Overtourism

COVID-19 put a temporary stop to the crisis of overtourism. Yet there is no question that travel will resume; the only question is, when it does, what will it look like? Overtourism: Lessons for a Better Future charts a path toward tourism that is truly sustainable, focusing on the triple bottom line of people, planet, and prosperity. This practical book examines the causes and effects of overtourism before turning to emerging management strategies. Visitor education, traffic planning, and redirection to lesser known sites are among the measures that can protect the economic benefit of tourism without overwhelming local communities. As tourism revives around the world, these innovations will guide government agencies, parks officials, site managers, civic groups, environmental NGOs, tourism operators, and others with a stake in protecting our most iconic places.

Overtourism explores a growing phenomenon in tourism that is currently creating tensions in both urban and rural tourist destinations worldwide. This volume proposes a framework for a series of possible solutions and management strategies for dealing with overtourism and the various negative impacts that large quantities of tourists can impose. Questioning the causes of this phenomenon – such as increased prosperity and mobility, technological development, issues of security and stigma for certain parts of the world, and so on – this book supposes that better visitor management strategies and distribution of tourists can offset the negative impacts of overtourism. Individual chapters focus on a range of destinations including Venice, Barcelona and Dubrovnik, as well as UNESCO cultural and natural heritage sites, where local political actors and public authorities are not always able to deal with the situation effectively. Integrating research and practice, this book will be of great interest to upper-level students, researchers and academics in tourism, development studies, cultural studies and sustainability, as well as professionals in the field of tourism management.

Overtourism has become a major concern for an increasing number of destinations as tourism numbers continue to grow, stimulated by general economic and technological growth and the expansion of the global middle class. This, coupled with relentless promotion of tourism by many organisations and destinations, has increased tourism, despite growing opposition to excessive development. This book is the first academic volume to deal with this topic and contains chapters by experienced researchers in the tourism field, taking a multidisciplinary approach to review and explain the subject. The introductory section begins with an overview of the current situation and the forces enabling the appearance of overtourism. This is followed by a number of case studies from a range of destinations around the world, both urban and rural, which share the same problems. The concluding section includes a discussion of potential mitigation methods and approaches and a final assessment of future developments. The focus and relevance of this book are not just for academics, as it offers insights into destinations, enablers and solutions for how to address the issue of overtourism on a wide variety of scales. This book offers globally relevant perspectives on destinations as varied as Venice and Barcelona, that have gained global media attention, as well as less publicised rural areas and developing destinations.

Overtourism examines the increasingly important role of destination management and effective stakeholder engagement in order to maximize the economic contribution of tourism while avoiding the potential pitfalls of overtourism. Rapid growth in international tourism has led to the emergence of the overtourism phenomenon. It is a situation where high tourist numbers start to cause tensions with local residents and communities owing to what they consider to be negative impacts on their quality of life including overcrowding, congestion, housing shortages, and changes in the retail sector. Overtourism can occur in any type of destination be it urban or rural in a developed or developing country. The author does not consider a global reduction in international travel as a likely long-term solution to addressing overtourism. Rather, destinations should prepare for continuous growth in both international tourist arrivals and domestic tourism in the longer term. Overtourism can often be reversed or averted through effective destination management. This requires engaging with key stakeholders and the local community to ensure that the local residents’ quality of life is preserved while at the same time delivering a high-quality experience for visitors. The coronavirus pandemic has provided destinations with an opportunity to reflect and decide how they want to recover and become more resilient and sustainable in the long term.

Cultural Overtourism is a comparatively new term, and refers to historical sites, museums and places that are extremely crowded by tourists; hence, a type of tourism that has negative effects on both the cultural sites and the people who live there. This problem has sparked more and more protests. Accordingly, many cultural institutions and cities are now taking measures to limit the flow of tourists. In this book, Bruno S. Frey - a renowned and frequently cited economist - suggests, on the contrary, an extension of the supply of cultural sites in the form of “Revived Originals”. By this he means the erection of identical replicas of the most important buildings at a suitable nearby location. In addition, digital information technologies (augmented and virtual reality including holograms) can be used to immerse visitors in the history and culture of the newly established sites, while adjacent hotels, restaurants and shops provide the necessary accompanying infrastructure. In this way, the flow of tourists can be distributed between the original site and the Revived Original. This book outlines the “Revived Originals” concept, discusses the organisational and economic challenges it entails, and contrasts it with existing Disneyland concepts. Especially for families with children or people who have little interest in culture - i.e., for the majority of visitors - these places can be very attractive. This book will appeal to anyone interested in alternative forms of tourism, as well as political and administrative decision-makers looking for new solutions to cultural overtourism.

This book meticulously focuses on seeing technological solutions of overtourism on decimated destinations from a comprehensive viewpoint. Considering the present crisis situation, the global tourism industry is in need to formulate revised strategies to recover and to be more resilient. The book creates a platform to deliberate the measures needed to be taken to tackle the issue of this most recent crisis of COVID-19 on the lens of overtourism and technology application. The book adds some unique suggestions to direct a new outlook towards overtourism, technology solutions and decimated destinations. This book discusses the responsibilities of tourists towards decimated destinations as well as provides in-deep knowledge and debates about technological solutions to overtourism in decimated destinations.

In recent years, the increasing number of tourists traveling to specific urban and resort destinations has caused challenges for the effective management of tourism in these areas, with a resulting negative impact on towns, cities, and host communities. Such issues have included placing undue pressure on infrastructure; destruction of the physical, economic, and socio-cultural environment; and affecting the quality of residents’ daily lives by impacting their mobility and, in some cases, the price and rent of resident accommodation, goods, and services. To achieve a certain level of balance between the interests of local residents and visitors, new regulatory measures and legislation in high tourism areas must be discussed. TheHandbook of Research on the Impacts, Challenges, and Policy Responses to Overtourism is a collection of innovative research on best practices and legislation solutions for the management of tourism destinations suffering from overtourism, tourismophobia, or antitourism movement issues. While highlighting topics including overcrowding, social displacement, and tourism management, this book is ideally designed for local government officials, policymakers, lawmakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, industry professionals, travel agencies, hotels, academicians, and students seeking current innovative empirical research on destination-management practices and application techniques.

This book examines the evolution of the phenomenon and explores the genesis of overtourism and the system dynamics underlining it. The 'overtourism' phenomenon is defined as the excessive growth of visitors leading to overcrowding and the consequential suffering of residents, due to temporary and often seasonal tourism peaks, that lead to permanent changes in lifestyles, amenities and well- being. Enormous tensions in overtourism affected destinations have driven the intensification of policy making and scholarly attention toward seeking antidotes to an issue that is considered paradoxical and problematic. Moving beyond the 'top 10 things you can do about overtourism', this book examines the evolution of the phenomenon and explores the genesis of overtourism as well as the system dynamics underpinning it. With a rigorous scientific approach, the book uses systems-thinking and contemporary paradigms around sustainable development, resilience planning and degrowth; while considering global economic, socio-political, environmental discourses. Researchers, analysts, policy makers and industry stakeholders working within tourism as well as those within the private sector, community groups, civil society groups and NGOs will find this book an essential source of information.