The Last Tourist

Beautiful shot documentary that shines a sobering light on the cost of our love of travelling. An important documentary that should be seen by everyone regardless of how frequent a traveller they are.

A number of memorable characters.

As "The Last Tourist" (2021 release; 100 min) opens, we are introduced to the dark side of mass tourism: overcrowded beached; trash everywhere, and oh, masses and masses of people. And that's just for starters. The production team then exposes the really bad stuff: in Kenya, out of every dollar spent by tourists, only 14 cents remains in the country. In other words: 86% is retrieved by airlines, foreign-owned hotels, etc. And we haven't even gotten to the animal abuse and the orphanage tourism...

Couple of comments: this is the feature-length debut of director Tyson Sadler. Filmed mostly pre-COVID, the film is nothing short of an urgent plea for more equitable and sustainable tourism going forward. Why I think I had a good understanding of the concept of "sustainable" tourism going in, the concept of "equitable" tourism is something I had never given much though about. The shocking statistic of how little the growing numbers of tourists benefit the local population was truly an eye-opener for me. Please note that the film contains scenes of heartbreak and even shock, so this is not for the faint of heart. But its message is so darned important an on point. I know that the next time I plan an international trip, I will ask some pointed questions.

"The Last Tourist" opened last year in the film festival circuit to unanimous critical acclaim, and there is good reason why this film is currently rate 100% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It recently premiered on Hulu, which is where I caught it. If you like a good documentary or have any interest in international tourism, I'd readily suggest you check thus out, and draw your own conclusion.

I was in tears through half this documentary. I feel for all the people and animals.

I have an acquaintance, cruises a lot, she wears blinders when in another country unless it is a first world country.

When it comes to the developing countries, her response is "why do I care, I do not live here".

She is probably, like a lot of tourists from the US, why do they not speak American, and conform to my lifestyle.

I am from the Caribbean, I know what happens in they countries.

I plan to share this documentary to all my friends and family. If one person can remove their blinders, you have been successful with this documentary.

The documentary swings from one problem to another, many of these problems aren't actually tourism problems.

There's a documentary in here, and a really good story to tell, if they could have concentrated on this, the main focus being the cruelty towards animals and the overarching theme that you vote with your currency.

Unfortunately we lurch from "too much tourism" to "not enough tourism", and from the animals and then to the children, and then back again but with little narrative to connect this all together.

Conclusion: a good docukentarty could be in here, its well shot from a cinematography point of view but because of the narratove I'd give this a pass.

As other reviewers have said, there are some good messages in this documentary that more people need to be made aware of. Like environmental damage, lack of money flowing to local communities, cruelty to animals and the damage of volunteer tourism. But the film lacks focus and jumps around too much amongst these themes and it is way too long. Easily 30 minutes should have been chopped off here. Or it should have been a mini series covering one issue at a time. The editor was no wear near aggressive enough and the messaging was too repetitive. Like how many people do you need telling us the same thing?! There was even the same people saying the same thing in a slightly different way multiple times. With better editing it could be an 8.