OVERTOURISM - BOON OR BANE?

Overtourism. Heard of this word before?

Some call it mass tourism, but I like overtourism better. 

It means too much tourism or too many tourists concentrated in one place. Like in Amsterdam, Barcelona or Venice - they know this word too well. 

These cities suffer from far too many tourists till they disturb the peace of the residents. Here's why the residents complain:

1) Tourists are noisy, partying and vomitty.

2)They go in and out of Airbnb stay such that residents do not know their neighbours anymore.

3) The ratio of tourists and residents is imbalanced:

a) Amsterdam - 850,000 residents : 22m tourists

b) Venice - 51,000 residents : 23 million tourists

Compare the figures with Singapore's 5.7m residents versus 18.7 m tourists. No wonder the large cities have cried out for balance as they are so used to privacy and lesser crowds.

Some measures implemented by these cities include:

1) Reduce promotion of cities with less trade shows.

2) Encourage spreading of tourists to other cities. Get tourists to stay longer than a weekend to increase so that tourists can get out of main city. Amsterdam is actively promoting this. 

3) Establish fines to tourists entering the city. This is being done in Venice. 

In my opinion, overtourism is a happy problem. The day that tourists do not arrive for tourist-dependent cities will be death of F&B and hospitality industries. 

What can we learn from this situation?

1) Innovate

Perhaps it's time to innovate new tourism products that allow spread of over concentration in the main city to other parts of the city. E.g. medical tourism or educational tours that do not focus on attractions per se.

2) Mindset Shift on Overtourism

I see overtourism as a happy problem because the reverse hurts businesses and people far more. Residents need to see this as a thriving and contributing factor to their Gross Domestic Product growth and manage the problems of crowds, noise and vomit. 

3) Enjoy & Respect

Encourage tourists to enjoy and respect the city. Venice has posters to get tourists to respect the place and residents even as they enjoy the sites. 

As the travel index rises each year, it will be a long haul before tourists can truly stop going to these cities unless a major economic or natural disaster happens. 

But overtourism is certainly manageable, it just needs tolerance and a broader mindset to benefit their country first. 

After all, many other cities would love to steal just a small pie of tourists from them. 

Sandra Tan is an avid traveller and has a wander lust to see the world. She coaches digital marketing in the hospitality sector and enjoys training, travelling and trekking. Sandra is an #LBFalumni scaling the #SkyHighTower.

#sandratan #hospitality #bizgem #overtourism