Travel writing as a resource for applied placemaking: Today's Toronto Globe & Mail Life section

As an example of how I say it's important to read travel sections in newspapers and travel magazines as a way to learn about other places as it relates to urban planning and community development, today's Toronto Globe and Mail Life section has four travel stories all relevant to placemaking or transportation.

I avidly read newspaper travel sections for this reason.  The NYT Travel section is particularly good. The Boston Globe has a feature on regional tourism as part of its Travel section.  Sadly, budget cutbacks have shrunk the Washington Post Travel section and it seems as if the regional tourism feature it ran every week is no more, along with fewer articles and more graphics that don't communicate much but cost less to run than an article.  (Maybe the Post could start running AP Travel articles and features to restore the value of the section but at lower cost.)

Discovering George Orwell’s Barcelona

The 606: An elevated oasis over Chicago for bikers and pedestrians

London’s Mondrian hotel offers nautical vibe on banks of the Thames

Vast wetlands, wide open spaces: Explore Japan’s most laid-back island

The first article covers Barcelona, the second the new 606 shared use trail in Chicago, the third an art and nautically themed hotel on the Thames River in London, and the fourth is on "nature" but to get to the island the writer took a Japanese Bullet train.

Although as charlie reminded us a week ago, too much tourism and tourists can overwhelm and reshape communities for the worse.  See the TGM article, "Barcelona reeling from its own popularity as top travel destination."