Synchronized with the origin of the Slow Travel trend, a protest movement against mass tourism started. It’s also referred to as “Overtourism”, which marks a harmful excess. In the year 2014, in Spain, one of the worldwide most popular holiday destinations, the so-called Tourists Go Home movement emerged. Barcelona has yearly 9 million over-night guests what’s now reaching the locals’ tolerance limit. Besides the #touristsgohome on Twitter, Youtube videos were also created in which the question arose why it is called tourist season, if one is not allowed to shoot them. Binge tourism and the excessive consume of alcohol by tourists were also criticized. Another factor for the dissatisfaction of the Spanish population can be suspected in the extremely high rental fees of Barcelona. Many citizens illegally rent apartments via AirBnB, which leads to a shortage on the housing market and rising rental fees. This problem can be found anywhere in the world in high frequented cities and regions.[1]
Later, graffities with slogans like “Tourists Go Home” and “Fuck Airbnb” were also visible in the Italian harbor city Venice. There, the locals are suffering from mass tourism since a long time. While Venice itself has a population of just 50.000 inhabitants, the city is visited daily by about 60.000 tourists who partly act reckless, pollute streets with rubbish and take pictures of locals without their permission.[2] The municipality already placed rules of conduct and asks for a respectful visit of Venice. The rules include not swimming in the lagoon, not visiting the city in bathing clothes, no purchase of fake products and no attachment of love padlocks. There is also a smartphone app for the locals that shows the overcrowded places and streets.
Furthermore, Venice is regularly visited by cruise ships that are larger than the highest buildings on site. The ships pollute the water with oil, which also harms the wooden foundation of the historic buildings. To gain a decrease of visitors, entrance fees were planned for day tourists from July 2020. In other touristic destinations, like Paris and Amsterdam, such measures against Overtourism are already in place in form of a higher tourism fee.[3] But the plan was not realized in Venice. The reasons were the flooding of the city in November 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic that led to travel restrictions and lockdowns in spring 2020.[4]
Despite protests of the locals, cruise ships docked again in Venice from June 2020. It seemed like nothing had changed – until in July 2021, a docking ban for cruise ships was decided, not by the city of Venice but by the Italian government. The politicians see it as an important step to protect and preserve the lagoon city. Thereby, they react on a suggestion by the Unesco, to put Venice on the negative list of endangered world heritage. The prohibition will enter into force from 01 August 2021.[5]
Besides Barcelona and Venice, the travel destinations Mallorca and Dubrovnik, the island of Santorin as well as Southeast Asia are affected by Overtourism. In Mallorca, they already introduced strict decorum against booze-binge tourism and a ban of holiday apartments in Palma. The island now aims for a softer, more family friendly tourism. The Croatian harbor city Dubrovnik became worldwide famous through Game of Thrones. In the series, the alleys from the medieval times often served as authentic coulisses. Since then, the city is overrun by tourists and is fighting to keep up their flair from the Middle Ages. The Greece island of Santorin suffers like Venice mostly from tourist masses from cruise ships. Especially the village Oia, where white houses with blue window shutters nestle in the hillside location is highly frequented. Nowadays, there are less and less locals who live in the village. They simply cannot afford the high rental fees anymore. The village consists almost exclusively from guest houses, hotels, souvenir shops and cafes. In Southeast Asia the eco system is suffering from the tourists. The Thai island Kho Phi Phi is the most famous example. It became famous through the movie The Beach with Leonardo Di Caprio. Meanwhile, the island is closed for travelers. Visitors can just view it by boat from far away. In the Philippines, the island Boracay was closed due to environment protection reasons for six months. After the reopening, the president put a limit on the visitor numbers.
One of the most absurd developments of Overtourism became known in 2019 – on a place where no one was ever expecting it: in the Nepalese Himalayan mountains. Earlier, the Mount Everest, with 8,848 meters the highest mountain of the world, was just climbed by extreme athletes. Today, climbing tours are offered to everyone who can afford it financially. The expedition teams all got the same strategy and start climbing in good weather conditions. As a result, the crowds are piling up. At one day in the record year 2019, around 320 people were waiting up to two hours in the in-human environment to reach the top. Already 300 people paid the climb with their lives – 2019, it were eleven. This is mainly retraceable to safety deficiency: to many people are allowed on the mountain without testing their fitness and mountaineering skills. Another problem is the rubbish. Everything what is brought up by climbers and Sherpas usually is left behind on the mountain. On the path up the mountain one can find many empty oxygen bottles and even the frozen dead bodies of climbers with all their equipment.[6]
Facing the negative consequences of mass tourism, it’s no surprise that the tourist industry is undergoing changes. More and more people are longing for slowing down and individuality while traveling. A increasing trend to comfort and pleasure is noticeable. Also, package holidays and bargain trips are not placed in a good light, if travelers start to question their own actions. Slow Travel and therefore sustainable, slow and conscious tourism is a countermeasure against Overtourism. If people travel to less frequented holiday destinations, ideally aside of the regular travel season, the masses of people are spreading. Environment and locals of the touristic hotspots can take a breath, while other places and regions can benefit from tourism.
[1] See Karyotakis, Minos-Athanasios, Martina Kiourexidou, Nikos Antonopoulos (2019): Media and YouTube Appeal in Social Movement Mobilization: The Case of Anti-Tourism Incident, In: https://mediawatchjournal.in/sep19/Media%20and%20YouTube%20Appeal%20in%20Social%20Movement%20
Mobilization%20The%20Case%20of%20Anti-Tourism%20Incident.pdf (22.09.2020).
[2] See Hamm, Ingo (2018): “Tourists Go Home”: Unsustainable tourism in Venice, In: https://globalhobo.com.au/2018/07/02/tourists-go-home-unsustainable-travel-in-venice/ (22.09.2020).
[3] See Geille, Charlotte (2020): Ab Juli 2020. Tagestouristen müssen für den Besuch der Stadt Venedig Eintritt zahlen, In: https://www.express.de/news/panorama/ab-juli-2020–tagestouristen-muessen-fuer-den-besuch-der-stadt-venedig-eintritt-zahlen-33733632 (22.09.2020).
[4] See Rüb, Matthias (2020): Die ersten Touristen kehren zurück nach Venedig, In: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/menschen/wie-sieht-es-in-venedig-aus-wenn-die-ersten-touristen-zurueckkommen-16800395.html (22.09.2020).
[5] See ARD-aktuell (2021): Addio, Kreuzfahrtschiffe!, In: https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/venedig-verbot-kreuzfahrtschiffe-101.html (16.07.2021).
[6] See Uniq GmbH (2020): Overtourism und seine Folgen. Wenn Tourismus schadet – Und was jeder von uns dagegen tun kann, In: https://www.urlaubsguru.de/reisemagazin/overtourism/ (22.09.2020).
Article by Anika Neugart.