Europe tries to manage its ‘overtourism’
LONDON — Venice is planning to divert massive cruise liners. Barcelona has cracked down on apartment rentals.
Both are at the forefront of efforts to get a grip on “overtourism,” a phenomenon that is disrupting communities, imperiling cherished buildings and harming the experience of travelers and local residents alike.
Tourism-phobia has become increasingly prevalent, particularly in European destinations where visitors crowd the same places at the sametime.
The backlash has even given rise to slogans such as “Tourists go home” and “Tourists are terrorists.”
“This is a wake-up call,” Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization, told tourism ministers and industry executives last week at the World Travel Market in London.
The resentment could rise as tourism increases. The UNWTO forecasts 1.8 billion trips by 2030, up from 1.2 billion in 2016. Add in the 5 billion domestic trips now, and that’s a lot of tourists. Cheap airfare is helping to fuel the growth, along with massive growth in international travel from countries like China.
Yet many destinations rely on tourism as a primary source of jobs and prosperity. Tourism accounts for around 10 percent of the world’s annual GDP, bringing hard currency into many countries that desperately need it, like Greece.
But tourism can also harm the quality of life for residents, with packed beaches, locals priced out of housing and congested streets in the narrow byways of cities dating back to medieval times. Longer term problems include environmental damage and the long-term sustainability of cities as viable places to live andwork.
For all these reasons, managing tourism is a prominent topic of debate in the industry and a central theme at the World Travel Market.
Rifai, who leaves the UNWTO at the end of the year, dismissed the idea that grow this “the enemy.” Pulling upthe drawbridge, he argued, would be irresponsible when tourism accounts for one in 10 jobs worldwide.
What is required, he stressed, is the need to manage tourism in a “sustainable and responsible” way that benefits local communities.
Efforts to manage overtourism are becoming more innovative and increasingly tapping new technologies. For example, apps can help tourists visit popular destinations at less busy times. And while critics say Airbnb has priced out locals, its supporters say home rentals can ease pressure on cities by spreading visitors far and wide.
Patrick Robinson, Airbnb’s director of public policy for Europe, Middle East and Africa, noted that last year 69 percent of the platform’s users in Amsterdam stayed away from the city center.
In some cases, tourist quotas make sense. The Croatian city of Dubrovnik, where visitor numbers surged after the Adriatic Sea resort was used as a setting for the series “Game of Thrones,” has mulled limiting those entering the city’s medieval walls to 4,000 daily.
Other strategies include promoting offseason visits, opening up new destinations or tweaking marketing. Prague is pushing local walks off the beaten track, while London promotes neighborhoods such as Greenwich and Richmond.
Barcelona, which became a tourist juggernaut after the 1992 Olympics, has outlined measures to balance the needs of locals and visitors. The city has cracked down on unlicensed rentals and established a tourism council that includes residents, business, unions and government. The hope is that by listening to all the stakeholders, Barcelona can reduce the strains tourism places on the city and ameliorate tensions between residents and visitors.
Venice has witnessed a tourism backlash in response to the monumental increase in visitors, many of whom irk locals by going to the same spots at the same time.
Last week, a plan was announced to block giant cruise ships from steaming past Venice’s iconic St. Mark’s Square. Few think it’s enough, and there’s talk of higher taxes on tourists.