Articles tagged “overtourism”

The world’s three largest cruise lines are desperate to stop their $60 billion financial bleed. Destinations have experienced life without megaships for more than year. Is this the end of mass cruising as we knew it or can cruise lines find a place in a more balanced and diversified tourism economy?

If tourists from the United States are unofficial ambassadors to the world, then the worst among them are ensuring that local residents will resent them and more destinations will erect barriers to entry.

Covid's multi-year blow has pushed the world's major cruise lines into efficiency overdrive – pruning ships, reducing ports of call, and expanding offshore islands to boost onboard revenue. But mounting global environmental pushback stifles the growth of mass cruise tourism.

In a major departure from other tourism-dependent destinations, more than 60 percent of Hawaiian residents indicated they don't want visitors back on their islands. Covid worries? Yes. But the bigger fear is a return to overtourism. Can reforms happen without crushing the economy?

Uncontrollable crowds and travel-induced community disruption happen in even less-visited tourist destinations, says a leading tour operator. His message: Don't waste an opportunity like the pandemic. Please don't rebuild to just the way things were at the end of 2019.

With international travel largely shuttered and an exodus from cities of remote workers seeking more bucolic settings, hordes of people are flocking to federal lands in the American West. But how to balance the need for tourist dollars with protecting fragile ecosystems and sacred sites remains a challenge.

The topline takeaway: A lot of citizen-level education is still needed on benefits of tourism to local and regional economies, in an age of NIMBYism and hyper-polarization.

In an unprecedented citizen-led push against mass cruise tourism during a time of undertourism, Key West voters boldly chose to protect the environment and public health. It’s sparked hope for change across similarly challenged port communities, but at a time when destinations are desperate for tourism. What's for sure: the “reset” conversation is no longer just talk.

From overtourism to a stark absence of tourists, tourism dynamics have rocked Venice and its citizens. The new flood barrier should at least provide some assurance for awhile that at least the tides won't sink the city's prospects.

This was supposed to be the year when Japan's dedicated tourism push came to fruition with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. But even with the postponement — and all the uncertainty — of the Games until 2021, the tourism groundwork laid by Japan is still likely to bear fruit.