Recently, some of Europe's most popular cities have become surprisingly unpopular. Barcelona residents have been openly hostile to tourists and officials are cracking down on Airbnb rents. Venice has been "encroached" by overseas tourists, only recently began to implement the "flow restriction" policy. Dubrovnik has set a limit on the number of visitors to the city.
These destinations are suffering from what tour operators call "over-travel" (Overtourism). Europe is the world's most visited region in 2016, accounting for about half of the world's 1.24 billion international visitors. Spain, a country of 46.5 million people, welcomed 75.3 million visitors in 2016.
Australia has never experienced such a large number of visitors-only 8.24 million in 2016, but tourism has also become the focus of attention.
"excessive tourism"
Generally speaking, "excessive tourism" refers to the situation in which the tourist destination exceeds its carrying capacity, which leads to the deterioration of the tourist or local tourist experience, or both. If allowed to continue, excessive tourism could lead to the collapse of the local tourism industry extreme phenomenon.
The reasons for excessive tourism are different. Some people think that Airbnb, which is the mode of lack of supervision, makes tourists' travel cost greatly reduced. Others feel that excessive media hype has made some areas so-called "internet celebrities", attracting a large number of tourists.
Australia is "in danger"?
Although the number of visitors in Australia and Venice and Spain are better than the "Wu Wu", if the local people think that their quality of life is being destroyed by the tourists, it can count as a "overtravel".
In Tasmania, for example, a cable car construction project near Mount protest Wellington, a large number of residents, thought it would greatly affect daily life. The reason given by the state government is that the cable car will attract 1 million visitors a year after the cable car is completed, which could significantly boost the local economy.
What's next?
Most experts believe that the provision of government is the key to the threat of excessive tourism. For example, many cities have followed Barcelona's practice to strengthen the restrictions on Airbnb. Thailand's government will shut down the Mayan Beach on the Phi Phi Island every year to restore life to the sea. Copenhagen is creatively promoting a "local"-based tourism policy.
In New Zealand, the Tourism Board is actively promoting out-of-season tourism. This is a good example of how government organizations can use a "sell-out" strategy or divert interest in the region to address growing tourism tensions.
Since the implementation of the "2020 Tourism Strategy", the Federal government has focused on increasing the number of tourists and has made great progress, and the tourism industry has even moved towards the trend of pillar industries. Therefore, under this premise, national and local tourism agencies should adopt a more sustainable and holistic approach to planning their tourism planning in order to better reflect the values and aspirations of local communities.