Opinion: Freako-tourism

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For those of you who tired of eco-tourism when it became the pastime of ditzy celebrities on MTV, there’s a new vacation trend. The New York Times reported last week that a Mexican organization takes intrepid travelers on a mock illegal border crossing -- including faked police chases and tour guides who have actually crossed the border -- for the low price of $18.

But Russia really seems to be the epicenter of extreme tourism. Be a Volga boatman for a day, or get bullied by request at an army boot camp. One mayor wants you to visit his gulag for $150 or so a night (though you can suffer for less in neighboring Latvia, where a night in a KGB prison camp is about $20). If shadow-puppeting the travails of those who lived and died under Soviet repression makes a faux flight across the Rio Grande seem like harmless fun, keep in mind a policy brief released this month by the University of Arizona. It argues that the border gets deadlier with each new enforcement effort, since it ‘funnels’ immigrants to the most dangerous routes.

Offensive or not, Americans could cash in on the burgeoning freako-tourism industry. Perhaps a faked extraordinary rendition? One way flights only, of course.