Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Elizabeth Becker Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Elizabeth Becker
Photo: William Nash

Elizabeth Becker

Elizabeth Becker Biography

Elizabeth Becker is an award winning author and former correspondent for The New York Times who reported from Europe, Asia, and South America. As the Senior Foreign Editor at National Public Radio, she oversaw all the network's foreign bureaus and their reporting. She has won awards from the Robert Kennedy Book Awards, Overseas Press Club, and DuPont-Columbia and was part of the New York Times staff that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for public service.

Elizabeth Becker's website

This bio was last updated on 07/30/2017. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Interview

Elizabeth Becker discusses her recent book Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism and the research she did for five years about the alarming explosion of tourism around the world.

How is the tourism industry "exploding"?

While no one was looking, tourism has become one of the leading businesses in the world (nearly $7 trillion a year) and the world's biggest employer (one out of 12 people). In just 25 years, thanks to cutting edge technologies and open borders following the end of the Cold War, the number of international tourists has exploded to over one billion. In 1995 it was half of that. Rich and poor countries are relying on tourism to build their economies. It's becoming as important in many ways as the finance or energy industries.

What are those one billion tourists doing?

I spent five years traveling to research this book. And I tell the stories of those global adventures to show the industry inside out. What surprised me was how everything has been fashioned into a tourist opportunity: medical tourism is especially popular with Americans who can't afford insurance. In Malaysia the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tourism made a package for an operation and then recuperation on a beach; all for a fraction of what it would cost in the U.S. There's also "dark tourism" where you visit genocide sites in Europe, Rwanda and Cambodia. There's culinary ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Elizabeth Becker at BookBrowse
Overbooked jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Elizabeth Becker but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Liv Arnesen

    Liv Arnesen

    Liv (pronounced 'leave') Arnesen's rich life experiences, both on and off the ice, have made her an internationally recognized leader and role model for women and girls. A self-proclaimed "keen" but not ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Overbooked

    Try:
    No Horizon Is So Far
    by Liv Arnesen

  • Ann Bancroft

    Ann Bancroft

    Ann Bancroft is one of the world's preeminent polar explorers and an internationally recognized leader who is dedicated to inspiring women and girls around the world to unleash the power of their dreams. Through her various ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Overbooked

    Try:
    No Horizon Is So Far
    by Ann Bancroft

We recommend 9 similar authors

View all 9 Read-Alikes

Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...
  • Book Jacket
    The Rest of You
    by Maame Blue
    At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.