‘Overtourism’ and a different kind of #travelinspo

3 innovative examples of travel companies making a difference.

Last month, Responsible Travel released a thought-provoking documentary, Crowded Out. For a growing number of us, frequent travel has become a core part of our lifestyle. But if you love to travel – or work in the industry – this film will be uncomfortable to watch.

‘Overtourism’ (as Skift dubbed it) has become a hot topic. But whose responsibility is it to do anything about it? Spoiler alert: the answer to that question might be uncomfortable, too.

Most discussion of the topic tends to focus on a few hotspots already near breaking point, perhaps obscuring the bigger picture. The crowds of ‘ice-cream tourists’ damaging Venice’s character are very visible; as are the anti-tourism protests in Barcelona, by residents who feel pushed out by Airbnb tourists. And it’s easy to see how all-inclusive resorts or cruise ships might fail to integrate travellers into local communities, when the share of tourist income leaving the destination (the ‘economic leakage’) is simply too high. These are extreme cases, but where is the acceptable line crossed – and who decides?

Most of us think we aren't involved in overtourism (we’re travellers, not tourists!). If we’re honest, we’ve already been to many of the over-visited places... but now we (often) choose destinations not (yet) on the beaten path. Is that enough to absolve us from being part of the problem? Or are we just getting in first to those places that will simply become tomorrow’s problem-spots where travellers won’t be welcome? Is there more we can do?

First, it’s helpful to re-frame the problem, because over-tourism can be misunderstood. How much tourism is ‘too much’? And who decides? We know it isn’t always about absolute numbers, or even density and intensity (relative to space and local population). It’s ‘too much’ if infrastructure isn’t sufficient to support the level of visitors; or if the host community feels the social and environmental costs outweigh the benefits.

While the problem of overtourism is being widely talked about, solutions are less commonly proposed and when they are they’re usually high-level actions that someone else could take. Governments (and DMOs) could target ‘value over volume’ tourism, introduce tourist taxes, regulate access to hotspots through permits, or control the accommodation supply for example. The WTTC/McKinsey report ‘Coping with Success’ discusses actions like these.

But I found it striking that Crowded Out declared a “global emergency” without discussing any actions travellers or travel companies could take to help reduce or avoid overtourism. Apparently that’s deliberate: RT.com say it’s to provoke people to think for themselves about solutions – and that's needed because they’re fed up of what they see as ‘greenwashing’ by the industry; and they believe examples of good work are too few, too long overdue and not at the scale needed to solve the problem.

A recent industry roundtable on the topic certainly left the impression that many travel companies believe ‘It’s not a problem for our kind of travellers’ (at least not yet)… ‘We are not the only ones responsible’… Or, ‘We are too small to make a difference anyway’.

It made me wonder if a roundtable on climate change might have sounded similar a few years ago? People used to think that governments needed to lead the way on that global problem too – but then responsible businesses and individuals started taking their own steps, however small, knowing they all add up. Just think how quickly action on single-use plastics has spread this year, for example; there’s been a ripple effect as brand after brand saw others acting and realised they could/should too. Consumer expectations were changing; being ‘too small to count’ no longer seemed like a valid answer.

With that in mind, it would be good to see more responsible travel brands sharing the actions they’re already taking to address concerns about overtourism – because it would raise traveller expectations and hopefully inspire (and put pressure on) the wider industry to catch up! After all, discussions about overtourism shouldn't be about trying to dodge blame, they should be about inspiring action and solutions.

Here are three examples that I love, of travel companies making a difference. What examples would you add to the list? Feel free to share in the comments below.

??? Smoothing the pattern of visitors over time – flattening peaks and troughs – can improve the experience for locals and travellers alike, by reducing peak overcrowding. Many tour operators try to make use of variable pricing to attract more demand to ‘low season’, but the incentive of slightly lower prices often isn’t sufficient to alter the imbalance very much. What’s the alternative to presenting off-peak as though it is a knockdown, reduced-price substitute? Making off-peak feel more aspirational, for example by building in exclusive activities, upgrades or benefits to incentivise off-peak travel.

Off Season Adventures is going further, to help combat the distinct seasonality in Tanzania’s tourism (and it plans to do the same in other destinations). The startup is dedicated to ONLY offering tours in low season, to shift the overall balance towards year-round income and economic stability for local communities – while giving travellers a more unique experience and making us re-think when we travel to any destination. Their clever trip names will likely inspire travellers to stay a little bit longer too: choose a 6-day package to be a ‘Sightseer’ or stay 10 days to earn yourself ‘Sustainable Traveller’ status.

??? Even in the busiest destinations, spreading visitors across a wider variety of sites can help reduce overcrowded bottlenecks, while boosting the economy in lesser-visited pockets. For travellers, it needs to be easy to discover local insights beyond the same few ‘must-see’ sites (that we’ve seen already… in everyone else's photos). Operators of group tours can help when itineraries stay longer in each place – rather than zipping through at a pace that only allows the usual honeypot sites to be visited – and by sharing insider recommendations beyond the typical hotspots when travellers have unguided ‘free time’ in a city.

Breaking travellers out of predictable tours of #top5 #highlights, Lisbon-based startup Secret City Trails has created discovery games in the neighbourhoods of a dozen European cities, available via web app – and is opening up its platform so locals can co-create trails in their own cities too. Whether in well-known or lesser-known districts, visitors can ‘discover’ hidden spots off the main tourist track and unlock stories about the local area, while following a playful trail of clues. ‘Secret’ recommendations encourage visits to locally-owned cafés, restaurants or bars along the way.

???? There’s ‘too much’ tourism when the costs outweigh the benefits to the community, but by choosing locally-owned accommodation, a higher share of tourism income is likely to remain in the local economy. Even then, sometimes the positive impact isn’t widely felt (witness the protests in Barcelona, where Airbnb tourists have put significant income into local hands, but not everyone feels the benefit). What if your choice of where to stay had a wider impact, by saving a whole village?

Sawday’s collection includes two ‘Albergo Diffuso’ (‘scattered hotels’) and there’s about a hundred of these spread throughout Italy. The initiative has helped bring new life to struggling rural towns off the usual tourist path. One central house acts as a ‘hotel reception’ while the bedrooms are scattered in other properties around the village, engaging the whole community and revitalising local businesses at the same time. As Sawday’s highlighted in their recent blog, “the locals see the hotel guests as their guests too; they are all in it together”.

In their words: “All over Europe, cities are fighting back against what they see as invasive waves of visitors… The concept of the Albergo Diffuso offers hope: a more sensitive, scattered, integrated form of tourism.”

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