User:Kku/Overtourism

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

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

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

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)

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

Category:Tourism