The topic of overtourism has exploded in popularity over the past few years as the impacts of overtourism are being felt in many communities around the globe. As members of the tourism industry, it is our responsibility to step up and make the changes necessary to support the healthy growth of tourism for years to come. The question is, how do we do that?
The documentary Crowded Out provides some insight into the issues we are facing and some potential fixes to the issue but it also discusses the question of responsibility. The documentary asks questions like, who is actually in control of the tourism industry?
In order to be effective, I believe that each tourism operator must take responsibility for their own actions and must be aware of the impacts they are having in the communities they operate in. Although it would be amazing for someone else to take on this role, there is not enough time to wait around for other people to take action on the problems we are causing. I will acknowledge the fact that many tour operators may not always have the community’s best interest in their minds and that is where more policies need to be introduced. Unfortunately, we cannot trust everyone to take accountability so implementing things such as tourist taxes or limits on the number of visitors allowed in a specific area each day is necessary to try and control the issue we are seeing.
With COVID-19 now taking hold of the tourism industry, overtourism is much less of a concern. However, when travel does finally make its comeback, we need to be prepared for a boom in the industry which will likely see the tourism hotspots once again, overrun.
