Is the World Sick of Tourism?
It’s only a week until Christmas and already the streets of London are packed. It’s no surprise either - almost 20 million people visited the UK in just the first half of 2024 alone, equivalent to just under 30% of the country’s population. They are expected to spend about £33 billion, roughly 92% of what was spent in 2019, pre-pandemic, after adjusting for inflation. The steady influx of money to the UK is great for the economy, but unrealised gains by the hospitality are being left on the table - with the Mayor “open to the idea of” a tourist tax for visitors in hotels. Maybe the bigger issue at hand, however, is the effect of tourism on local communities - and London doesn’t quite have the greatest impact or the largest measures to combat it.
Looking around the globe - it definitely seems like overtourism is becoming more glaring of an issue, and some countries are responding accordingly.
Peru
In May 2024, officials declared a new, far stricter set of rules for visitors to the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu. Groups, which must be no more than ten people in size, have up to two hours to view the site with a mandatory tour guide. Only 500 people per day may begin a hike up the Inca Trail, with tickets only available from the Ministry of Culture’s box office. Although local protests have erupted in the past over the government monopolising ticket sales, there are no imminent plans to close the site.
Italy
The city of Venice in particular has made sweeping changes and restrictions to its laws about visitors. Tour groups are now limited to 25 people (with certain exceptions), tour guides are forbidden from using megaphones, cruise ships are banned from entering the city centre, and the construction of new hotels has been capped. The city also introduced an EUR 5 fee for day visitors, but critics claim it did little to curb tourism numbers.
Japan
The Japanese approach to dealing with the vast influx of foreign tourists is extremely diverse and creative. Mount Fuji alone has had fences erected in popular areas to stop tourists from trespassing on private property and blocking roads for photography. Fees and daily attendance limits have also been imposed on the mountain’s trails to cut down on knock-on effects like littering. But the greatest case study might be the roads in Gion, Kyoto’s ban on foreigners entirely. As the country’s origin point for geisha culture, the neighbourhood’s most famous streets became places where the women felt uncomfortable by overwhelming numbers of foreign photographers, and business and locals began struggling to coexist with visitors. A fine of JPY 10,000 (USD 65) is now levied on overseas visitors who attempt to travel down the streets.
Spain
A YouGov poll published in September 2024 indicated that half of all Spaniards interviewed stated issues with overtourism in their areas. Whatever the nationwide percentage is, it was high enough to spark anti-tourism protests earlier this year, starting in the Balearic Islands but slowly spreading to Barcelona, Seville, and San Sebastian on the mainland. According to a Basque civic organisation member, “What we’ve been seeing over the last eight or 10 years has been a huge acceleration of the process of ‘touristification’. All our city’s services have been put at the orders of the tourism industry.” . Barcelona has already started addressing the issue: cruise ships, and the construction of new hotels, are both banned in the city centre.
TAI Score: Degree 2. While it is highly unlikely that efforts to curb tourism and overcrowding will radically affect geopolitics, they could have direct impact on a national economy if poorly handled. Tourists should check ahead to make sure their destination of choice isn’t somewhere that suffers from this phenomenon, and should obey all regulations while overseas.
