Can We Love a Place to Death? (Part 2)

Adventure is a State of Mind

Overtourism

Overtourism is too many visitors in an area at a given time. As the world’s population increases, so do the number of travelers. This can put a strain on historical cities, infrastructure, natural areas, and the local residents of popular areas. If you want to learn more about the negative impacts of tourism, read the post Can We Love a Place to Death? (Part 1).

In general, travel can be a force for good. In many parts of the world, tourism benefits the economy and provides jobs. In some cases, the interest of travelers is what inspires local or national governments to put tax dollars toward preservation, whether it is of natural resources or historical structures.

Adventures abroad also expose us to different cultures and help us connect with the rest of the world. We can learn a lot about a culture from reading about it or watching movies or YouTube videos, but nothing compares to actually visiting an area and meeting new people and learning about their music, food, and culture first hand.

People won’t (and shouldn’t) stop traveling, but to reduce the strain on popular areas, there are changes that need to occur to make travel more sustainable so that we don’t ruin the very places that we love.

Limited Access

If the answer isn’t to stop traveling all together, how can we make our adventures more sustainable so that we aren’t contributing to the problem of overtourism? Before we discuss what we as individuals can do, let’s look at what the officials in some highly touristed areas are doing to address the problems.

The most common solution to the problem of too many people is limiting those numbers. A number of museums and historical sites have begun limiting the number of visitors. If you are planning a trip and want to visit any such places, make sure to check whether you need to make reservations.

Since Covid, places that have traditionally had paid admission have begun to require tickets be bought beforehand and for a specific time. For the most part, gone are the days of making a spontaneous decision to visit an art museum, standing in line, buying a ticket, and walking in. If you are visiting a less popular location, you may still be able to do so. For the more popular sites (think the Louvre in Paris or the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam), however, it’s probably a good idea to plan ahead.

Even places that have traditionally had the capacity for a very large number of visitors, such as the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, have started capping the number of visitors they allow in on a given day. For example, last year after having as many as 23,000 visitors in a single day, the Acropolis began limiting the number of daily visitors to 20,000.

In Italy, the Via dell’Amore, known as one of the most romantic walks in the world between two cities (Riomaggiore and Manarola) in the Cinque Terre area, closed in 2012 after a landslide injured several people. It is scheduled to reopen this summer (2024), but because of problems with overtourism, it will be closed at night and only available during the day to non-residents via guided tours. Reportedly, problems with trash and love locks (which we discussed in Part 1) prior to the landslide contributed to the decision to limit tourist access to the path.

Another strategy that some cities are using to decrease the large influx of visitors from cruise ships is to move where they will allow the big ships to dock further away from historic city centers. For example, Barcelona closed one of its ports to cruise ships who now have to use a port further down the coast.

Increased Taxes and Fees

Many municipalities have begun implementing tourist taxes as a way to try to discourage some visitors and recoup some of the money an area must spend on infrastructure to cope with large numbers of visitors. These taxes are most often applied to cruise ship passengers disembarking in a port or to individuals staying in hotels or home rentals, such as Airbnb or VRBO.

Increasingly, local governments have become aware that daytrippers – travelers who come into a town, often on a cruise ship or bus tour, and only spend a few hours before leaving again – contribute less to the economy than visitors who stay longer and subsequently spend more money on food and lodging. To help offset this, Venice, Italy, recently implemented a pilot program to test a 5 euro entrance fee to the city for visitors arriving between 8:30am and 4:00pm. (Hotels supposedly will provide guests with a QR code they can use to show they are exempt from the fee.)

Spread Out and Share the Impact

Many countries recognize that tourism contributes significantly to their economy, so instead of discouraging tourism, they have tried to spread out the impact, both good and bad. By encouraging travelers to visit lesser-known areas, they hope to decrease the negative impacts of overtourism on natural and historical areas. They also hope to spread the tourism dollars to other areas which have traditionally not benefited.

An example of this is Iceland where many tourists, especially those in the country on a brief layover while traveling to mainland Europe, only visit the Golden Circle in the south part of the island. The Golden Circle includes Þingvellir National Park, Gullfoss Waterfall, and the geysers, Geysir and Strokkur. In the past few years, Iceland started a sustainable tourism development program and publicity campaign to encourage visitors to not only stay longer in the country but to visit the north part of the island.

When we visited Iceland in 2017, we drove the Ring Road (Route 1) around the entire island, and I can say from personal experience that northern Iceland was as beautiful and otherworldly as the rest of the island, but far less crowded. And with the recent volcano eruptions in southwest Iceland, I’m guessing even more visitors are considering spending a larger proportion of their Iceland adventure in the north.

Take only memories, leave only footprints.

Chief Si’ahl (anglicized as Chief Seattle)

Sustainable Travel

So far I’ve only discussed what locations are doing to minimize overtourism. But what can we, as brave, wise travelers, do to help?

The first step is to be aware of the impact of your actions and whether they are consistent with sustainable travel. Sometimes it’s easy to think that as an individual, what we do is of little or no consequence. I’m sure that’s why anyone ever chooses to throw litter out the window of their car. Seeing someone litter like that drives me crazy, but I try to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they’re thinking that one little wrapper or drink can will hardly even be noticed by the side of the road.

The problem is that it usually isn’t just one.

Like the love locks – a single lock on a bridge weighs almost nothing and is hardly even noticeable. A single step off of a path might not even leave a footprint. But a tiny action multiplied by hundreds, or thousands, or millions, however, becomes a destructive problem.

It is important that each of us realize the impact of our choices and actions when multiplied by exponential growth. This is true of physical actions such as trash or love locks. It is also true of behaviors, such as talking loudly and whether we act in a manner that is respectful of a culture. For example, are we dressing and behaving in a way that complies with the cultural norms of the locals who live in the area?

Smaller Numbers Mean Smaller Impact

Many of you reading this blog are interested in creating your own, individualized travel itineraries. Independent travel provides many opportunities to minimize the negative impact your visiting might have on that area. By doing things on your own or with a small group of family or friends, you can choose to visit areas at times when the large tour groups or cruise passengers are not there.

If you don’t feel comfortable traveling independently and prefer to travel with a tour group, consider joining smaller tours. There are tour companies and cruise lines which specialize in smaller than average groups

Not contributing to overcrowding might also mean visiting an area at a different time of day – for example, most tourists who disembark from cruise ships return to the ship in the evening. That means if you stay in an area, you can often walk around the historical center of a city, such as San Marco in Venice, in the evening and have it almost all to yourself.

Visiting at less crowded times can also mean traveling during the shoulder or low travel seasons. I’ve mentioned before that the shoulder season is my favorite time to travel. One of the reasons for this is that the crowds tend to be significantly smaller during this time as compared to the peak travel season.

Off the Beaten Path

Reportedly, 80% of tourists visit just 10% of the world’s tourist destinations. That means most of the people are going to the same places as everyone else. There may be some locations that are unique – if you want to see the Eiffel Tower, you’re going to have to go to Paris – but there are many other experiences that can be had in multiple locations.

For example, if you’re like me and you “travel on your stomach” (to quote a man we met in a hotel once), some of the best food experiences I’ve had have been in small restaurants or cafes in small towns where I’m pretty sure we were the only tourists.

There’s also a bonus – because these less-well-known towns have not been overrun by hordes of tourists, even during the high season, the people there are often more patient and interactive than you might find in a highly touristed area. For example, we’ve had the owner of a small pub pull a chair up to our table and talk to us about fishing in the area and where we might want to go for our next meal and why. That rarely happens in a place crowded with lots of other tourists.

Recently, home rentals, such as Airbnb, have gotten a bad reputation for investors buying up housing and pricing locals out of the rental market in popular tourist destinations. When we’ve stayed in home rentals in less touristy areas, however, it’s often been in a home where the owner lives for part of the year and where the neighbors are actually locals. Not only have we gotten to meet some of the locals that way, but the local stores and restaurants have seemed appreciative of us spending our money with them rather than just the “popular” places benefitting from the tourist economy. When we have visited a local restaurant more than once, we’ve sometimes been greeted with kisses on the cheek and free local wine.

Smaller towns also often have small, locally-run history and art museums, some of which can be quite interesting and quirky. Thanks to the internet, you can do a general search for the area you will be visiting and usually find the addresses and hours for such places. You can also find out about unique and local places by talking to the local residents in shops and restaurants. Most of them are proud of the area where they live and thrilled to make recommendations!

Slow Down

In areas that have felt the negative impact of overtourism, much of this impact has been caused by tourists who stay for only a few hours (such as the daytrippers discussed earlier), contributing to the crowds but not much to the local economy. Spending at least one night, if not more, in an area means that you are spending money not only on lodging but also on food and drink and possibly additional entertainment and shopping, all of which helps the local economy.

Spending the extra time is also beneficial to you, the traveler. In addition to getting to know an area better and hopefully gaining an increased understanding and appreciation of its culture, history, and beauty, you also have opportunities to see historical sites when they are less crowded, such as in the early morning or late afternoon and evening before and after the bus tour and cruise ship crowds are there.

Give Back

Some of the most beautiful places in the world also have significant needs, whether they are related to poverty or environmental damage (some of it created by overtourism). If you truly love a place, research whether there might be volunteer opportunities in the area. I’ve known individuals who have volunteered in medical clinics, schools, orphanages, and animal shelters all around the world.

There is a volunteer program in the Faroe Islands that is specifically designed for tourists to help counter some of the effects of the increase in tourism to those islands. For the past few years, they have closed outside tourism for two days for the national Closed for Maintenance program – volunteers from outside of the country can apply to volunteer for the program which focuses on maintenance-related activities, such as repairing trails and putting up signs.

Focus on What You Can Do

The world is an amazing place. I don’t want to stop exploring, and I know most of you don’t want to either. I believe curiosity about the world and the people and cultures in different areas is generally a positive thing, but as we discussed with the love locks, too much of a good thing can be destructive.

Generally, tourism can be a force for good, but it requires thinking about the impact, both positive and negative, your actions have on the world and those around you. You don’t always have to follow the crowd. Be intentional about what you want from your adventures and consider whether there are alternatives to visiting the same places at the same time as everyone else.

Be open to learning new things and curious about others and their way of life. Be thoughtful and considerate. Learn about the local culture and be respectful of it and the people living within that culture.

Tread lightly. Literally – stay on the path! Remember that even small actions can have a huge impact when multiplied exponentially.

Consider how and where you spend your money. Plan to stay longer than a few hours in an area so that you contribute to the local economy. Consider visiting less touristed areas and spend your money there so those areas can benefit from the tourism economy as well.

What decisions can you make in planning your next travel adventure so that you are contributing to sustainable travel rather than overtourism and loving a place to death?