Overtourism

March 13, 2024March 13, 2024

Quality over quantity: strategies for mitigating overtourism

Arabian Travel Market, Blog, Destinations, Overtourism, Resilience and Recovery, Responsible Tourism, Travel Industry, Trends

The global tourism sector has bounced back vigorously with the UNWTO anticipating the sector’s full recovery by the end of 2024 as remaining pent-up demand is unleashed. While this is ... Read more

November 1, 2019November 1, 2019

Responsible Tourism Centre Stage at WTM London next week

Human Rights, Overtourism, Responsible Tourism, Responsible Tourism, Responsible Tourism Spotlight

WTM London is the largest Responsible Tourism event in the world. We focus on the solutions with a programme designed to help businesses and destinations thrive in increasingly difficult circumstances ... Read more

November 27, 2018June 2, 2020

Progress on Overtourism

Overtourism

There is more coverage of the issue of overtourism in the mainstream press than in the trade press. Understandably destination marketers and many governments dislike the word “overtourism” being associated ... Read more

November 3, 2018

Venice floods show that overtourism is a climate change issue

Overtourism

Few people can have missed this week’s pictures of a flooded Venice, and the video of the pizza restaurant that channeled the Titanic’s violinists and kept serving pizzas with the ... Read more

October 23, 2018October 23, 2018

The destination with solutions to overtourism, climate change and wellbeing

Development, Overtourism, Social Economy

Last week Bhutan held only its third general election. And for the third time in a row, the Bhutanese people voted in a different party. And though this election got ... Read more

September 18, 2018September 18, 2018

Loving National Parks to Death?

Overtourism

Most of the focus on overtourism has been on cities, but it is also a challenge in rural areas. I am writing this at RTD14 which is looking at the ... Read more

September 4, 2018

Tackling Overtourism

Overtourism

While there is little discussion of overtourism in the travel trade press and many destinations are in denial, the issue is hot in the national and local press. The issue ... Read more

August 28, 2018August 28, 2018

Can better storytelling help fix overtourism?

Overtourism

Tourism is about connections. Connecting to another place. Connecting with friends and family. Connecting to nature. It follows, therefore, that the better the connection, the more one connects, the richer ... Read more

August 21, 2018August 21, 2018

Making Tourism Better

Overtourism

Jost Krippendorf is the father of Responsible Tourism. In his seminal work on Holiday Makers, published in 1987, he foresaw the growth of the new form of tourism which had ... Read more

August 7, 2018August 20, 2018

Managing Overtourism

Overtourism

The overtourism issue has a great deal in common with the issue of climate change. We’ve known for a long time that the problem of overcrowding exists and that no ... Read more

July 5, 2018August 3, 2018

Coping with Success aka Overtourism

Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

Yesterday activist travel company Responsible Travel launched Crowded Out, a documentary about the growth of overtourism which is a consequence of exponential growth in travel and tourism bumping up against ... Read more

May 8, 2018May 9, 2018

Banish Bucket Lists. Go back to the place you love most

Blog, Overtourism

I come here at this time every year. I have been coming here now, every year, at the same time, for 10 years. And I intend to come here at ... Read more

April 20, 2018August 20, 2018

Big interview: Setting responsible travel standards

Overtourism, Responsible Tourism, Spring 2018 Magazine

G Adventures has helped push sustainable tourism to the top of the world travel agenda. Katherine Lawrey speaks to founder Bruce Poon Tip about how the company did it   ... Read more

January 12, 2018February 5, 2018

Five predictions for responsible tourism in 2018… and one I hope won’t happen

Carbon & Water, Development, Human Rights, Overtourism

In my last blog of 2017, I looked back at some of my personal responsible tourism highlights of that year. I’ve been on holiday for most of the time since ... Read more

December 21, 2017December 21, 2017

Governance: whose responsibility?

Overtourism

Looking back over 2017 the issue of governance has come to the fore. The challenge of overtourism has emerged as a cause of significant concern in part because it boiled ... Read more

August 30, 2017October 10, 2017

Using social media to do more than sell holidays

Overtourism, Responsible Tourism, Social Media

Among this summer’s slew of stories about overtourism, one took a slightly different angle. In an article titled 10 tourist destinations ruined by Instagram, the Independent reported how “the rise ... Read more

August 8, 2017October 4, 2017

“Anarchist threat to tourists”

Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

Last Saturday the London Times led its front page with a photo of Mo Farah winning the 10,000m at the IAAF world championships. But the headline on the front page ... Read more

March 28, 2017September 18, 2017

Tourism will be the future’s most important industry. We aren’t ready.

Carbon & Water, Overtourism, Responsible Tourism, RT Marketing, Social Economy

Last weekend I paid for my shopping at a self-service till. I swiped my credit card across the automatic turnstile on the Underground. I streamed a movie from my Netflix ... Read more

March 21, 2017September 18, 2017

Seasonality, Cruises and Overtourism: Coping with Success

Carbon & Water, Development, Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

How does a small archipelago cope with becoming Britain’s most successful cruise destination? In 2011 there were 36,000 cruise passengers, last year there were close to 100,000, projected to hit ... Read more

February 21, 2017September 18, 2017

Should destinations focus on yield rather than arrivals?

Development, Overtourism, Responsible Tourism, RT Marketing

From a consumer or traveller perspective there are many answers, but it is not difficult for a traveller or holidaymaker to say why they are travelling. It could relate to ... Read more

December 22, 2016September 18, 2017

Reality has to be on tourism’s bucket list for 2017

Development, Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

About six months ago my plans to write about a press trip to Jordan were disrupted by the Brexit vote, and I had to write about that instead. Today, my ... Read more

November 15, 2016September 18, 2017

8 Challenges for sustainable tourism posed at WTM London 2016

Development, Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

I spent the whole of World Travel Market sat in the lecture halls, listening to the women and men most committed to developing sustainable tourism discuss the greatest challenges as ... Read more

November 9, 2016September 18, 2017

WTM London 2016 10 years of Responsible Tourism

Development, Overtourism, Responsible Tourism, RT Marketing

Simon Press, Senior Exhibition Director World Travel Market, toasted the ten years of Responsible Tourism at WTM and thanked all those who have become part of the WTM Responsible Tourism ... Read more

October 18, 2016September 18, 2017

Last Chance Travel: What if the only truly sustainable form of tourism is less of it?

Carbon & Water, Development, Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

Issues around Venice and the problems of what is fast becoming known as ‘overtourism‘ are being talked about a great deal these days. What I was unaware of until reading ... Read more

September 27, 2016September 18, 2017

A new challenge “overtourism”

Carbon & Water, Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

A new challenge and a new word: “overtourism.” First used on twitter as #overtourism back in August 2012 it’s likely to become commonplace over the next few years. Its meaning ... Read more

June 1, 2016September 18, 2017

The endless quest for authentic tourism is sowing the seeds of its own destruction

Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

Every week it seems, there are more stories about communities around the world banning or limiting tourism in order to protect that which they hold dear. Most recently, it has ... Read more

February 9, 2016September 18, 2017

How to cope with too many tourists. How to avoid having too few.

Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

Antalya. Ljubljana. Luang Prabang. Aside from a certain assonance and preponderance of the letter L, there’s little to obviously connect these three cities. However, a look at their recent experiences ... Read more

October 26, 2015September 18, 2017

Can you have too many tourists?

Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

Many in the industry would probably say no. We often describe ourselves as travellers and visitors, in the same way that people complain about traffic without recognising that they are ... Read more

July 21, 2015September 18, 2017

Will popular destinations like Barcelona or Venice be damaged by tourism?

Development, Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

There have been protests in a number of honeypot European cities in the last couple of years. In Venice there is an anti-cruise ship campaign, in Berlin the local government ... Read more

July 6, 2015September 18, 2017

How to balance tourists and locals? Lessons from my home town

Overtourism, Responsible Tourism

I live in Faversham in Kent, a working town at the end of the motorway, traffic speeds by to Canterbury with its cathedral and World Heritage sites; to Margate with ... Read more