04 Jun Overtourism Antidote

Overtourism is a significant problem for many of the world’s most popular destinations. In the summer of 2017, the issue of overtourism came to a boil with many media outlets questioning – what can be done about overtourism? The problem was (and is) immediate and seemed to have come upon us suddenly – almost by surprise.

Of course, overtourism wasn’t a surprise. Like many feedback loops in systems, the problem of overtourism had been building in the tourism system for a long time before it was noticed by the media. (Or perhaps another way to describe it, is to say “became such a problem that it could no longer be overlooked.”)

But – at the same time the problem of overtourism grew, much work was done on sustainable tourism in destinations. Sustainable tourism management provides a set of actions that help destinations avoid the problems of overtourism. The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) captures many of the key tasks required for sustainable tourism, the solution for overtourism, in its criteria for destinations.

Of course – knowing what to do and actually doing it can be two very different things. And tourism destinations are complex parts of the tourism system – with many “moving parts” and no one “in charge”. Executing sustainable tourism – and overcoming overtourism – is our real challenge.