Touring through the Past

Leisure travel has burgeoned, become hugely globalized,  and airports and resorts are unbearably crowded at holiday times. So are the centres of European culture in summer. Increasingly, in the winter, so are tropical destinations. These include some UNESCO World Heritage Sites, like India’s Taj Mahal, with its seven million visitors a year – some Indian, others from all over the world, and Cambodia’s Angkor temples, which now has over a million. Tens of thousands more flock over Christmas and the New Year to the beaches of Thailand and the Caribbean. Cheap flights, cheap packages, all drive it on. But a reaction is becoming evident, with those who can choosing to travel out of the frantic seasons: and others, green-principled, concerned with global warming and pollution, opting not to fly.