From Amsterdam to Venice and Barcelona, Peru and even Nepal, overtourism is a hot topic. Increasingly, local residents have been rebelling against visitors, and a subject that once was brushed aside is now getting the attention of leaders in tourism.
For decades destinations spent money millions of dollars competing against one another trying to attract travelers. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the industry not only generates over $8.8 trillion in annual revenues but also supports 319 million jobs.
Put another way, if the travel and tourism industry were a sovereign nation, its output would rank it third in the world behind the U.S. and China and more than the combined GDP of Australia, Spain, Russia and South Korea.
This week in Las Vegas, where sidewalks on the strip are often jammed shoulder to shoulder with visitors, over 6,400 industry executives gathered for Virtuoso Travel Week. In addition to showcasing new ships, spas and suites, overtourism was part of the discussion.
And while yes, the problem is real, there is also concern that a picture doesn’t always tell story, or at least reflect it accurately.
Catherine Heald, co-founder and CEO of Remote Lands, a travel company specializing in luxury trips to off-the-beaten-track destinations, pointed to the picture posted to Facebook on May 23 by Nirmal Purja. It showed a line of over 300 climbers waiting to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
While the photo sparked outrage about overtourism, Heald said that the mainly untold story was that only 370 permits are issued annually. This year weather has limited access meaning that demand has been concentrated into just a couple of days, hence the conga line of mountaineers.
There's a concern the photo and ensuing hysteria might scare away visitors to other parts of Nepal, which in fact would like to see more visitors. Heald says there are seven other mountains of at least 8,000 meters or more that are not ovverun at all.
At the same time, she says, perhaps the license fee of about $11,000 should be increased to bring more revenue to the country, and that climbers should also have to pass physicals before being given permission to follow in the footsteps of Sir Edmund Hillary.
In some cases, travel executives believe that part of the problem is that visitors often don’t think about their impact on the places they are going. For example, Robert Payer who is general manager of the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam noted that locals are increasingly fed up that tourists using bike paths as pedestrian footways, something that would be akin to walking down the middle of 5th Avenue in New York City.
Andrea Grisdale of IC Bellagio, who puts together itineraries for visitors to Italy, says in Venice, an epicenter for overcrowding, ill-mannered tourists make the situation worse.
“They are sitting on the bridges, eating sandwiches, blocking other people from walking across the bridge,” she says. Local authorities plan to fine and eject visitors. They are also moving where large cruise ships dock away from the historic center. During peak season, over 30,000 visitors arrive daily on these vessels.
Mercedes Garcia, director of Barcelona Turisme, noted while that city has put a moratorium on development of new hotels in the center, the focus is now on creating and promoting new areas that will attract visitors, including moving event locations to less trafficked areas.
In Machu Pichu, the local government is addressing overcrowding by implementing a system where ticketholders now have to enter at designated times, have to follow specific pathways and can only stay up to four hours.
Alonso Roggero, general manager of Metropolitan Touring, a company that serves inbound travelers, said part of the solution is building awareness of other destinations in Peru that would be attractive to visitors.
Still, he says, just by making changes to when and how visitors enjoy Machu Pichu, it has enabled the local authorities to actually increase ticket sales to 6,000 per day from 4,600.
With travel dollars often playing an integral role in local economies coming up with the right solution is critical, says Matthew Upchurch, chairman of the Virtuoso network whose travel advisors sold $26.4 billion in vacation trips last year.
He points to media reports about the Great Barrier Reef dying which in turn led to a downturn in visits to areas of the reef that are still healthy and where tourists can come without worrying if they are negatively impacting the environment. Their spending supports many jobs in those local economies.
While luxury travelers can also be part of the solution – destinations earn more money with fewer people trekking trough their boulevards – Upchurch believes at the end of the day the right solution will come from the local communities.
“It’s really up to them,” he says. In the meantime, for visitors, Waldorf Astoria’s Payer says taking a bit of time to understand what’s acceptable will help. He noted as temperatures in Europe recently hit record highs, locals were aghast as tourists stepped into historic fountains to cool off.
