Is overtourism impacting our favourite destinations?
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Overtourism can be a big dream killer, especially if you’ve been saving up and looking forward to your trip all year.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As the population of the world continues to grow, overtourism is fast becoming one of the more debated issues in the world of travel.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Many factors are at play when heading to your favourite destination, including cheaper flights, rising incomes and social media’s ability to put a laser-like focus on destinations that were once hidden from the world.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Headlines from around the world have highlighted that cities who are reliant on tourism dollars undergo an identity crisis when the boatloads of tourists become more of a problem than they’re worth.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Tourism is like any other industry: it needs to be regulated and managed locally to prevent negative impacts," says Justin Francis, CEO of UK-based tour operator Responsible Travel told </span><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/how-to-stop-overtourism/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">CNN</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In some of the world’s more popular destinations, such as Venice, Italy, the locals are already taking charge.</span></p>
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<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
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<p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B016qhkhyLW/" target="_blank">One day in Venice is all we needed. It wasn’t the crowds, sitting police, expensive treats and excursions, or sore feet, that left us feeling sombre as we made our way back to the bus. The city of Venice is built on 118 islands! Its architecture is inspiring. However, it’s history and future is what left me saddened. Things like the Venetian Ghetto makes my heart sink. Not only my heart, but the city itself is sinking and doomed to sea level rise. As tourism soars and rents rise, the Venetian residents leave and the city's quality of life erodes. Venice, there is no other city like yours 💔</a></p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/franncarver/" target="_blank"> Frances Carver</a> (@franncarver) on Aug 6, 2019 at 5:21pm PDT</p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The main problem is 'mordi e fuggi' tourism, day trip tourism," says Guido Moltedo, Editor in Chief of Ytali, who claims this accounts for two thirds of visitors.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The city has introduced a new levy on day-trippers, which starts at 3 euros. By 2020, the fee will range between 3 euros and 10 euros, which are dependant on the time of year and the amount of visitors in the area.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, Moltedo is aware that it doesn’t solve the problem.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The real problem is not getting more money, but reducing the impact of tourism."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Other smaller countries are suffering as well.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Due to the popularity of the show </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Game of Thrones</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Dubrovnik in Croatia has seen a popularity surge to locations such as its Old Town.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With an increase of 8 per cent from 2017 in 2018 numbers, with a massive 1.27 million people visiting, the city needed to do something.</span></p>
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<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
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<p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B01rfMWgTpO/" target="_blank">Kayak into the deep blue... 🚣🏼♀️ 📸Credit to @aznlamaaaaaaa . . . . . . #Croatia #Dubrovnik #DubrovnikSea #DubrovnikSeaView #View #ViewAtTheTop #Kayak #DubrovnikKayaking #DeepBlue #Ocean #Nature #Crazy #FirstofTwo #Travelgram #Freedom #TravelPhotography #TravelEurope #EatPlayLive #Globetrotting #DoYouTravel #Lifestyle #IGTravel #IGWorldclub #IGCapturesClub</a></p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/mlinhling/" target="_blank"> Marie-Linh NC</a> (@mlinhling) on Aug 6, 2019 at 3:08pm PDT</p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Dubrovnik is successfully conducting a project called 'respect the city', with the aim of sustainable and responsible tourism development," says Romana Vlašić, director of the Dubrovnik Tourist Board.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"One of the measures is limiting the number of cruise ship passengers to 4,000 at the same time."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As the weather heats up around the globe, some people want to escape to the colder weather that can be found in Reykjavik, Iceland.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The annual numbers have jumped from 500,000 in 2010 to 2.3 million in 2018 and this means that the country has had to deal with a huge influx of people.</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1KgzokiZqD/" target="_blank">One shot 🌊🗺 #waterfall #iceland #dji #trip #holiday #makeup #fun #me #cooking #a #b #c #d #e #f #foodporn #style #love #london #thegoodlife #vscocam #l4l #friends #fuck #ok #cooking #cool #photography #canonphotography</a></p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/bgphotopl/" target="_blank"> BGphoto</a> (@bgphotopl) on Aug 14, 2019 at 5:21pm PDT</p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, instead of discouraging visitors, Iceland is looking to diversify the offerings for tourists.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Recognizing the strain being placed on Reykjavik and a small number of other sites, they have tried to promote areas further afield to ease the pressure on the 'Golden Circle,'" Francis says, referring to a popular day tour of geological attractions.</span></p>
