Hello, friend,
Greetings from the French Alps, which are once again covered in snow, after a bit of a bumpy start to the season.
The deadline for the manuscript of my book is now officially *this year* (in September), which means I'm starting to feel the hot breath of a deadline on the back of my neck. I'm writing as much as I can, but I still have some travel ahead of me: it's looking like I'll be making research trips to Peru and Iceland in the spring, then back to Kenya (pictured below) in early summer.
I'll be looking into some big questions on these trips: How does a normal place become a "destination" that appears on millions of people's bucket lists? To what extent does tourism create national symbols, instead of just celebrate them? Who and what benefits (and who loses out) when tourism turns the landscape into a product for visitors to consume?
I'm excited for the travel and am spending these snowy days doing my background reading, interviewing academics and other experts over Zoom, and — most of all — planning ahead.
Where are you off to this year? Drop me a line if you think our paths might cross.
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