How and why did global tourism become so problematic? And where are we all heading next? Those are questions addressed by Henry Wismayer in a thought-provoking feature for Noema magazine (published by the Berggruen Institute, a US-based think tank). My tendency has always been to describe travel/tourism as a “trade” rather than an “industry”. However, after reading his piece — in which he takes us from the building of the Eiffel Tower in the late 1800s to plans for a ski resort due to open in Saudi Arabia in 2026 — I’m wondering whether industry isn’t more appropriate.

In the latest FT Weekend Magazine, Wismayer went for a walk with Alastair Humphreys, author of Local, aiming to apply “the sensibility of exploration” to “a drab estuarine edgeland somewhere near London”.