A Beach too Far

The world is shrinking, but not in the way we've been taught to expect. There was a time when we pictured the Asian travel industry on a relentless upward graphwith bigger planes annihilating distances from the U.S. or Europe faster than ever and cheaper tickets bringing in successively larger waves of dollar-toting visitors. That picture has now lost its luster; in its place Asia is seeing nervousness about travel in its long-haul markets as Western consumers opt to take holidays closer to home. Intercontinental travel, in fact, is firmly in the doldrums: with fewer people venturing beyond familiar territory, it's...