If you’ve recently visited Barcelona, Mallorca, or Venice, you’re a terrible tourist who should stay home. At least that’s what the anti-tourism protests in some parts of Europe this summer would lead you to believe.
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism performance in 142 countries is expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels this year. (The organization tracks 185 countries in total.) Over the next decade, tourism is expected to grow into a $16 trillion industry, generating 12.2% of global jobs. But the crowds and rising costs that come with it have left locals in many cities weary.
“It’s not that tourism was once a force for good and now it’s become a force for evil,” explains Ondrej Mitas, a senior lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, who specializes in overtourism. News reports often portray the phenomenon as a singular, uncontrollable problem. He believes that if you break it into smaller components, it’s easier to find a solution.
In his view, overtourism is actually four separate problems. Popular websites suffer from typical overcrowding. Tourists disrespecting cultural norms — such as waving selfie sticks or bare shoulders in an Orthodox church — is another. Then there are those partygoers who are indecent or damage public property. Finally, there is one of the most insidious aspects of overtourism: locals do not fully benefit from tourism in their communities because profits are unevenly distributed. As seen in Spain this summer, this most often leads to resistance at the resident level. “This is a political issue,” Mitas said. “It’s much more difficult to solve this problem.”
Mitas and the rest of us travelers have reason to be optimistic.
Solutions for every problem These questions are being tested in different destinations around the world, from Copenhagen to Thailand to Hawaii. Here are three groundbreaking initiatives, some new and some years in the making. Although they are still relatively small, they all have the potential to expand globally and impact an increasing number of travelers.
Redefining your destination’s “must-see attractions”
In an experiment conducted in 2021 by Mittas and his team at the University of Breda, 155 visitors to the Dutch province of Overijssel received one of two digital planning tools to inspire their travels. One group was given an app that labeled traditional attractions, and another group was given an AI concierge service called “Travel With Zoey,” which recommends least-visited tourist spots as must-sees and is hosted by A behind-the-scenes employee verifies.
Both groups of tourists took the advice to heart and went where they were shown or told about, rather than forging their own paths. In subsequent surveys, they expressed the same level of satisfaction with their vacation. “It’s really important that people have the same good time whether they go to a hotspot or not,” Mitas said.
The reality is that most destinations have attractions that receive fewer visitors, but are ready and worthy of receiving more visitors. But as long as most travelers use the same sources for inspiration — such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google Maps or TripAdvisor — they’ll be directed to the same places.
Of course, there’s nothing stopping travelers from Googling their trip. But the research may convince tourism boards and tour operators that there are good reasons to deviate from mainstream advice. “Whatever the source is, reach people with the least friction and make the experience sound the most interesting,” Mitas said.
Mitas and Zoe’s team are currently working with the tourist boards of Amsterdam and Copenhagen to re-implement the experiment in overcrowded city centres. “We expect the results to be roughly the same as those in Overijssel,” Zoey CEO Rajneesh Badal said. If so, he said, “our next step would be to make it part of the toolkit of policymakers and destination management organizations.”
Spread tourism revenue
For the past seven years, non-profit Tourism Cares has been building a “meaningful tourism map” filled with vetted sustainable experience providers from around the world—think this one in rural Jordan with a women’s group Knitting workshops, birdwatching with local conservationists at Quimbaya Sanctuary in Oton, Colombia, or a women-led historical tour of Ponce, Puerto Rico.
To date, the map includes 321 influence partners in 22 countries Although it is primarily intended as a business-to-business tool for travel operators and travel agents, they can create entire trips around experiences and offer bookings on a larger scale. To create the map, the organization is working directly with tourism boards such as Colombia and Thailand, which must each identify at least 10 responsible tourism businesses and prepare to welcome large numbers of tourists.
The idea started in Jordan, which wanted to see tourism expand beyond its famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, Petra; since then, companies such as Insight Vacations, Intrepid Travel, and G Adventures have enrich their itinerary Ceramics, cooking and weaving workshops – all bring business to rural cooperatives in small communities such as Bani Hamida, 90 minutes south of Amman.
One of the challenges of the program is that tourism boards are not always good at identifying influential local partners. But Tourism Cares CEO Greg Takehara said he sees momentum, with a record number of destinations including Panama, Scotland, Ireland, Hawaii and San Luis Obispo adding about 200 impact partners by 2024.
Create behavioral incentives
How to enable tourists to make sustainable choices? Copenhagen Tourism thought a fun freebie might work. In July, it began working with 20 local attractions to reward visitors for taking simple, climate-friendly actions through an innovative month-long pilot program. For example, choose to cycle or take public transportation to specific attractions, and you can visit a museum for free, rent a canoe, or enjoy a locally sourced vegetarian lunch. Anyone who brings plastic waste to the National Gallery of Denmark can attend a free workshop to upgrade it into art. The pilot ended on August 11 and Tourism Denmark is expected to announce the results later this month.
In Hawaii, a similar campaign called Malama Hawaii has been encouraging visitors to volunteer throughout the island since 2020. , 16% higher than the first quarter of 2023.
These include everything from coastal cleanups to propagating native plants and feeding animals on farm reserves; since April they have been centralized on an online dashboard for easy access. Like Copenhagen, Hawaii rewards visitors for participating, offering discounts or free stays at participating hotels for participating in specific events. For example, participating in the Hawaii Land Trust’s beach cleanup event can earn you a free sixth night at the Grand Wailea Hotel at the Waldorf Astoria Resort Maui.
This trend continues to gain popularity. Take the latest example from Vancouver Island. Pick up trash along your destination’s pearly beaches or Douglas fir forests and bring it back to designated collection points, and you’ll earn rewards ranging from hotel discounts to a free pint. For an industry that is often slow to change, this is a small step in the right direction.
