The Last Tourist – A VIFF Film

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

The 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival begins October 1 and runs until October 11. Join Tasha and Marc as they interview creators of our favourite consciousness expanding films!

With over 110 feature films, 75+ shorts, talks and conferences there is lots to discover at VIFF 2021. Take a moment to explore the dynamic program featuring some of the best cinema and creative voices from around the globe.

You can enjoy the full cinematic experience at our friendly, safe festival venues and stream over 80% of the festival program on VIFF Connect. Big screen or small, VIFF is excited to share our 2021 program with film fans in Vancouver and across the country.

Join Tasha Simms and Marc Caron as they speak with Tyson Sadler, the director for the Last Tourist – playing at the VIFF.

As the world is poised to re-open for international travel and we consider how to move forward in the face of mounting global challenges, could tourism be a part of the solution? Traversing some of the most remote, ancient, and stunning locales on the planet, The Last Tourist addresses the myriad moral and ethical dilemmas at play when sojourning to different cultures, and encourages us to do better.

For many, the pandemic has been a necessary pause to reflect on what really matters. Similarly, this doc presents a necessary opportunity for recalibration and embraces our abundant capacity to care. Travelling our vast world will soon have its revival—tourism is dead, long live tourism!
This film is a wake-up call.

We need to dramatically rethink the way we travel.

In 1950, there were 25 million international tourist arrivals. In 2020, that number was expected to be 1.6 billion. That means more people traveling than at any other point in history.

Travel is in an unfortunate state – and that’s even before COVID-19 brought it to a temporary standstill. Overtourism magnified the increasing impact on the environment, wildlife, and vulnerable populations around the world. Unintentionally, tourists have been destroying the very things they have come to see. Tourism reached a tipping point.

Yet, travel is also an opportunity. It can be leveraged as a force for good – to promote conservation, alleviate poverty, and positively transform the lives of people living in host communities, while fostering cultural connection and understanding between people from all walks of life. Tourism can spread peace and be the greatest form of wealth distribution the world has ever seen. This forced pause has presented us with the opportunity to reshape the travel industry as we know it.

This poignant film explores our ability to harness tourism’s power in a way that creates shared value for all – travellers and host communities alike – while preserving the places and natural resources we treasure most.

Change starts with us.