Travel Industry Leaders Say Overtourism Caused by Lack of Planning
Photo Credit: Travel industry leaders feel sustainable sustainable practices still have a long way to go at their companies. Pictured is Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, speaking about the topic at the World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit in Bangkok on April 27, 2017. Flickr / World Travel & Tourism Council
Skift Take
In many destinations, tourism profits are "found" money with no strings attached. That's great for short-term gains, and so very terrible for long-term thinking.
With hype for the United Nation's international year of sustainable tourism for development in 2017 encouraging conversations with major travel brands, many leaders within the travel industry feel they're still not doing enough to address issues of overtourism and unsustainable impacts of travel around the world.
Attendees of the World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit in Bangkok this week were asked, "How well does the travel and tourism sector actively tackle the issues of mass tourism and its impact?"
The result: more than 50 percent of respondents polled during a Summit session indicated that the industry "isn't doing very well" in addressing this issue.
"Badly" garnered the second highest percentage of votes as many respondents were C-suite executives and key decision makers of some of the world's largest and most influential travel companies.
Lack of planning by travel brands and government officials has been the biggest misstep in why sustainability and over
