Mid-summer in the northern hemisphere is traditionally a time for trivial news stories to entertain us as we take a bit of a break from the ‘real’ world – the so-called ‘silly season’. Because a lot of us are on holiday, much of the content also focusses on tourism. Journalists suddenly call tourism and leisure academics asking questions like ‘why do people go on holiday?’ or ‘what is the optimal amount of time to be on holiday?’ or ‘what is the size of the stag and hen party market?’ It is...

Yet more discussion about the wisdom and folly of tourism taxes. This time the debate in the Netherlands was kicked-off with an announcement from the Municipality of Amsterdam that it wants to levy “the highest tourist tax in the world” by 2031. Well, almost. The Sustainable Development Fee levied in Bhutan is currently $100 per person per night – comfortably above the Amsterdam proposed level of around €25 per person. If we discount the tiny Kingdom of Bhutan, however, and only look at...

In a recent paper published as part of the Crocus Project we highlighted the changing rhetoric about borders in Europe. In the light of subsequent events in Ceuta and the use of these to inflame populist sentiments about migration, it seems that the dangers we flagged up regarding ‘re-bordering’ in Europe are becoming all too real. After a long period of de-bordering following the Schengen agreement 40 years ago, there are now growing signs of European re-bordering in response to political...