Travel Writer — Don’t Visit Galapagos
A travel writer for the Los Angeles Times, Dan Neil, was interviewed yesterday, June 10, on National Public Radio about his recent article on travel to “endangered places.”
Both his article, entitled “Please Don’t Go,” and interview say that tourism is killing off fragile areas, and that “ecotourism is a contradiction in terms.”
He writes,
“The truth is, growing numbers of travelers venturing to remote and fragile places–Palawan in the Philippines, the Silver Bank in the Caribbean, Machu Picchu, the Galapagos–go with the certain knowledge that their presence makes matters worse. And they go anyway.
As a diver, I have longed to go to the Galapagos, but I know that the dive boats–albeit strictly regulated by the Ecuadorian government–are wrecking the place.
Travel conscientiously wherever–Paris, Bangkok, Banff–but when it comes to the most delicate and imperiled places, resist the urge to see them before they, or you, are gone. The fact is, most places in the world cannot withstand retail tourism. So just don’t.”
You can hear the NPR interview at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91320337
The article itself is online at:
http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-tm-800words06-2008jun01,0,2803087.story