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Overbooked
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
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Publisher's summary
Tourism, fast becoming the largest global business, employs one out of 12 persons and produces $6.5 trillion of the world’s economy. In a groundbreaking book, Elizabeth Becker uncovers how what was once a hobby has become a colossal enterprise with profound impact on countries, the environment, and cultural heritage.
This invisible industry exploded at the end of the Cold War. In 2012 the number of tourists traveling the world reached one billion. Now everything can be packaged as a tour: with the high cost of medical care in the U.S., Americans are booking a vacation and an operation in countries like Turkey for a fraction of the cost at home.
Becker travels the world to take the measure of the business: France invented the travel business and is still its leader; Venice is expiring of over-tourism. In Cambodia, tourists crawl over the temples of Angkor, jeopardizing precious cultural sites. Costa Rica rejected raising cattle for American fast-food restaurants to protect their wilderness for the more lucrative field of eco-tourism.
Dubai has transformed a patch of desert in the Arabian Gulf into a mammoth shopping mall. Africa’s safaris are thriving, even as its wildlife is threatened by foreign poachers. Large cruise ships are spoiling the oceans and ruining city ports as their American-based companies reap handsome profits through tax loopholes. China, the giant, is at last inviting tourists and sending its own out in droves. The United States, which invented some of the best of tourism, has lost its edge due to political battles. Becker reveals travel as product. Seeing the tourism industry from the inside out, through her eyes and ears, we experience a dizzying range of travel options though very few quiet getaways. Her investigation is a first examination of one of the largest and potentially most destructive enterprises in the world.
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Good book, but terribly read
- By Kallan Resnick on 10-24-14
By: David Pilling
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A History of Future Cities
- By: Daniel Brook
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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A pioneering exploration of four cities where East meets West and past becomes future: St. Petersburg, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai. Every month, five million people move from the past to the future. Pouring into developing-world “instant cities” like Dubai and Shenzhen, these urban newcomers confront a modern world cobbled together from fragments of a West they have never seen. Do these fantastical boomtowns, where blueprints spring to life overnight on virgin land, represent the dawning of a brave new world? Or is their vaunted newness a mirage?
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Engaging and Memorable
- By Marcus Vorwaller on 04-15-14
By: Daniel Brook
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China, Inc.
- By: Ted C. Fishman
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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China today is visible everywhere: In the news, in the economic pressures battering America, in the workplace, and in every trip to the store. Provocative, timely, and essential, this dramatic account of China's growing dominance as an industrial super-power by journalist Ted C. Fishman explains how the profound shift in the global economic order has occurred, and why it already affects us all.
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Just read the Amazon reviews befor buying it ...
- By Dan on 08-10-05
By: Ted C. Fishman
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Sun, Sin, Suburbia
- The History of Modern Las Vegas Revised and Expanded
- By: Geoff Schumacher
- Narrated by: Douglas R. Pratt
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Las Vegas is gambling's mecca - Sin City the Entertainment Capital of the World with 40 million visitors a year. But that's just part of the story. This carefully documented history tracks the rise of Las Vegas from its vital role in World War II, of the Rat Pack era of the 50s, the explosive growth of the 90s, and it's colossal collapse in the post 2008 real-estate crash. It offers a history of the iconic Strip, but also profiles the neighborhoods where over 2 million people live.
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Good History of Vegas - old, modern and mundane
- By Amazon Customer on 06-13-14
By: Geoff Schumacher
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How Chuck Feeney Made and Gave Away a Fortune
- The Billionaire Who Wasn't
- By: Conor O'Clery
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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In 1988 Forbes magazine hailed Chuck Feeney as the 23rd richest American alive. No one knew until then that he was extremely wealthy. Or was he? Born during the Depression in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Feeney had made a fortune as co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers, the world's largest duty-free retail chain. How he did it is one of the great untold retail stories of modern times. The greater untold story is that Feeney had in fact given away his fortune, in its totality, to endow Atlantic Philanthropies - one of the most generous and secretive philanthropic funds in the world.
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Horizons I never knew were there!
- By DTU_Garza on 08-13-17
By: Conor O'Clery
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Strange Stones
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler’s best reportage - a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and warm sense of humor that are the trademarks of his work. Over the last decade, as a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three books, Peter Hessler has lived in Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in these two very different regions.
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funny, entertaining
- By Katherine on 08-02-13
By: Peter Hessler
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The International Bank of Bob
- Connecting Our World One $25 Kiva Loan at a Time
- By: Bob Harris
- Narrated by: Bob Harris
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Hired by ForbesTraveler.com to review some of the most luxurious accommodations on Earth, and then inspired by a chance encounter in Dubai with the impoverished workers whose backbreaking jobs create such opulence, Bob Harris had an epiphany: He would turn his own good fortune into an effort to make lives like theirs better.
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Wonderfully entertaining and accessible book
- By Tim on 01-15-14
By: Bob Harris
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The Almost Nearly Perfect People
- Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians for more than 10 years, and he has grown increasingly frustrated with the rose-tinted view of this part of the world offered up by the Western media. In this timely audiobook, he leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success, and, most intriguing of all, what they think of one another.
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Obsessed with bad politics
- By Erik on 09-07-20
By: Michael Booth
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Hong Kong
- By: Jan Morris
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Hong Kong is the world’s most exciting city, at once fascinating and exasperating, a tangle of contradictions. It is a dazzling amalgam of conspicuous consumption and primitive poverty, the most architecturally incongruous yet undeniably beautiful urban panorama of all. Through firsthand reportage, world-renowned travel writer Jan Morris takes us through the crowded streets of this enigmatic city, offering the most insightful and comprehensive study of Hong Kong thus far. She reviews Hong Kong’s early days as a British opium port controlled by pirates, cutthroats, and scoundrel tycoons, and looks ahead to the city’s future.
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An interesting but mild disappointment
- By Jeanette Finan on 06-11-14
By: Jan Morris
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Hershey
- Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams
- By: Michael D'Antonio
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In this compelling biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D'Antonio gives us the real-life rags-to-riches story of Milton S. Hershey, a largely uneducated businessman whose idealistic sense of purpose created an immense financial empire, a town, and a legacy that lasts to this day.
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The Benchmark for Chartiable, Rich Men
- By Boyd Tschaggeny on 01-30-19
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Divided Highways
- Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life
- By: Tom Lewis
- Narrated by: Jim D. Johnston
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In Divided Highways, Tom Lewis offers an encompassing account of highway development in the United States. In the early twentieth century Congress created the Bureau of Public Roads to improve roads and the lives of rural Americans. The Bureau was the forerunner of the Interstate Highway System of 1956, which promoted a technocratic approach to modern road building sometimes at the expense of individual lives, regional characteristics, and the landscape.
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Lots of interesting facts. Poor narration
- By Richard on 06-01-21
By: Tom Lewis
What listeners say about Overbooked
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- matthew
- 05-23-13
A collection of an emerging business
The part about Paris was great.It is the most visited place due to its desire to remain culturally interesting.The part about Dubai was shocking.I hadn't realized they used slave labor to build their magnificence.The part about America was disturbing.We our a closed country that doesn't welcome tourism.Something that could bring much needed capital to an ailing nation.Obama lost the Olympic bid to Brazil when it could have been in Chicago instead.The history of cruising was quite good.It doesn't seem like the cruisers pay their crew much better that the people in Dubai,but the tourists get pampered and enjoy using the ship as a kind of floating hotel.The ships seem like highly controlled environments in which the management profits deeply from the crew's honest effort.I know now not to buy in the places they steer the customers to.Instead of a ship being a floating hotel,perhaps it s a kind of financial prison for everyone on board while at sea or in port.I was left feeling that this is an industry that still has room to grow.A creative person could create the right kind of tours that would give the tourists the kind of rich cultural experience they are looking for.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Dealz
- 01-29-22
Excellent analysis of the tourism industry
If you are looking for a well-researched and comprehensive overview of the tourism industry and its implications, this book is for you. I’m an avid traveler and this book is one of the best I’ve read in a while. It’s long but worth your time.
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- James
- 10-21-22
good info, needed and editor with a sharper pencil
extremely deep research, but too many overlapping data points and interviews. could have been 30% shorter.
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- Heather Cassell
- 03-01-19
Insightful Perspective of Tourism
I’m a professional travel writer. I found Elizabeth Becker’s book well researched and well written. I didn’t agree with everything she presented about the travel industry, mostly her criticism of the loose relationship between travel writers, travel publicists, tourism bureaus, and other tourism operators due to comped trips. It’s an unfortunate reality that there are many travel writers who don’t produce following receiving a trip, but there are more hardworking travel writers who apply their journalistic ethics no matter who is funding the trip than there are freeloaders. Many travel writers are freelancers for publications. Increasingly, travel writers are paying a large portion of certain aspects of their own press trips, usually the flight. Publications don’t cover this or anything beyond a small paycheck for the article. This means travel writers are working harder to make that money back writing stories and content for travel websites, speaking gigs, and selling travel themselves, before breaking even or being able to pay the rent. However, publications benefit from advertising sales and readership connected to the articles. It’s a harsh reality, but for those of us who really love, not only travel, but telling other people about their travel experiences and where to go, what to do, what to look out for and what not to miss we find our way to make it work. Honestly, there wouldn’t be travel stories in publications other than the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveller, and Travel & Leisure that don’t allow sponsored press trips for travel writers and have travel budgets and pay their writers, if travel writers weren’t supplemented by a variety of travel entities.
Other than Becker’s critical look at how travel readers get their travel content, this book is a critical look at the state of travel today. The book was well researched and skillfully written.
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- Keith L.
- 03-03-15
Informative and interesting, a bit verbose
The author's personal experiences, and insights, often overly detailed, interwoven with historical and political background of many global destinations. Mainly held my interest with additional info about places I've been, although along with much I already knew. Could be less engaging for readers/listeners who aren't widely traveled.
I wish the author had tied things together better at the end, e.g. what things should we all be paying attention to at home and abroad to support healthy tourist industry advancement and sustainability.
Narration was clear but a bit stodgy, older school teacher sounding, also due to author's less contemporary style and vocabulary, which seemed to take so much longer to hear than to read.
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- Sheeka Strickland
- 07-17-22
Well researched book ruined by colonial points of view
I learned a good amount about the global tourism industry from this book, however I recommend listening to this book with a critical ear. The lens is typical of Western media, full of white saviorism, and excusing colonialism. It lacks respect for majority black and brown countries.
The book begins in France, where the author fawns over the tourism industry, particularly the Bordeaux wine region. Cambodia is looked down upon for not being as it was when the author first saw it decades earlier and Dubai is described as a place with little culture.
Once we get to Zambia, I grew tired of the author’s sweeping references of Africa as if it were a country instead of a continent. “White Africans” as the author calls them, are heralded as the eventual saviors of wildlife, rather than calling out Europeans as the original poachers.
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1 person found this helpful
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- michael
- 10-31-13
Debbie Downer is alive and well
What would have made Overbooked better?
way to negative....
Would you ever listen to anything by Elizabeth Becker again?
no
What didn’t you like about Alma Cuervo’s performance?
not an issue
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
I love to travel....I don't need a lecture on the evils of travel...
Any additional comments?
YUK!
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- Denis Brodetzky
- 01-16-20
About absolutely nothing
A lot of short stories from which impossible to learn or understand anything at all.
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- Michael Williams
- 07-13-14
Complaint fest. All complaint no solutions
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
People who want to commiserate with other Debbie Downers
Would you ever listen to anything by Elizabeth Becker again?
By accident maybe.
What didn’t you like about Alma Cuervo’s performance?
Probably spot on performance. Wouldn't blame the reader at all
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Overbooked?
I wouldn't have let it go to print without offering solutions to every issue.
Any additional comments?
Bummed me out.
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