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User:Kku/Overtourism

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Overtourism describes destinations where hosts/locals or guests/visitors feel that the quality of life in the area or the quality of the touristic experience has deteriorated unacceptably. Often both locals and visitors experience this deterioration concurrently. The term is commonly used to describe situations where people feel there are ‘too many tourists’, or where the impact of tourist development is negatively affecting local lives without providing enough benefits in return. The opposing term to overtourism would be sustainable tourism, in a sense that it’s focused on using tourism to make better places to live in and better places to visit.

Origin

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Over the past decade travel has become increasingly easier thanks to the widespread use of the internet (leading to the fast dissemination of travel-related information and allowing the growth of low-cost airlines, P2P rental platforms, etc.) and it has also become more affordable thanks to low oil prices and more efficient means of transport (driving down overall transportation costs). This global surge in tourism has also been fuelled by the growing middle class in emerging countries who is now beginning to do vacations abroad. As peoples’ living standards rise, they tend to spend more in travel and tourism, and this has an obvious impact in the world’s most popular destinations.

As tourism continues to grow steadily, overtourism is becoming a critical issue in the travel industry. The term is becoming commonplace in a sector that until now has boasted a seemingly endless appetite for growth in tourist arrivals figures.

Increasingly residents are raising this issue and as a result it’s moving up in the political agenda. What can be done to manage tourism so that it does not overwhelm the destinations where the presence of tourists is beginning to be seen as a problem?

As local politicians suffer pressure from both voters and industry lobbyists, it’s becoming increasingly important to objectively define what’s a ‘reasonable’ number of visitors and what can be done to avoid or minimize this emerging phenomenon without neglecting the importance of tourism in the development of local economies.

Problems

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Some of the issues communities are faced with when attempting to accommodate an overflow of visitors are common to all tourist destinations. Usually the existing infrastructure just can’t handle the amount of people who come during certain times of the year, and this puts a strain on the natural environment, infrastructures and public services. Congested roads and pedestrian pathways, lack of public toilets, overwhelmed health services and security forces, noise pollution, water pollution, etc., all these factors contribute to a situation where residents starts seeing tourists as a nuisance, resulting in them being ill-treated by the local population. The influx of visitors also creates seasonal effects in employment levels and considerable price fluctuations, as well as a long-term effect in housing and commercial prices that can result in a real estate bubble and subsequent economic crisis. There are also other intangible effects such as a perceived or real change in local culture derived from the constant contact with foreign habits and cultures, which is sometimes seen as a positive influence but also as a potential cause for loss of genuineness and cultural identity.

Solutions

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Although it’s impossible to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to such complex issues, there are numerous measures that can be implemented in order to promote a more sustainable and inclusive economic growth based on tourism. Many destinations are employing a variety of different strategies to limit the number of tourists while trying to maximize the economic opportunities that arise from tourism. Some of these measures more reactive than prescriptive, and not all of them achieve an outcome that improves the experience for both tourists, residents, local businesses and the environment. Here are some examples of such measures:

  • Regulating, limiting or banning sharing economy providers such as Airbnb, Uber, etc.;
  • Limiting or capping the number of allowed visitors into certain areas or touristic sites considered to be particularly fragile or sensitive (in places such as Cinque Terre, Italy or in Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, a daily fee is charged to tourists upon arrival;
  • Limiting the number of residents in certain areas (by setting limits and rules to the approval of new construction);
  • Limiting the number and type of businesses allowed to operate in certain areas, or banning and limiting certain activities in certain neighbourhoods
  • The strict enforcement of noise, littering, car parking and other already existing regulations (applying heavy fines to noisy bars, trash generated by visitors, etc.);
  • The study of a destination carrying capacity in order to ensure that infrastructures and services are correctly dimensioned to the expected volume of visitors;
  • Tourist mobility: facilitating tourist mobility by promoting public transports as a flexible and independent travel option, means you have to first analyse how user-friendly and integrated are your local train, bus and metro networks from a visitor point-of-view.

Statistical Data (latest year available)

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Rank Top 50 Destinations Population ('000)* International tourist
arrivals
('000)
population
per arrival
International tourism
receipts
(´000 USD)
International tourism
receipts per arrival (USD)
1 France 67055 84452 0,79 45920 544
2 United States 325437 77510 4,20 204523 2639
3 Spain 46468 68215 0,68 56526 829
4 China 1384000 56886 24,33 114109 2006
5 Italy 60542 50732 1,19 39449 778
6 Turkey 79815 39478 2,02 26616 674
7 Germany 82800 34972 2,37 36867 1054
8 United Kingdom 65648 34436 1,91 45464 1320
9 Mexico 123518 32093 3,85 17734 553
10 Russian Federation 146804 31346 4,68 8465 270
11 Thailand 69038 29881 2,31 44553 1491
12 Austria 8783 26719 0,33 18303 685
13 Hong Kong (China) 7375 26686 0,28 36150 1355
14 Malaysia 32142 25721 1,25 17597 684
15 Greece 10784 23599 0,46 15673 664
16 Japan 126740 19737 6,42 24983 1266
17 Saudi Arabia 34887 17994 1,94 10130 563
18 Canada 36602 17970 2,04 16229 903
19 Poland 38424 16728 2,30 9728 582
20 Netherlands 17139 15007 1,14 13211 880
21 Hungary 9799 14316 0,68 5344 373
22 Macao (China) 648 14308 0,05 31303 2188
23 South Korea 51446 13232 3,89 15285 1155
24 Croatia 4154 12683 0,33 8833 696
25 Ukraine 42502 12428 3,42 1082 87
26 Singapore 5607 12052 0,47 16743 1389
27 Czech Republic 10579 11148 0,95 6048 543
28 Sweden 10053 10522 0,96 12235 1163
29 Taiwan (China) 23550 10440 2,26 14406 1380
30 Indonesia 263991 10408 25,36 10761 1034
31 Denmark 5756 10267 0,56 6623 645
32 Morocco 34378 10177 3,38 6003 590
33 Portugal 10310 10176 1,01 12606 1239
34 United Arab Emirates 9400 9990 0,94 16038 1605
35 Switzerland 8432 9305 0,91 16198 1741
36 Egypt 93377 9139 10,22 6065 664
37 South Africa 55909 8904 6,28 8235 925
38 Ireland 4758 8813 0,54 4793 544
39 Syria 18270 8546 2,14 n.a. n.a.
40 Belgium 11363 8033 1,41 11736 1461
41 India 1318750 8027 164,29 21013 2618
42 Vietnam 93700 7944 11,80 7301 919
43 Australia 24593 7444 3,30 29413 3951
44 Bulgaria 7102 7311 0,97 3146 430
45 Slovakia 5435 6816 0,80 2363 347
46 Brazil 207757 6306 32,95 5844 927
47 Argentina 44271 5736 7,72 4400 767
48 Dominican Republic 10169 5600 1,82 6118 1093
49 Philippines 104331 5361 19,46 5276 984
50 Tunisia 11299 5359 2,11 1354 253
- Other destinations 3588259 175349 20,46 161305 920

References

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Category:Tourism