Over tourism is a major issue today and I completely agree . But I don’t think it’s the travel writers or bloggers who have led to this . It’s the massive increase of influencers , most of them not even travellers or know anything about a destination but just want to get followers . And sadly tourists follow them for advise
It's a complicated question with a lot of different parts. I think some travel writers/bloggers are also influencers. And as we note in the article, dirt cheap airfares are a HUGE part of the problem.
Whatever the exact proportion of blame we just want to make sure we think about the issue and act responsibly.
Brent and Michael, as a travel writer myself, and also a citizen over the years of so many places that could be called 'over-touristy'—San Francisco (before Covid...), Maui, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Mexico Riviera Maya, I hear you. I recall in one of Anthony Bourdain's (RIP) later Japanese segments, Tokyo I think, where he said he was going to one of his fave restaurants but was NOT telling the name b/c he was persona non grata at the last sushi bar he did that about, it makes you wonder: Is there a line to be crossed or uncrossable? I believe writing responsibly, which this post so elegantly does, is the key. Rather than Top 7, or Best of 10 restaurants in ... , you write about places you have most certainly experienced more than that the experience of that old old movie w/ Suzanne Pleshette-If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium. I too, before writing about places, have lived there a long time which makes one reflect on, well, everything. I especially noticed how impactful tourism is though mostly on Maui and in Mexico. In the Riv-Maya, year by year locals are more being added to tour-travel work-related jobs. Mostly that's bc, more or less what you mention re the rice noodle man, that the children of those early outliers realize there's a good income in tourism, without selling out. With the Yucatán early on many locals did not even speak Spanish, but that learning curve is now long gone. And the tourists, also early on, embraced volunteer-tourism and made a dent in things like language classes, small libraries, pet rescue, farm to table, etc. That's the type of stuff I like to write about and also the history (as do you) culture of a region. When you're hunkered down some place for a time and you're a writer, you know how the old mind gets working, haha. Anyway, write on! Your posts are so excellent and I look forward to them. Thanks for your thoughtfulness and awareness in an imminent issue we all, as voyagers-writers, must face.
Fascinating. It's very very interesting to see it happen, isn't it? One thing I didn't expect, though, is that we've now seen things BEFORE tourism, and it's not the paradise that some pretend it is. Tourism is really, really not perfect, but it can be improvement to what was -- assuming local management and regulation. Then again, any time there is rapid change, it can be discombobulating.
Thank you very much for the kind words! I'll check you out too.
Thanks, and yes. It is interesting, especially to have seen places before the boom(s). And yes, hoped-for tourism is not the do all, end all and for some, it's not the panacea hoped for. That's why Venice, Barcelona and other prized destinations are finally trying to shift things a bit. Don’t know if you’ve been to Cancun or Playa del Carmen but our first trip there, the main and only Hwy 307 that stretches down to Belize border, roughly 200+ km, was 2 lane blacktop with chasms on side that would gobble a car!! Times change!
Excellent article on a tough topic, Brent. I think the reality is tourism is beneficial up to a point, as you’ve well described, but once the numbers reach a tipping point it becomes a problem for the local community, infrastructure, and begins to ruin the experience for the tourists themselves. Italy as a whole is so far beyond that point that something has to be done pretty soon, or they might start seeing an ugly backlash. However, I can’t see how any action by individuals—whether travel writers, tourists, or travel companies—can have the coordination necessary to do anything substantial about the problem. Perhaps an analogy would be stopping using plastic straws when coal is still being burnt in power plants? Regulation has to come from governments in the end, so to that end, it’s not unethical to write about a place that hasn’t been ruined by over-tourism yet, but perhaps we could lobby or petition for some effective policies instead? I know Venice are trialing charging day trippers this summer, which might help a tad. Perhaps Italy might have to start limiting the number of tourist visas it offers to visitors from outside the Schengen Area? I’m not sure how else they can stem the flow. It’s a tough one.
It's a lot like climate change in that individuals can't make a difference in the changes they make no matter how good their intentions. Ultimately, it takes actions by local, federal, and international bodies to change anything. Which is why Brent and I write that we think the absolute best thing that could happen is putting an end to the insanely cheap airfares that in no way reflect the true cost of flying and drive overtourism into hyperdrive.
Michael, I have to disagree. Individuals can make a collective difference with the everyday choices we make. The elephant in the room here is the WAY in which most tourists travel. Air travel is an incredibly damaging, dirty, but incredibly fast way to travel. Why are we in such a damn hurry as a species? The consumption of fossil fuels is the existential crisis we all face, especially hard, and first hit are the island nations of the world. Sailing ships need to be promoted as sustainable travel! Cross country train travel has to be made much easier here in the States. It may take longer to get to your destination, but shouldn’t the journey be as important as the destination! My family and I took the Amtrak from Boston to California 12 years ago. The four day trip was expensive, fraught with delays, (as the passenger trains always had to yield to the freight traffic using the same
rails), but the experience was extremely memorable! I have very fond memories of the sights, sounds, and people I met on those four days.
To clarify my point a bit, yes, if every individual chose to either pay the full price of their airline tickets or to choose a different way of traveling, they could have an impact.
That will never happen no matter how much you or I think it shoul. Everyone has too many reasons -- not enough time to take a longer trip; not enough money to buy the more expensive ticket -- to never pick the better environmental option.
That's why it is up to government policies to make these changes for us. Low-cost carriers should be taxed out of existence, or at least charge the real cost of their product. Yes, train travel should be better in America. But that's a government policy. I can't demand a non-existent train ticket, after all.
Thanks for the clarification, Michael. I’m not trying to be too cynical, but we have to make our voices louder than the airline lobby to make this change happen. Governments only react to the largest squeaky wheels. The solution you elude to would be a carbon tax. Which is painfully, slowly, growing in popularity. Please check out and promote the work of the CCL, or citizens climate lobby! Keep up your thoughtful writing!
Thank you. Yes, I agree -- always up to a point, and at a certain pace of change. And I agree that only governments can ultimately fix these larger issues.
Yes, precisely. If my editors are any indication, there's a new genre of travel story emerging that redirects readers from overtouristed places to lesser known ones— a sort of 'go here, not there'—that just displaces the problem rather than tackling it head on. And head on means lobbying governments to limit the number of licenses to cruise ships; to regulate AirBnB so that all the apartments don't get bought up to rent to tourists; to bring the price of a plane ticket into closer alignment with its true costs rather than, say, the cost of a few beers with friends.
Super interesting - I grew up in a very touristy town (Flagstaff, AZ - one of the gateways to the Grand Canyon), and have worked as a guide for 15+ years. I think so much depends on how the local economy and regulations respond to it - and also, on not being an asshole!
Great question. The fact that you dare to ask it and write about it probably helps guide your behaviour as you move from place to place and share your experiences with the world.
Thank you so much for this great article. As an avid traveler, it’s given me a lot to think about. We recently went to Sri Lanka, hoping to avoid some of the overtourism of other countries. It was more crowded than I expected but tourism was clearly benefiting them too. As U.S. citizens, the Sri Lankans kept saying to us, “Tell people from your country to come visit us!”
With eight billion people in the world, I'm not sure anyone is ever going to be able to avoid crowds again. But I'm delighted to hear they want visitors there!
I love reading about and discussing this topic because I think it’s important. Also so nuanced as you shared in this piece… there is so much good and bad at the same time. Asking locals while traveling about their thoughts and opinions is one of the best ways we can all be apart of solutions.
Living in a tourist town (and dreading the already-starting summer season), I see many of the downsides firsthand, especially when it comes to housing prices and the impact of vacation rentals. I'm not in general a huge fan of tourism partly for that reason. But travel writing isn't, I think, much of a weighty factor, and I AM a huge fan of children having plenty to eat!
Serious question: what does "not in general a huge fan of tourism" mean in the specific? You don't think people should travel far from where they live? Or only travel a limited amount during their lives? What does that world look like?
That gets into the "tourism vs. travel" tangle. I'm thinking the stereotypical tourism that involves, say, huge hotels (often built without locals' desire or consent) and little involvement or engagement with the local community. I'm not thinking about it in a nuanced way, just the general style of tourism that tends to extract a lot from a local economy and do little to engage the visitor with the wider world. (Also I just personally hate beach vacations! Having been on all of 2.)
Alan Weisman, who wrote "The World Without Us," wrote a little-known memoir in the early 1990s called I think "Echo in My Blood" or something that touched on this subject. It was partly a memoir of his family, but also reports on communities in different parts of the world who felt like they'd become exiles or foreigners in their own homes because of an influx of a certain type of tourism and vacation housing.
I did once read that tourism (not, again, travel in general) only became a thing after the advent of the theft of the commons in England, because people were increasingly cut off from having a relationship with the land they lived on or near, but I've only read it in one place and haven't looked into that history.
Ah, yes, that distinction makes sense. Travel vs tourism makes me think of something I said in another comment -- that counting and/or expecting individuals to make the "better" choice is highly unlikely to work for a variety of reasons. People aren't that altruistic/educated/insert reason to spend a lot of time researching issues.
Sometimes they're too busy raising kids/working/taking care of parents to research how to travel rather than just go to a hotel and have a good affordable time.
That's where governments need to step in and pass regulations.
As to why people started becoming tourists, I think it happened long after the commons issue. I think well into the 19th and 20th centuries travel remained the province of the wealthy who had the money and the leisure time to travel. It wasn't until a sizable middle class developed that folks could afford to be tourists.
I don't know what the answer is, but I can relate that we started traveling full-time in September, and have not found tourist crowds to be overwhelming in any place we have visited so far. London, Tunisia, Palermo, Siracusa(Ortigia), Rome, Siena, Venice, Verona, Bangkok, and now Chiang Mai. I attribute a lot of that to avoiding summer travel to these places. We discovered that, as fall and winter advanced in our 3 months in Italy, it was just as enjoyable to put on a coat, hat and gloves, and walk right in to the major historical areas and sights without any lines or crowds. That is my primary suggestion for anyone wanting to avoid crowds. We were so happily surprised that, in late November, Rome opened its arms to us and we faced none of the hassles so much written about for the past couple of years. We have used a combination of hotels and Airbnb apartments, and I would be sad to lose the opportunity to book an apartment of our own for stays of two weeks, a month, or longer. I do recognize the housing market distortion that it can cause for an overwhelming number of residences to be converted to solely tourist use, and sympathize with cities trying to strike a balance. We're about to start booking itineraries and accommodations in southern Europe for late spring/early summer, and am fearing we might start to see fewer options and higher prices! But, let's see. Also, maybe because of our timing, we have not seen hordes of Americans, but a more international mix of visitors.
We swear by shoulder season travel, but these last few years, we haven't been so lucky! I hope we've just been UNlucky!
I did have someone say to me: the more housing they build for tourists, the more that's also available in the shoulder and off seasons -- and the more of it there is, the cheaper it can be. I thought that was a good point!
And I am also learning from your example, to be fearless in staying in quieter but convenient neighborhoods, learn to take public transportation, and shop locally. 🙂
We've been retired nomads since 2016. We choose to spend our time in smaller cities/towns. Typically a 3 month stay. Occasionally 6 months or a year. Since we have already visited the popular iconic cities when we were younger, this strategy works well for us.
We spent 7 weeks in Milan, Rome, Sorrento and Florence 2023 Aug, Sept and didn't have a crowd problem. Lots of tourists there, US and others. But we saw what we needed. Gets quiet once the cruisers and tour groups leave. Yes prices up and good food at reasonable prices hard to find in the tourist centers. We had excellent (better) pastas in Malta!
I think give it a few years and the US boomer travels will peter out. ????
Thank you for your posts- enjoy them . Guess I gotta become a member 😀
Yeah, the Boomers will peter out, but the Chinese are traveling in ever larger numbers and as other countries move into the middle class, those folks will want to travel.
My husband and I are going to Playa Venao in (fairly) remote Panama for 2 months this winter. We much prefer quiet and unknown/unpopular places. Great article!
This is a conundrum I myself couldn't solve yet. I wrote a piece contemplating my love for traveling and all the positive things that come with it vs. all the bad, I still cannot in my conscience ask people not to travel because travel is just so good to the soul, and onwards to humanity (I am not talking about tourist who come, take pictures and go here). I see how we should somehow curb over tourism, but I am not sure if increasing the price of traveling is a wholly good thing, wouldn't this return to reserve this activity only for the rich and the elites?
Great points. People in poorer areas would (often) love an upgrade to their situation but to do that need to engage with the wider world. Or, basically lose some of their unique traditions in the process. I still debate this in myself: I live in Kyoto, Japan. I can’t walk around the city without running into hoards of tourists. Most have manners, some large groups do not. I know a lot of Japanese people that hate the situation but also know that tourism is helping the economy. No easy answers.
If you don’t write about it, someone else will. We each play a part in the global community. Your writing can bring future tourists with compassionate ethics.
Over tourism is a major issue today and I completely agree . But I don’t think it’s the travel writers or bloggers who have led to this . It’s the massive increase of influencers , most of them not even travellers or know anything about a destination but just want to get followers . And sadly tourists follow them for advise
It's a complicated question with a lot of different parts. I think some travel writers/bloggers are also influencers. And as we note in the article, dirt cheap airfares are a HUGE part of the problem.
Whatever the exact proportion of blame we just want to make sure we think about the issue and act responsibly.
I agree.. all of us play a role in this in a way
MAJOR issue. We all need to be much more thoughtful, I think. Thanks!
Brent and Michael, as a travel writer myself, and also a citizen over the years of so many places that could be called 'over-touristy'—San Francisco (before Covid...), Maui, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Mexico Riviera Maya, I hear you. I recall in one of Anthony Bourdain's (RIP) later Japanese segments, Tokyo I think, where he said he was going to one of his fave restaurants but was NOT telling the name b/c he was persona non grata at the last sushi bar he did that about, it makes you wonder: Is there a line to be crossed or uncrossable? I believe writing responsibly, which this post so elegantly does, is the key. Rather than Top 7, or Best of 10 restaurants in ... , you write about places you have most certainly experienced more than that the experience of that old old movie w/ Suzanne Pleshette-If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium. I too, before writing about places, have lived there a long time which makes one reflect on, well, everything. I especially noticed how impactful tourism is though mostly on Maui and in Mexico. In the Riv-Maya, year by year locals are more being added to tour-travel work-related jobs. Mostly that's bc, more or less what you mention re the rice noodle man, that the children of those early outliers realize there's a good income in tourism, without selling out. With the Yucatán early on many locals did not even speak Spanish, but that learning curve is now long gone. And the tourists, also early on, embraced volunteer-tourism and made a dent in things like language classes, small libraries, pet rescue, farm to table, etc. That's the type of stuff I like to write about and also the history (as do you) culture of a region. When you're hunkered down some place for a time and you're a writer, you know how the old mind gets working, haha. Anyway, write on! Your posts are so excellent and I look forward to them. Thanks for your thoughtfulness and awareness in an imminent issue we all, as voyagers-writers, must face.
Fascinating. It's very very interesting to see it happen, isn't it? One thing I didn't expect, though, is that we've now seen things BEFORE tourism, and it's not the paradise that some pretend it is. Tourism is really, really not perfect, but it can be improvement to what was -- assuming local management and regulation. Then again, any time there is rapid change, it can be discombobulating.
Thank you very much for the kind words! I'll check you out too.
Thanks, and yes. It is interesting, especially to have seen places before the boom(s). And yes, hoped-for tourism is not the do all, end all and for some, it's not the panacea hoped for. That's why Venice, Barcelona and other prized destinations are finally trying to shift things a bit. Don’t know if you’ve been to Cancun or Playa del Carmen but our first trip there, the main and only Hwy 307 that stretches down to Belize border, roughly 200+ km, was 2 lane blacktop with chasms on side that would gobble a car!! Times change!
Haven't been and based on what I've read have no intention of getting anywhere near either of them...
Excellent article on a tough topic, Brent. I think the reality is tourism is beneficial up to a point, as you’ve well described, but once the numbers reach a tipping point it becomes a problem for the local community, infrastructure, and begins to ruin the experience for the tourists themselves. Italy as a whole is so far beyond that point that something has to be done pretty soon, or they might start seeing an ugly backlash. However, I can’t see how any action by individuals—whether travel writers, tourists, or travel companies—can have the coordination necessary to do anything substantial about the problem. Perhaps an analogy would be stopping using plastic straws when coal is still being burnt in power plants? Regulation has to come from governments in the end, so to that end, it’s not unethical to write about a place that hasn’t been ruined by over-tourism yet, but perhaps we could lobby or petition for some effective policies instead? I know Venice are trialing charging day trippers this summer, which might help a tad. Perhaps Italy might have to start limiting the number of tourist visas it offers to visitors from outside the Schengen Area? I’m not sure how else they can stem the flow. It’s a tough one.
It's a lot like climate change in that individuals can't make a difference in the changes they make no matter how good their intentions. Ultimately, it takes actions by local, federal, and international bodies to change anything. Which is why Brent and I write that we think the absolute best thing that could happen is putting an end to the insanely cheap airfares that in no way reflect the true cost of flying and drive overtourism into hyperdrive.
Michael, I have to disagree. Individuals can make a collective difference with the everyday choices we make. The elephant in the room here is the WAY in which most tourists travel. Air travel is an incredibly damaging, dirty, but incredibly fast way to travel. Why are we in such a damn hurry as a species? The consumption of fossil fuels is the existential crisis we all face, especially hard, and first hit are the island nations of the world. Sailing ships need to be promoted as sustainable travel! Cross country train travel has to be made much easier here in the States. It may take longer to get to your destination, but shouldn’t the journey be as important as the destination! My family and I took the Amtrak from Boston to California 12 years ago. The four day trip was expensive, fraught with delays, (as the passenger trains always had to yield to the freight traffic using the same
rails), but the experience was extremely memorable! I have very fond memories of the sights, sounds, and people I met on those four days.
To clarify my point a bit, yes, if every individual chose to either pay the full price of their airline tickets or to choose a different way of traveling, they could have an impact.
That will never happen no matter how much you or I think it shoul. Everyone has too many reasons -- not enough time to take a longer trip; not enough money to buy the more expensive ticket -- to never pick the better environmental option.
That's why it is up to government policies to make these changes for us. Low-cost carriers should be taxed out of existence, or at least charge the real cost of their product. Yes, train travel should be better in America. But that's a government policy. I can't demand a non-existent train ticket, after all.
Thanks for the clarification, Michael. I’m not trying to be too cynical, but we have to make our voices louder than the airline lobby to make this change happen. Governments only react to the largest squeaky wheels. The solution you elude to would be a carbon tax. Which is painfully, slowly, growing in popularity. Please check out and promote the work of the CCL, or citizens climate lobby! Keep up your thoughtful writing!
Thanks, Shawn. Both for reading and for your thoughtful comments.
Thank you. Yes, I agree -- always up to a point, and at a certain pace of change. And I agree that only governments can ultimately fix these larger issues.
Yes, precisely. If my editors are any indication, there's a new genre of travel story emerging that redirects readers from overtouristed places to lesser known ones— a sort of 'go here, not there'—that just displaces the problem rather than tackling it head on. And head on means lobbying governments to limit the number of licenses to cruise ships; to regulate AirBnB so that all the apartments don't get bought up to rent to tourists; to bring the price of a plane ticket into closer alignment with its true costs rather than, say, the cost of a few beers with friends.
Super interesting - I grew up in a very touristy town (Flagstaff, AZ - one of the gateways to the Grand Canyon), and have worked as a guide for 15+ years. I think so much depends on how the local economy and regulations respond to it - and also, on not being an asshole!
100% about not being an ahole!
Oh, I'm sure you've seen changes!
Great question. The fact that you dare to ask it and write about it probably helps guide your behaviour as you move from place to place and share your experiences with the world.
Thank you. We talk about it a lot.
I'd like to think that's the case!
Thank you so much for this great article. As an avid traveler, it’s given me a lot to think about. We recently went to Sri Lanka, hoping to avoid some of the overtourism of other countries. It was more crowded than I expected but tourism was clearly benefiting them too. As U.S. citizens, the Sri Lankans kept saying to us, “Tell people from your country to come visit us!”
With eight billion people in the world, I'm not sure anyone is ever going to be able to avoid crowds again. But I'm delighted to hear they want visitors there!
We've had this experience too -- we expect some place to be "off the beaten path," and maybe it was 20 or even 5 years ago. But now it's not...
I do like it when locals when tourists to come, I guess.
I love reading about and discussing this topic because I think it’s important. Also so nuanced as you shared in this piece… there is so much good and bad at the same time. Asking locals while traveling about their thoughts and opinions is one of the best ways we can all be apart of solutions.
Thank you Sarah. I see you write about similar issues. Very very much agree that conversations with locals is key! They're happy to share.
Living in a tourist town (and dreading the already-starting summer season), I see many of the downsides firsthand, especially when it comes to housing prices and the impact of vacation rentals. I'm not in general a huge fan of tourism partly for that reason. But travel writing isn't, I think, much of a weighty factor, and I AM a huge fan of children having plenty to eat!
Haha good to know you're not pro-children-starving. hehehe
Serious question: what does "not in general a huge fan of tourism" mean in the specific? You don't think people should travel far from where they live? Or only travel a limited amount during their lives? What does that world look like?
That gets into the "tourism vs. travel" tangle. I'm thinking the stereotypical tourism that involves, say, huge hotels (often built without locals' desire or consent) and little involvement or engagement with the local community. I'm not thinking about it in a nuanced way, just the general style of tourism that tends to extract a lot from a local economy and do little to engage the visitor with the wider world. (Also I just personally hate beach vacations! Having been on all of 2.)
Alan Weisman, who wrote "The World Without Us," wrote a little-known memoir in the early 1990s called I think "Echo in My Blood" or something that touched on this subject. It was partly a memoir of his family, but also reports on communities in different parts of the world who felt like they'd become exiles or foreigners in their own homes because of an influx of a certain type of tourism and vacation housing.
I did once read that tourism (not, again, travel in general) only became a thing after the advent of the theft of the commons in England, because people were increasingly cut off from having a relationship with the land they lived on or near, but I've only read it in one place and haven't looked into that history.
Ah, yes, that distinction makes sense. Travel vs tourism makes me think of something I said in another comment -- that counting and/or expecting individuals to make the "better" choice is highly unlikely to work for a variety of reasons. People aren't that altruistic/educated/insert reason to spend a lot of time researching issues.
Sometimes they're too busy raising kids/working/taking care of parents to research how to travel rather than just go to a hotel and have a good affordable time.
That's where governments need to step in and pass regulations.
As to why people started becoming tourists, I think it happened long after the commons issue. I think well into the 19th and 20th centuries travel remained the province of the wealthy who had the money and the leisure time to travel. It wasn't until a sizable middle class developed that folks could afford to be tourists.
I don't know what the answer is, but I can relate that we started traveling full-time in September, and have not found tourist crowds to be overwhelming in any place we have visited so far. London, Tunisia, Palermo, Siracusa(Ortigia), Rome, Siena, Venice, Verona, Bangkok, and now Chiang Mai. I attribute a lot of that to avoiding summer travel to these places. We discovered that, as fall and winter advanced in our 3 months in Italy, it was just as enjoyable to put on a coat, hat and gloves, and walk right in to the major historical areas and sights without any lines or crowds. That is my primary suggestion for anyone wanting to avoid crowds. We were so happily surprised that, in late November, Rome opened its arms to us and we faced none of the hassles so much written about for the past couple of years. We have used a combination of hotels and Airbnb apartments, and I would be sad to lose the opportunity to book an apartment of our own for stays of two weeks, a month, or longer. I do recognize the housing market distortion that it can cause for an overwhelming number of residences to be converted to solely tourist use, and sympathize with cities trying to strike a balance. We're about to start booking itineraries and accommodations in southern Europe for late spring/early summer, and am fearing we might start to see fewer options and higher prices! But, let's see. Also, maybe because of our timing, we have not seen hordes of Americans, but a more international mix of visitors.
We swear by shoulder season travel, but these last few years, we haven't been so lucky! I hope we've just been UNlucky!
I did have someone say to me: the more housing they build for tourists, the more that's also available in the shoulder and off seasons -- and the more of it there is, the cheaper it can be. I thought that was a good point!
Sounds like you've stumbled upon the secret sauce we also like to use!
And I am also learning from your example, to be fearless in staying in quieter but convenient neighborhoods, learn to take public transportation, and shop locally. 🙂
That’s fantastic. And I’ve no doubt you’ll discover things we haven’t even thought of!
We've been retired nomads since 2016. We choose to spend our time in smaller cities/towns. Typically a 3 month stay. Occasionally 6 months or a year. Since we have already visited the popular iconic cities when we were younger, this strategy works well for us.
That's part of the strategy we use as well.
We spent 7 weeks in Milan, Rome, Sorrento and Florence 2023 Aug, Sept and didn't have a crowd problem. Lots of tourists there, US and others. But we saw what we needed. Gets quiet once the cruisers and tour groups leave. Yes prices up and good food at reasonable prices hard to find in the tourist centers. We had excellent (better) pastas in Malta!
I think give it a few years and the US boomer travels will peter out. ????
Thank you for your posts- enjoy them . Guess I gotta become a member 😀
Yeah, the Boomers will peter out, but the Chinese are traveling in ever larger numbers and as other countries move into the middle class, those folks will want to travel.
Glad you're enjoying and thanks for coming along!
My husband and I are going to Playa Venao in (fairly) remote Panama for 2 months this winter. We much prefer quiet and unknown/unpopular places. Great article!
Enjoy!
Thank you. Have a great time!
On the whole I believe it is a good thing as you described. You make a sound argument for tourism and the growth (money) it can bring to a community.
🙂🙂🙂
This is a conundrum I myself couldn't solve yet. I wrote a piece contemplating my love for traveling and all the positive things that come with it vs. all the bad, I still cannot in my conscience ask people not to travel because travel is just so good to the soul, and onwards to humanity (I am not talking about tourist who come, take pictures and go here). I see how we should somehow curb over tourism, but I am not sure if increasing the price of traveling is a wholly good thing, wouldn't this return to reserve this activity only for the rich and the elites?
Very much agree. I hate the idea that only elites get to travel.
To hit the nail on the head about making travel more expensive. Then it's just for the more well off and that's got problems too!
Great points. People in poorer areas would (often) love an upgrade to their situation but to do that need to engage with the wider world. Or, basically lose some of their unique traditions in the process. I still debate this in myself: I live in Kyoto, Japan. I can’t walk around the city without running into hoards of tourists. Most have manners, some large groups do not. I know a lot of Japanese people that hate the situation but also know that tourism is helping the economy. No easy answers.
Nope, no easy answers.
That's the crux of it.
If you don’t write about it, someone else will. We each play a part in the global community. Your writing can bring future tourists with compassionate ethics.
Love that approach!