Published on : Tuesday, March 13, 2018
In 2017, we witnessed many cities all over Europe rising up against the countless arrival of tourists from Dubrovnik culling cruise ships to Amsterdam prohibiting new hotels souvenir shops, the issue has undoubtedly have created its impact on the industry.
Overtourism doesn’t appear to be fading away that soon. It is predicted to become worse in the coming days if the industry fail to come up with the latest innovative and decisive actions quickly.
For a while now, Trailblazers Intrepid Travel have been onto overtourism. So we had a talk with James Thornton, their CEO, to find out the ways to oppose the threat of over tourism.
“It’s important to ensure that the growth in travel is sustainable,” said Thornton.
“There are certain places in the world where tourism is causing a detrimental impact in cities like Dubrovnik or Barcelona, where you’ve got big cruise ships turning up and people going through a city and not spending any money and then getting out again”
Thornton thinks that the main point to stopping tourism from creating a harmful impact on local communities is to offer unique experiences that engage local economy.
“Countries have so many fantastic places to go and visit, I was recently lucky enough to travel through South America and you find that sometimes, the iconic tourist sites aren’t the best places to visit,” he said.
“The best places are often off the beaten track, so in a place like Nicuragua you’ve got Granada, the cultural centre, then half an hour down the road there are fantastic volcanos on tempe island where you can get out, really meet the local communities and stay in some very local accommodations have some very fantastic local experiences.”