The Naked Tourist

In Search of Adventure and Beauty in the Age of the Airport Mall

Lawrence Osborne

North Point Press

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Sick of producing the picturesque bromides of the professional travel writer, Lawrence Osborne decided to explore the psychological underpinnings of tourism itself by taking a six-month journey down the so-called “Asian Highway”—a swath of Southeast Asia that, since the Victorian era, has seduced generations of tourists with its manufactured dreams of the exotic Orient. And like many a lost soul on this same route, he ends up in the harrowing forests of Papua, searching for a people who have never seen a tourist.

What, Osborne asks, are millions of affluent itinerants from the West looking for as they wade through endless resorts, hotels, cosmetic-surgery packages, spas, spiritual retreats, sex clubs, and “back to nature” trips? What does tourism, the world’s single largest business, have to sell? The Naked Tourist is a travelogue into that heart of darkness known as the Western mind.

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Reviews

Praise for The Naked Tourist

“[Osborne] grabs the bull by the horns . . . Through the most surreal environments (the fabricated islands of Dubai, the medical resorts of Thailand) he is funny, intelligent, insightful and honest.” —Max Watman, The New York Times Book Review

Reviews from Goodreads

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Mr.david  rated it  
Jan 27, 2008
Osborn decides that he wants to get away from it all, that he wants to travel to a place that has not (yet) become a 'destination'. But his journey is an interesting one in that it starts in a place that seems to be only a 'destination': Dubai. From this manufactured rich-tourist magnet city, he ...more
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Renee  rated it  
May 21, 2010
Imagine what it would be like to spin a globe, point your finger, and travel to where ever your finger lands with a back pack, some cash, and absolutely NO plan of where you will stay, how you will stay, and what you will do. The only thing you do know is that you’d rather live in a forest than stay ...more
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Luke  rated it  
Nov 23, 2009
The writer's pomposity was a bit of a put off, but he writes very well and entertainingly so I guess it's forgivable. Subject is interesting, as he seeks out a truly undiscovered corner of the globe, and finds himself in Papua New Guinea. He details his travels on his journey there, which takes him ...more
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About the Author

Lawrence Osborne

Lawrence Osborne has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and other publications, and is the author of four previous books. Born in England, he lives in New York.

Lawrence Osborne

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The Naked Tourist
In Search of Adventure and Beauty in the Age of the Airport Mall
Lawrence Osborne

Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
North Point Press
June 2007
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780865477414
ISBN10: 0865477418
5 1/16 x 7 15/16 inches, 288 pages
$20.00
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Farrar, Straus and Giroux
North Point Press
June 2007
e-Book Agency
ISBN: 9781429934985
ISBN10: 1429934980
288 pages
$9.99
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