Can there be too much of a good thing? Some popular tourist destinations think so, as they try to manage “over-tourism”
Cities like Barcelona, Venice and Amsterdam get a lot of tourists—but that sometimes has a negative effect on the people who live there. What’s causing this problem and what can be done about it?
Welcome in to Plain English, Thursday edition, for November 1, 2018. I’m Jeff, JR is the producer, and you are listening to a podcast for learning English. That’s because we go nice and slow here so you can understand every word we say. And like always check out the transcript of the program—word for word transcript—at PlainEnglish.com/99, since this is episode number 99.
Uh, listen, I promised that today we would talk about the results of the Brazilian presidential election, which took place last Sunday. But unfortunately I got called away on a work trip and so I had to write and record this episode before the election took place. So we are going to talk about the Brazilian elections next time, on Monday, and today we’ll talk about over-tourism, which I was going to do on Monday. Sorry about that, but duty calls, you know?
Popular destinations try to contain over-tourism
Most places around the world would love more tourists to visit, but some of the world’s top travel destinations are actually grappling with what’s called over-tourism—the heavy burden that a large number of visitors places on a local population. Cities like Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Venice are taking steps to control the flow of tourists, while more natural destinations like Machuu Picchu and Iceland’s southern coast are struggling to reduce the environmental impact of so many tourists.
Let’s start with the cities. Many popular European cities are facing a rapid rise in the number of tourists, which is making things uncomfortable for the people who actually, you know, live in those cities. The worries come in a few categories. First, that so many tourists put a burden on the local infrastructure. Their tour buses block traffic, they crowd into buses and trains, and pack into the most popular museums. Many European cities are reluctant to expand or build new infrastructure in their historic city centers, so the charming narrow alleyways and cobblestone roads now have to accommodate an ever-rising number of people. Another worry is that tourists behave badly. Amsterdam has to deal with the aftereffects of so many tourists consuming legal cannabis and drinking too much.
But probably the most sensitive effect of over-tourism in cities is the cost of living. For a while, the number of tourists in a city would have little effect on an average person’s pocketbook—maybe the restaurants in the most heavily-trafficked area would be more expensive than normal, but it would be easy to avoid those places. However, we now live in the age of Airbnb, the service that allows homeowners and apartment-owners to rent out their places to tourists, rather than to long-term tenants. Spain has felt this acutely in its two largest cities: there are so many Airbnb rentals in Madrid and Barcelona that locals complain of being priced out of the market. That’s because apartment owners find it more lucrative to rent to tourists, so the number of apartments available for locals falls—and with the reduction in supply comes an increase in price.
What can be done about this? In Venice, they have a novel approach. They constructed a huge gate around the center of the city and if it gets too crowded, they just shut the gate, blocking tourists from coming in, but letting residents pass. That doesn’t seem like a friendly approach, but it works for them. In Madrid, they are putting limits on Airbnb usage. Now, you can’t rent out an apartment for more than 90 days in a year, and you can’t dedicate a whole apartment block just for short-term rentals. Amsterdam imposes a higher tax on hotel stays in the center of the city than in the outskirts. Edinburgh, Scotland, is considering an additional tourist tax, and using the proceeds to pay for services like trash collection and infrastructure repairs. Tourism boards and cities can also use a little public relations to their advantage, encouraging people to visit on the off-season, or promoting some of their secondary attractions.
More natural destinations face their own concerns. The famous Inca ruins of Machuu Pichuu in Peru are being overrun by tourists; the trails that take tourists to the isolated ruins are over capacity since more people want to go than the trails can reasonably accommodate. Pangong Lake in India was made famous by a Bollywood film called “3 Idiots”—and now tons of tourists are flocking to this pristine location in the Himalayas and leaving their trash and pollution behind. Iceland has seen its tourism grow 25 percent every year for the last several years, which has been great for the economy, but has also brought some environmental wear and tear.
The tricky part is that while it’s definitely good for the world to have more tourism, a lot of tourists all want to see the same places. That’s where social media comes in: there are several famous ruins in Peru, not to mention everything else you can do in that country, but everyone wants to go to Machuu Pichuu. Europe is a treasure trove of beautiful paintings, but everyone wants their selfie with the Mona Lisa.
It’s easy to lament the increase in tourists and the negative impact they sometimes have, but let’s keep things in perspective. Tourism is great for the world economy. It employs about 5 percent of the world’s labor force, and that part of the world economy is growing quickly. When people can travel to see different cultures, they learn more about themselves and the world, which is overall a great thing. And by the way, you might be bothered by tourists in your own backyard, but chances are you’re a tourist yourself when you visit other places. In fact, most cities and states are clamoring for more tourists: they want the additional visitors and the money they bring to the local economy. I think what these cities have to do is take some of that inflow of money from tourism and re-invest some of it in expanding capacity—maybe extending some museum hours, adding public transportation, or improving access to some lesser-known attractions.
It’s funny, an article I was reading to get ready for this episode said that all visitors to Amsterdam just want to visit the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank house—and I thought, actually those are the top two things I would want to see in Amsterdam someday.
There are tons of great new words in this episode. In fact, you might say this episode is a treasure trove of new words and expressions—expressions like “treasure trove,” in fact, which appeared earlier. So this is a great time to check out the interactive transcripts on the web site, if you have not done so. We have translations of all these difficult words, like “lament” and “clamoring for” and “flocking” all on the web site. The translations are from English to Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, French, and Japanese. And a big thanks as we approach our hundredth episode to all our translators—Paola, Mattia, Tao, Meg, and of course JR who does the Spanish translations. So check those out at PlainEnglish.com/99.
I heard from a lot of you on Facebook last week, so I’d like to acknowledge just a few people who wrote to me. First of all, Manuel moved from Madrid to Texas—two very, very different places, and as he’s getting used to his new life in the state of big wide-open spaces, he listens to Plain English as he goes for a walk around his neighborhood. He’s also in ESL classes, which is great. So Manuel, welcome to the United States, and I’m glad to have you with us here every Monday and Thursday. I also want to say hi to Addy for recommending us on Facebook, and Jean from the Philippines who also recommended us.
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