Trouble in Paradise: The Other Side of the World’s Favourite Holiday Destinations

Summer is here and many of us will soon be getting ready for our holidays to somewhere far-flung, beautiful, and exotic. 

Be it the turquoise waters of Mexico and the Maldives or the atmospheric cobbled streets of a centuries-old town, nestled on the shores of a Mediterranean island; many of our favourite holiday spots are deemed, and revered, as 'Paradise on Earth'.

But what about the other side of the story? Many popular holiday hotspots, throughout the world, are blighted by severe social, environmental and political issues, such as gang warfare, drug epidemics, exploitation, inequality and severe freedom of expression violations… However, you’ll be hard-pressed to find this information in any travel guide.

Index on Censorship (IOC), a London-based non-profit defending freedom of expression worldwide, is calling on travel writers to tell both sides of the story and their special Summer Magazine, ‘finds the dark side of summer holiday destinations not being reported on travel sites’.

Picfair founder and former Guardian and New York Times travel writer, Benji Lanyado, will be taking part in a debate at the Summer issue launch, on Wednesday, July 4th, on ‘whether journalists are telling the whole story about some of the world’s favourite travel destinations’.

With over 6 million images, from over 35,000 photographers based in 130+ countries, we can boast our images are the most authentic out there, and with this in mind, as well as offering a wealth of breath-taking shots of some of Planet Earth's most heavenly spots, photographs on Picfair also explore the grittier side of some of the world’s favourite holiday destinations, and we’ve put together a showcase of some of those below…

Further reading: Travel writers don't tell holidaymakers the whole truth about holiday hotspots