Overtourism: is it possible to travel with less impact? – 15/11/2023 – Tourism

What is essential on a first visit to the capital of Catalonia? Without a doubt, discover the works designed by Gaudí, one of the most famous modernists. Even if the traveler is not very interested in art and history, the constructions he created are difficult to ignore.

But since the pandemic eased and tourists started catching up, visiting certain areas of Barcelona has become a little less spontaneous than before.

It was 9am on a morning in October — a month known as low season. There was still half an hour before Park Güell opened its gates, but a horde of tourists from all corners of the world were already crowding the slopes that lead there, willing to take photos among Gaudí’s sculptures. At 10am, the entire park was already packed, making even the loneliest of travelers feel like they were on a big school trip.

Experiences like this are increasingly common. But against the grain of this mass tourism (or “overtourism”), increasingly criticized for its environmental impact and for affecting communities and their heritage, another trend is beginning to gain strength in the post-pandemic period — that of traveling as lightly as possible, with another type of relationship with the destinations visited.

The first target has been companies like Airbnb, accused of inflating rents and changing the dynamics in cities that receive many travelers.

Barcelona, ​​one of the most visited places in Europe, was the first major European city to ban short-term room rentals — which became popular precisely on platforms like Airbnb.
Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, started charging fees to those who offer paid accommodation to tourists and, in New York, this type of rental was prohibited — there, the minimum length of stay in a property offered on Airbnb is one month.

With 50,000 residents and around 30 million tourists a year, Venice went further and banned large cruise ships from docking in its historic center. In 2024, it will become the first city in the world to charge an entrance fee (around 5 euros or R$26) for visitors. Everything to curb “overtourism” and try, in some way, to preserve what’s left of the atmosphere that made that place so attractive.

In addition to the issue of stays, many European cities are already targeting other targets. In addition to requiring prior booking for almost everything, the capital of Catalonia not only started to restrict the size of groups that walk the streets but also forces them to use radios and headphones instead of megaphones.

In Dubrovnik, a city in Croatia that was the setting for “Game of Thrones”, the government banned the use of rolling suitcases in the historic center to reduce noise pollution, especially at night.

It’s not just cities that are moving on this wave. Since July, Japan Airlines passengers have had the option of renting clothes for the entire period of their stay in Japan. Still in the testing phase, the service eliminates the need for suitcases and the corresponding carbon emissions required to carry them around the globe —the company estimates that every ten kilograms of luggage on a plane requires the emission of another seven kilograms of carbon, considering a Tokyo-New York flight. It is a measure adopted against one of the main criticisms of excessive travel — its environmental impact.

According to the UN World Tourism Organization (WTO), by 2030 emissions related to tourist transport are expected to grow by 25% compared to 2016 levels, leading to a 5% increase in the planet’s total emissions. By then, says the entity, the world will have 1.8 billion tourists.
It is no surprise that agents from across the sector have been moving to make tourism a little more sustainable.

While companies like Japan Airlines are testing the aforementioned service, engine and aircraft manufacturers are accelerating the development of electric planes, which are already beginning to fly, but still without capacity for many passengers.

Also keeping an eye on the environmental footprint, there are resorts in Switzerland and Austria encouraging their guests to rent all equipment, such as skis and helmets, at the hotel rather than carrying them. In African countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, accommodation services have also asked tourists to pack belongings in lightweight fabric bags, in addition to offering personal hygiene items, sunscreen and repellent. In your suitcase, only what is really essential.

According to data from French startup Murmuration, which monitors the environmental impact via satellites
of tourism, around 80% of travelers visit only 10% of the tourist destinations on the planet. Improving access to less popular places can help alleviate the most crowded ones, but at the risk of spreading the problem to new locations.

But if all tourists want is to disconnect from everyday life and discover new destinations, why do they choose to visit the same places that “everyone” has already seen?

“In Europe everything is very close and easy to get to, so it’s natural that we want to visit as many places as possible, do as many things as possible. There’s this thing of ‘I can’t help but do this'”, says the psychologist clinician and traveler João Oliveira. “And in this case, we don’t necessarily plan in line with what we feel, what we want, what makes sense to us.”

For him, the negative impacts of mass tourism have a lot to do with unrestrained consumption habits, enhanced by social networks, that people reproduce when traveling. And as a result, they end up opting for the number of “checks” on the list instead of the quality of the tour.

The most important thing when planning a trip, says Oliveira, is to ask yourself what your tourist style is, what you want from the trip and what you can put into practice within your financial and physical limits. If you’re really tired from work and haven’t saved a lot of money, perhaps a “Eurotour” through several countries isn’t exactly what you need — no matter how attractive it may be.

“From this, it is possible that we will start to relate to destinations and people in a different way, with more alignment, more purpose, avoiding that fanciful expectation that normally precedes a trip”, says the psychologist.