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The backlash against overtourism

economist.com

21–30 of 311 posts

Re: The backlash against overtourism

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This view of things doesnt take into account that an absurdly higher number of people can travel and see multiple countries in their life, which was impossible 50 years ago. It is absolutely possible for every earth citizen to become a tourist, there is no economic impediment to do it.

I believe that I covered this in my comment. > We either eliminate these experiences, accept economic inequality, or watch the experiences be eliminated via attrition (e.g. cars devolving into gridlock, tourism devolving into queues and displacement, ...). Specifically, the last part. If everyone is a tourist, what it means to be a tourist is very, very different. Consider: We strictly have enough jet fuel and alumin…

[deleted]

Re: The backlash against overtourism

#22
Meh. I grew up somewhere tourism was the biggest local industry. I will never be able to go on a "normal vacation" without feeling dirty because I know how the sausage is made.

Tourism sucks and the suck percolates through the entire local economy and everybody who has to participate in it (i.e. everyone who lives there). Even if you don't sell grossly overpriced goods or services to the tourists you make your living off of those that do. The non-repetitive nature of transactions means shady people get rewarded shady business practices and everyone develops this world view in which everyone else is a lying scumbag who will screw you for a quick gain until proven otherwise. Of course many people bury their head in the sand from a young age and convince themselves that wherever they live really is special (protip: it's really not). Drugs are rampant in whatever the off season is. People get all bent out of shape over "branding" issues (e.g. the color you paint your house, what kind of business you run, etc, etc) because your local "brand" is what attracts tourists and money. I could go on and on and on about specific downsides to having an economy dependent on tourism.

By trying to curtail tourism I think these cities are doing the right thing in the long term even if they could make a few dollars in the short term by selling out. This isn't a pro business/anti-business issue. It's a "what kind of business are we ok with" issue. Tourism unconstrained poisons local society the way a chemical plant will poison local waterways if left unchecked.

Also, FWIW all the negative predictions about cost of living in this article are correct in my observation.

Re: The backlash against overtourism

#23
post #3

“To be a mass tourist, for me, is to become a pure late-date American: alien, ignorant, greedy for something you cannot ever have, disappointed in a way you can never admit. It is to spoil, by way of sheer ontology, the very unspoiledness you are there to experience, It is to impose yourself on places that in all non-economic ways would be better, realer, without you. It is, in lines and gridlock and transaction afte…

Is this from his essay on the cruise ship?

Re: The backlash against overtourism

#24
post #14

I found the quote “tourists go home, refugees welcome” quite funny. So what their basically saying is they would rather kick out tourists that bring in and spend quite a lot of money effectively boosting the economy in favour of some refugees the government will have to spend a large amount of money on... and you wonder why the contry's economy is in such a bad shape when the citizens advocate shooting themselves in…

What is good for the economy (short term) and what is good for people (long term) are frequently not the same things.

As far as I'm aware tourism is not a short term thing there will always be tourists coming and leaving this is an constant revenue steam in its own right.

So I don't get what you mean.

Re: The backlash against overtourism

#25

Mass tourism is being treated as unique when really, we're discovering that everyone cannot have a "good" standard of living. We can't all go travelling, we won't fit in the same place and we'll boil the earth doing so. We can't all have a car because we'll boil the earth. If we develop EV's and don't boil the earth, they won't all fit downtown. We can't all live in the country, that's not sustainable either. We can'…

This is reductio ad absurdum, isn't it?

You could implement a fair system giving everyone the equal opportunity to access (e.g. a tourist destination), even if not everyone gains access (via some sort of lottery).

There's also enough places and opportunities on the planet that not everyone will want to do everything, certainly not all at once. So you could implement cap and trade.

Re: The backlash against overtourism

#26
post #3

“To be a mass tourist, for me, is to become a pure late-date American: alien, ignorant, greedy for something you cannot ever have, disappointed in a way you can never admit. It is to spoil, by way of sheer ontology, the very unspoiledness you are there to experience, It is to impose yourself on places that in all non-economic ways would be better, realer, without you. It is, in lines and gridlock and transaction afte…

And yet the irony is that the main reason I and many people travel is to break out of that.

Re: The backlash against overtourism

#27
post #14

I found the quote “tourists go home, refugees welcome” quite funny. So what their basically saying is they would rather kick out tourists that bring in and spend quite a lot of money effectively boosting the economy in favour of some refugees the government will have to spend a large amount of money on... and you wonder why the contry's economy is in such a bad shape when the citizens advocate shooting themselves in…

So... it's not all about money. You can refuse to accept money from sources which are really not all that cracked up (because the margins in tourism are not great actually) and accept people for humanitarian reasons.

If you're not 14 or completely driven by greed you can understand the reasoning behind this.

Re: The backlash against overtourism

#28
post #14

I found the quote “tourists go home, refugees welcome” quite funny. So what their basically saying is they would rather kick out tourists that bring in and spend quite a lot of money effectively boosting the economy in favour of some refugees the government will have to spend a large amount of money on... and you wonder why the contry's economy is in such a bad shape when the citizens advocate shooting themselves in…

> in favour of some refugees the government will have to spend a large amount of money on

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05507-0

Stop repeating this lie.

Re: The backlash against overtourism

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that I covered this in my comment. > We either eliminate these experiences, accept economic inequality, or watch the experiences be eliminated via attrition (e.g. cars devolving into gridlock, tourism devolving into queues and displacement, ...). Specifically, the last part. If everyone is a tourist, what it means to be a tourist is very, very different. Consider: We strictly have enough jet fuel and alumin…

You could take another method of transport instead of a plane. Bus, train, bike, boat

Pretty much none of those things will make it reasonable for someone from, say, Central African Republic to visit Venice.

Re: The backlash against overtourism

#30
post #14

I found the quote “tourists go home, refugees welcome” quite funny. So what their basically saying is they would rather kick out tourists that bring in and spend quite a lot of money effectively boosting the economy in favour of some refugees the government will have to spend a large amount of money on... and you wonder why the contry's economy is in such a bad shape when the citizens advocate shooting themselves in…

Maybe the citizens find that, if they have to put up with someone, they prefer to put up with people escaping dire living conditions (that will, statistically, go on to strengthen their economy in the long term). What does that tell you about what citizens think of tourists?

I can tell you that loud AirBnB hosts or the foreigners using my country as a landfill for their money, pricing people out of the inner cities, are not welcome.

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