Smack dab in the middle of this trend.

This VML Intelligence article on Taming Tourism [https://www.vml.com/insight/taming-tourism?utm_source=WT+sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VML+Intelligence+Brief+-+26+June+2024+-+20240626_163005&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.vml.com%2finsight%2ftaming-tourism&utm_id=176957&sfmc_id=77542138] captures the downside of a global boom in tourism.? While the article primarily speaks to the rise in the lack of respectful behaviour in tourists’ antics, what resonated for me was the conundrum of the want and need of tourist dollars by these desirable destinations who also push back against the bad behaviour of [some of] the madding crowds.

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I just spent 3 glorious months in Italy and was gobsmacked by the size of the crowds just about everywhere. [See photos].? Fortunately, I didn’t witness massive amounts of bad behaviour but I continued to be startled by the size of the crowds that in a few instances required us to change our plans because it was just so unpleasant. And we thought we were being clever by traveling outside the height of tourist season.? Didn’t work.

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?I’m so glad that the world has overcome some of the unlucky fortune of the recent past [pandemic, natural disasters]…and what travelers can probably use now are a few tips and tricks for surviving travel at this moment. ?We resorted to laying low in the daytime and heading out to favored destinations after 10pm when many of the day trippers had gone on their merry way.