Overtourism

Issues, realities and solutions

Rachel Dodds, Richard Butler, Rachel Dodds, Richard Butler

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9783110620450
• eBook ISBN: 9783110605709
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

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.

Rachel Dodds and Richard W. Butler

1Introduction

The term “overtourism” has rapidly gained traction across multiple sectors, including academia, policy formulation, social movements and the media. This relatively new term, also sometimes called “loving places to death”, “dealing with success” and “tourismphobia” (Goodwin, 2017; Dredge, 2017), has been defined as

the excessive growth of visitors leading to overcrowding in areas where residents suffer the consequences of temporary and seasonal tourism peaks, which have enforced permanent changes to their lifestyles, access to amenities and general well-being. (Milano et al., 2018)

According to Goodwin (2017: 1), destinations experience overtourism when “hosts or guests, locals or visitors, feel that there are too many visitors and that the quality of life in the area or the quality of the experience has deteriorated unacceptably”.

The concerns about overtourism expressed in both academic and popular literature include: too many tourists in one place, rowdy and other inappropriate behaviour by tourists, antagonism between residents and tourists, crowding, strains on infrastructure, loss of authenticity, loss of amenity and reduction in quality of life of residents and reduced enjoyment of experiences by tourists. These externalities are not all new. Throughout the past four decades, the potential and actual deteriorating relationship between hosts and guests has been the subject of much study and discussion (Doxey, 1975; Butler, 1980; Krippendorf, 1987; Boissevan, 1996). The issues related to tourism at individual destinations and resorts were discussed earlier still (Ogilvie, 1933; Christaller, 1963; Young, 1973). Plog (1973) proposed a model involving the changing characteristics of tourists themselves visiting a range of destinations as those destinations changed in character and moved from underdevelopment to development (and overdevelopment).

Although tourism and tourists have been the subject of complaints for decades, if not centuries specific term “overtourism” is relatively recent. According to Google, the word “overtourism” was first used as a search term in 2006. The term was popularized in the tourism online community by Skift, which observed that overtourism represents a hazard to destinations because

the dynamic forces that power tourism often inflict unavoidable negative consequences if not managed well. In some countries, this can lead to a decline in tourism as a sustainable framework is never put into place for coping with the economic, environmental, and sociocultural effects of tourism. The impact on local residents cannot be understated either. (Sheivachman, 2016)

As of 2018, “overtourism” and the perils associated with it boast hashtags and are the subjects of frequent Google searches and dinner party conversations.

Researchers are questioning whether overtourism is a new phenomenon or simply “old wine in new bottles” (Dredge, 2017). Overtourism is related to other concepts familiar to tourist researchers, namely carrying capacity, resilience and sustainability. Of these, carrying capacity is the oldest. It can be expressed in environmental, economic and social-cultural terms, as well as with regard to technological limits and health and safety issues. As noted elsewhere (see Chapter 3), the concept has become unfashionable in tourism scholarship, despite its obvious relevance in discussions of overtourism. This relevance is seen in the use of the prefix “over” in the word “overtourism”, with the implication that there is too much tourism in a particular destination, and that the tourism exceeds the ability, limits or capacity of the destination involved. Often overtourism is also seen as overtaxing the ability of destinations to meet desired standards and limits.

The concept of resilience – the ability of destinations to absorb shocks and disturbances (impacts) and recover – has been applied relatively recently to tourism and tourism destinations and is related to the destinations’ latitude, resistance and precariousness, as well as to their vulnerability and ability to adapt to changing circumstances (Butler, 2018; Hall et al., 2016; Cheer and Lew, 2018). With regard to the concept of sustainability, the links between the level of tourism and the quality of social and environmental factors in a destination are frequently cited, with the logical conclusion that tourism levels should not exceed a point at which uncorrectable impacts occur and where tourism becomes “unsustainable” (Hunter, 1995; Briassoulis, 2002; Murphy and Price, 2005; Dodds and Butler, 2010; UNWTO, 2018). Thus, to plan for sustainability in a tourism context is to plan to operate within the carrying capacity limits of the destination and its resilience capabilities, and avoid a state of overtourism, for as Weber et al. (2017: 199) observe, it is clear that “the way tourism is managed has a direct impact on carrying capacity and the resilience to overtourism”.

In any discussion of overtourism, the issue of resident dissatisfaction arises, as well as the practice, of residents and their supporters, in protesting against overtourism. In the past, excessive tourism in specific destinations was generally expressed as overuse or overdevelopment. With the exception of Doxey’s (1975) oft-cited paper, what was generally absent was any discussion of resident protest. This is a key component of overtourism in the present and raises the question of whether overtourism can exist in locations devoid of local residents. This is rather like the question about a tree falling in a forest but not being witnessed and whether in such a case it makes a noise. This raises the question: Is the defining characteristic of overtourism the existence of resident protest? Certainly resident protests in Venice, Barcelona, Scotland and elsewhere, as discussed in the case studies in this volume, have attracted media and academic attention, while overcrowding and overdevelopment have generally passed without much attention beyond mild regret at an apparent inability to prevent an excess of visitation.

In order to understand overtourism and propose actions to combat it, it is important to identify the causes of overtourism. This volume begins with a discussion of the causes or, perhaps more accurately, the “enablers” of overtourism, as it is not possible to be precise in determining the specific causes of overtourism. As discussed in the next chapter, there are a number of factors that, in combination, create an environment in which overtourism can occur. Not all of these factors are new. While many have existed for many years, their influence has increased in recent years and when they are combined their effects can be dramatic for the destinations exposed to them. Thus, even though the writing has been on the wall, not everyone has chosen to read it.

After an examination of these enablers, several chapters discuss the conceptual aspects of overtourism, in particular, its relationship with the natural environment and theories such as carrying capacity, the issue of authenticity and the impact of overtourism on the social and cultural manifestations of destinations and on their residents, and in turn, on their offerings to tourists. Attention then moves to the media and its role in shaping and creating overtourism and the subsequent behaviour of tourists, and the speed and reach of social media in particular. Part 1 of the book concludes with a discussion of overtourism in the context of the Tourism Area Life Cycle model, which provided an early warning about the potential impacts of overdevelopment of destinations.

As is shown by the case studies that follow in Part 2, although each example of overtourism is specific to its particular location, most have certain features in common. One such feature is the feelings, expressed by residents of affected communities, of frustration and annoyance, if not anger, at being relatively powerless to prevent or mitigate the onset of overtourism. Even in smaller centres such as Prague and Lucerne, complaints are appearing about numbers and actions of tourists.

In general, local municipalities seem relatively ineffective at resolving the problem. Even in well publicized overtourism cities such as Barcelona, where the local government has recognized the problem for over a decade, protests are increasing visibility and frequency, with accompanying media attention. In other areas, sudden drastic actions have been taken, with locations closed to tourism in both Thailand and Philippines, reflecting concerns at higher levels of government over environmental and social problems resulting from overdevelopment and excessive visitor numbers. All of these cases are small, in terms of the numbers involved, compared to the scale of the religious ceremony of the Hajj, where the massive numbers of pilgrims are concentrated in small spaces at specific times and are engaged in rituals en masse. Here, overtourism impacts include considerable numbers of deaths, the collapse of structures and health risks, which are being tackled by the national government at great expense. In contrast, overtourism in rural areas often involves relatively small numbers of tourists but has a considerable effect on the quality of life of residents. The case studies cannot hope to be all encompassing but they do provide a level of comparison for many other destinations globally. The examples make it clear that overtourism is more of a relative problem than an absolute one in that much depends on the characteristics of affected destinations and their residents, and the relative scale of tourism in those communities. In all the examples examined, it is clear that economic priorities have taken precedence over social and environmental concerns. What is also clear is that, although relative, more and more destinations may face these issues if action is not taken.

Part 3 of the book examines the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders and, in particular, the importance of tackling overtourism at the local level, and identifies the difficulties of combining and integrating the multiple viewpoints and goals of the different groups involved. It is clear that there have been many massive failures in goal identification and establishment, policy formulation, policy implementation and, perhaps above all, incorporating local resident views into actions.

In the final chapter, the editors coordinate the examples and arguments presented in the chapters and to identify areas of common ground in terms of issues and themes, as well as suggesting some potential ways of mitigating the problem of overtourism. This book, therefore, is a compilation of work that examines the issue of overtourism from a holistic and objective perspective. While a multitude of sensationalistic media pieces exist, they are often opinionated and do not examine the contributing factors and why and how the current situation came about. This book explores these aspects.

References

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Butler, R. W. (1980) The concept of a tourist area cycle of evolution: Implications for management of resources, The Canadian Geographer, 24 (1): 5–12.

Butler, R.W. (2018) Tourism and Resilience Walliingford: CABI.

Cheer, J.M. and Lew, A.A. (2018) Tourism, Resilience and Sustainability London: Routledge.

Christaller, W. (1963) Some considerations of tourism location in Europe: the peripheral regions – underdeveloped countries – recreation areas, Regional Science Association Papers, 12, Lund Congress: 95–105.

Dodds, R. and Butler, R. W. (2010) Barriers to implementing sustainable tourism policy in mass tourism destinations, Tourismos, 5 (1): 35–53.

Doxey, G. V. (1975) A causation theory of visitor-resident irritants: Methodology and research inferences. In Sixth annual conference proceedings of the Travel Research Association. San Diego: Travel Research Association, pp. 195–198.

Dredge, D. (2017) “Overtourism” Old wine in new bottles? Linkedin, 13 September. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/overtourism-old-wine-new-bottles-dianne-dredge (Accessed July 2018.)

Goodwin, H. (2017) The challenge of overtourism, Responsible Tourism Partnership Working Paper 4. http://haroldgoodwin.info/pubs/RTP’WP4Overtourism01ʹ2017.pdf (Accessed 23 November 2018.)

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Milano, C, Cheer, J. M. and Novelli, M. (2018) Overtourism is becoming a major issue for cities across the globe, The Conversation, 18 July 2018. http://theconversation.com/overtourism-a-growing-global-problem-100029 (Accessed 20 July 2018.)

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Sheivachman (...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Overtourism. It’s time for some answers
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The enablers of overtourism
• Part I: Overtourism: theoretical positioning and implications
• Part II: Case studies
• Part III: Challenges
• Author biographies
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Index