Daniel Maurer is an experienced travel journalist who has explored many countries across the globe. Basing himself in Spain while writing this book, Daniel witnessed an increase in hostility toward tourists as the residents began to rebel, hoping to reclaim their homes. Many of us book our holiday accommodation online without any consideration given to the communities who live, work and play in these places. The hospitality sector is important for economic growth but in the long-term what is the effect of these short-term rentals? Where do the locals live? What impact are our adventures having on the local environs?
Daniel Maurer refers to his trips to other locations, including Montevideo, where he follows in the path of Anthony Bourdain (Parts Unknown). Having watched Bourdain’s shows over the years I was always enthralled by his ability to really see the country he was visiting, as opposed to following the tourist trail. Maurer is an advocate of this kind of travel diverting the tourist away from mass congregation and the clogging of cultural sites and cities.
Encouraging people to change their habits will require a drastic shift in thinking. As cities now employ innovative techniques to help reduce the sheer volume of numbers, there is the beginning of a movement. At the grassroots level there are like-minded people coming together hoping to reshape the future of their cities, with their objective being to stem the current tide of tourism.
Sustainability is a word we are so very familiar with, one we know is vital for our very existence. Through the lens of Daniel Maurer, and others like him, we witness the impact of our unsustainable actions on communities. Daniel Maurer crosses paths with a variety of individuals, offering different viewpoints while also being very much aware that he too has contributed to the problem. As the population of digital nomads continues to rise, more and more people are moving to places where they can live a cheaper existence. For the traveller, this is a cost-effective and exciting option, offering an alternative lifestyle and a more comfortable standard of living. But these nomads are also unwittingly responsible for younger generations having to move out of their localities as the rents increase and property is no longer affordable.
We all need to educate ourselves, re-evaluate our journeys and consider more conscious choices about the way we explore our world. With fascinating insights, and interviews with activists on the ground, The Future of Travel provides the reader with an eye-opening account of the profound impact of our travel habits on the global cultural, social, and economic landscape. A very compact book with perspective-shifting ideas, The Future of Travel is an astute, important and accessible read.
‘If you come, you must accept it: you are just another piece of the mass.
And it’s not each person, it’s the mass that is killing the city’
– Daniel Pardo Rivacoba, member of the Neighbourhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth (ABDT), Barcelona
[Thank you to Melville House for inviting me to join the blog tour for The Future of Travel in exchange for my honest review ]
[ Bio ]
Daniel Maurer is an award-winning food, culture and travel journalist who has written for outlets such as The New York Times, New York magazine, Thrillist, The Art Newspaper, Eater, The Daily Beast, Atlas Obscura, and others. He won two James Beard Media Awards while chief editor of Grub Street, a pioneering restaurant blog that he co-founded at New York magazine.
He has spent the past few years as a digital nomad, living out of houseboat hotels in Berlin and Prague, cave homes in Andalucia, poo-emoji cabins on Lake Titicaca, campervans in the Swiss Alps, and at one point a former cult leader’s compound in Utah.
He currently lives in Barcelona, where he has been an eyewitness to the onslaught of “touristification.”
Sounds like an important read!
It really is. Extremely thought-provoking