COPING WITH ’OVERTOURISM’
Cities looking for new ways to manage huge crowds arriving daily in cheap flights, ships
EUROPE’S tourist hot spots are looking for new ways to cope with “overtourism”, where cities like Venice, Dubrovnik and Barcelona are struggling to manage huge crowds arriving daily on cheap flights and cruise ships.
They are turning to smartphone apps and car-sharing promotions to try to cope with the overcrowding, which has upset the local population and also the tourists.
Some nine per cent of travellers who took part in a survey by consultancy IPK said that overcrowding affected the quality of their trip last year.
Security concerns over beach destinations in Egypt and Turkey and a rise in cheap flights have boosted growth in international arrivals to countries like Spain and Croatia to more than 10 percent over the past few years, according to data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
“Overcrowded destinations are successful, but there is a thin line between success and failure,” said Dubrovnik mayor Mato Frankovic at the ITB travel trade fair here.
But rather than trying to limit the number of visitors, who spend money on hotels, meals and souvenirs, the cities are coming up with ways to channel tourist flows away from the most popular attractions.
Dubrovnik aims to launch a smartphone app by the end of this year that lets users know when the narrow alleys of the old town are crowded and suggests alternative sights outside the city walls.
It also plans to test a car-sharing scheme to entice tourists to explore the surrounding areas.
Barcelona is working on a joint marketing plan with the region around the city to get tourists to venture beyond the city’s most famous sites such as the Sagrada Familia church or the Las Ramblas boulevard.
Even New York City, across the Atlantic Ocean, has launched a campaign to encourage tourists to explore the boroughs beyond Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.
The booming cruise industry is one of the biggest challenges for some cities.
In Dubrovnik, multiple cruise ships often disgorge thousands of passengers in one day, making the city’s streets noisy and overcrowded.
The city is now trying to stagger the arrival of the ships and eventually to ensure arrivals are spread evenly throughout the week so that there won’t be 10 ships coming to port at the same time.
Venice has drawn up new rules requiring big cruise ships to take a less glamorous route to the industrial port of Marghera, rather than passing by St Mark’s Square.