University academic, writer, and adventurer, tourism expert Chris Stone brings an unconventionally critical perspective on holidaymaking to Greater Manchester Skeptics. An enjoyable activity with acknowledged benefits for individuals’ health and wellness, tourism is generally regarded as a desirable phenomenon and one which is benign overall. However, ‘overtourism’ is posing increasingly intractable issues at the destination scale, including hyper-popular destinations like Venice and Barcelona for instance. Also, the projected growth in the number of trips has clear implications for climate change at the global scale - but no-one wants to acknowledge them! Chris Stone is here to do so, presenting a controversial yet lighthearted talk aimed at challenging peoples’ perceptions of and attitudes towards holidaymaking, and encouraging informed scepticism about tourism as an industry and activity in the twenty-first century.

Dr Chris Stone is a university educator with an international perspective and extensive experience of working across academia, government, and the commercial sector. His expertise has been recognised with appointments with government and tourism industry professional bodies. Since 2006, Chris has served as External Examiner for tourism and hospitality management programmes at university institutions across UK, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa. He has fifty publications under his belt, and has been invited as tourism expert to countries including Argentina, Kenya, Romania, Spain.