LIVE GEOPOLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISM  "The New Silk Roads" by Francesco Frangialli 

Published in French with the Paris editor L'Harmattan, the "GÉOPOLITIQUE VÉCUE DU TOURISME INTERNATIONAL- Les Nouvelles Routes de la Soie" compares contemporary tourism, which carries huge flows of visitors, but also wealth and ideas, all around the world to the role played historically between East and West by the ancient Silk Roads. A new nomadic society is taking shape, which imposes its cultural patterns to our globalized society.

Traveling through the New Silk Roads means crossing the major disorders of the world today -poverty, migrations, conflicts, terrorism, epidemics, pollutions and global warming, reduction of biodiversity- with which tourism is closely interrelated, in most of the cases as a victim, but sometimes also as a contributor.

A former Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization, the author makes us explore every corner of our Planet, visit destinations freshly opened, and meet with communities isolated until recently. We share his discoveries and experiences, meet with him well-known personalities, and understand better the various economic, cultural and political dimensions of modern travel and tourism.

More information:  http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=53859&motExact=0&motcle=&mode=AND

Note: The opinions expressed in the book are exclusively those of its author and should not be considered as involving the World Tourism Organization. However, the book provides an unique overview of the background, the history and the contribution of our Institution to world tourism. It describes the path it followed to be recognized by the international community, and to become a specialized agency of the United Nations.