David Picard Knihy

The book explores the transformation of La Réunion into a tourist destination, analyzing how local culture and social life are curated for visitor consumption. It presents the concept of the island as a "human garden," where residents are likened to "human flowers," symbolizing both authenticity and the complexities of history. Through this lens, the author critiques how tourism reshapes local identity and engages with themes of beauty, nature, and modernity, revealing the ambivalence faced by islanders in this commodified landscape.

The book provides unique insights into the culture of computer-mediated hospitality and how this has begun to transform contemporary tourism and travel practice. Focusing on Couchsurfing. org, one of the largest online hospitality communities worldwide, the authors explore how social relations, intimacy and trust are built in the online environment and then extended into the offline contexts of actual tourism and travel. Being active couchsurfers themselves, the authors scrutinise the candid claim by much of the online hospitality community that couchsurfing creates a »better world«. The book is key reading for anyone interested in how computer mediated communication is changing contemporary forms of contact, travel and hospitality, and the kinds of cosmopolitism it brings into being. Authors: David Picard, Sonja Buchberger, Jennie Germann Molz, Dennis Zuev, De-Jung Chen, Bernard Schéou, Jun-E Tan, Paula Bialski and Nelson Graburn.