Marcia C. reviewed The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach on + 625 more book reviews
This book provides a lot of interesting historical background on the development of beach culture and beach resorts around the world, along with the paradoxes or contradictions around such development.
I wish the author had been more transparent about how on earth she could afford to stay in so many ultra-high-end beach resorts for her research. (Like $2000 a night.) It's relevant to the reader, because either she's filthy rich or (more likely) received freebies at all or most of the places where she stayed, being a travel magazine editor. In the latter case, there's pressure on the author to give positive space in the book for those properties that hosted her. (It's valuable publicity for them.)
One way or another, it's no coincidence that she takes an ironic tone when talking about the expensive places and is downright disdainful of the places where average-income tourists might stay. I really disliked the snobbery in evidence in her book.
I wish the author had been more transparent about how on earth she could afford to stay in so many ultra-high-end beach resorts for her research. (Like $2000 a night.) It's relevant to the reader, because either she's filthy rich or (more likely) received freebies at all or most of the places where she stayed, being a travel magazine editor. In the latter case, there's pressure on the author to give positive space in the book for those properties that hosted her. (It's valuable publicity for them.)
One way or another, it's no coincidence that she takes an ironic tone when talking about the expensive places and is downright disdainful of the places where average-income tourists might stay. I really disliked the snobbery in evidence in her book.
