Did you have a timeline for wordcamphawaii.com?

I’ll shoot you an email to catch up with your plans.

Aloha

You paint a very clear and graphic picture of the dark side of unbridled tourism, and IMO it is useful for people to hear this.

While I do not agree with your conclusion, I do understand the experiences that have inspired it. I am an optimist though and believe that open discussions such as these are part of the process of positive change.

The more people become aware of the true nature of something, the more they are influenced to change themselves.

i have lived for more than twelve years in a small town in south india, one with a spiritual and cultural tradition going back thousands of years. what western tourism has done to this town is so sad that i almost don’t want to detail it. it has become nearly unlivable for those who once lived there, the values corrupted, economy corrupted, all the worst human tendencies given free rein. about like the effects of smallpox in the caribbean. i see idiots sticking their cameras in the face of my friends and want to beat them.

it is like bali, now, compared to 30 years ago. you cannot find bali anymore, only a replica. or luang prabang,more tourists taking photos of the monks, than monks.

i know this cannot be stopped. but i pray for a slowing. western recession and jet fuel cost increase would be very good for the world. consumption is a disease, and that is what tourism is.

in short, what the brown people of the world have known for hundreds of years, i now understand …. white people ruin everything they touch

I have visions of “tourism 2.0” that uses virtual tools as much as possible and brings people together for authentic and sustainable experiences.

Do let me know if you write the essay; there are many good points to be made, and I think they are important ones for the tourism industry to hear. One good thing about the high oil & flight cutbacks – the planes are definitely flying full. :-)

one of my hopes for “web 2.0” and for oil at 300 bucks a barrel, tourism dies down. it destroys more value than it returns in cash value

i should develop this into a coherent essay