1. Dr. James Kennell
Department of Marketing, Events and
Tourism
Business Faculty
@jameskennell
@jameskennell_gre
#overtourism
–
a real crisis?
2. Where does the word ‘overtourism’
come from?
"Overtourism represents a potential
hazard to popular destinations worldwide,
as the dynamic forces that power tourism
often inflict unavoidable negative
consequences if not managed well.
"In some countries, this can lead to a
decline in tourism as a sustainable
framework is never put into place for
coping with the economic, environmental,
and sociocultural effects of tourism. The
impact on local residents cannot be
understated either."
5. What is wrong with
#overtourism
1. It doesn’t consider the distribution of tourism in a
destination
2. It doesn’t consider the timing of tourism in a destination
3. We already know how to understand these issues
4. The ‘Venice Problem’
5. What about #undertourism?
9. We already have the right
language
1. Carrying Capacity
2. Overcrowding
10. Carrying Capacity
• Developed from the 1960s
• Attempts to quantify and limit
tourism growth
• Became very unfashionable in
the 1990s
• Opportunity to revive this
concept now through ‘Smart
Tourism’ and big data
(Juardo et al 2012 – Eastern Mediterranean)(Kennell 2016)
13. Cruises and mass tourism
• “All modern tourism is mass tourism.” (Butcher 2017: 28)
• Some niches are so big, that their moral claims are questionable
• Well-planned mass tourism, has more direct benefits and less negative
impacts
• Mass tourists are not criminals, but they’re also not anthropologists
(McKercher 1993)
14. So, what is new about
#overtourism?
Mature destinations in developed
countries
Now, middle-class and wealthy
communities are affected
Overtourism describes a crisis in
public perceptions of tourism
15. #undertourism
• What most destinations are struggling with is undertourism –
not having enough tourists
• Especially in developing countries, attracting tourists is
important for economic and social development
• Tourism professionals and policy makers want more tourists
to visit their destination, not fewer!
16. #undertourism and UK seaside
towns
Around 50 towns on the
coast
1974 – 40.5m domestic
holidays per year
2017 – 15.8m domestic
holidays per year
20. What caused this?
• Changing social and economic trends
• Increased competition
• A complete lack of government attention and funding
• Service Industry collapse is often invisible
• Poor destination management
(Kennell 2011)
24. Summary
• #overtourism is not new, and its not that dangerous
• #undertourism is the real danger
• There is a crisis in the public perceptions of tourism – but is it just fake
news?
• Destination Management is the key to solving these problems
• What can you do, as tourism scholars?
25. Tourists are not criminals and destinations are not
their victims
Poor destination management should be a criminal
offence.
26. University of Greenwich is a charity and company limited by guarantee, registered in England (reg. no. 986729).
Registered office: Old Royal Naval college, Park Row, Greenwich, London SE10 9LS
D e p a r t m e n t o f M a r k e t i n g , E v e n t s a n d To u r i s m
B u s i n e s s F a c u l t y
j . s . k e n n e l l @ G r e e n w i c h . a c . u k
@jameskennell
@jameskennell_gre
Editor's Notes
I’m going to discuss the term ‘overtourism’, which has become very fashionable recently
The term describes a situation where a destination has too much tourism, and can’t cope – in particular it refers to the quality of life problems this can cause for local residents
I don’t like this term, and I’m going to explain why and what I think we can do about it
European perspective
This is Rafat Ali, the founder of Skift, the online travel and tourism news site – he wrote this in February 2016,
This was the very first time that the term was used.
The top image shows how frequently this is being discussed on google – 288,000 hits
4 tweets per hour, every hour, using the hashtag #overtourism
Analysis by Reitag showing how the word overtourism is being linked to hundreds of other terms on social media.
This looks like a crisis – but is it just fake news?
The fact that this term has become so popular has created and sustained a real anger within host populations, and this is starting to be directed at tourists themselves
Overtourism in one place, doesn’t mean your destination is at full capacity – We shouldn’t say whole destinations have an overtourism problem
Overtourism at one time, doesn’t mean your destination is at full capacity
We don’t need this new term, because we already have lots of ways to understand these issues
The ‘Venice Problem’ and what it tells us about tourism academics
If you lose tourists, history tells us that causes even bigger problems
The classic photo of overtourism is La Bouqueria market in Barcelona. It is so busy that the experience is suffering, and locals are angry that they can’t shop and eat there.
But – only a short walk away, the Olympic Park that the city is so famous for is almost completely empty – and the city is doing nothing to attract people there.
This is the same street during the day and at night in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
During the day, it is impossible to get past the huge tours and cruise arrivals, but at night, the city is quiet and sociable.
This is the famous Sunset Strip in Ibiza – Europe’s top music tourism destination in the Summer months, but empty in the Winter
Seasonality in tourism gives us a break and lets us recover, physically, emotionally, environmentally
If we have the language, why has no-one listened?
Because we’re boring.
Carrying capacity was one of the earliest attempts to define the limits of tourism growth, as concerns over the impacts of the tourism industry emerged in academia and policy communities. In contrast to sustainable tourism, which actively seeks to draw links between the local and the global, measurements of carrying capacity concentrate on local factors when evaluating the limits to tourism development or tourism usage of a resource, whether this is a destination, attraction, or any other spatially defined unit of the tourism industry.
The United World Tourism Organisation defines carrying capacity as ‘the maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time, without causing destruction of the physical, economic, socio-cultural environment and an unacceptable decrease in the quality if visitors’ satisfaction’ (UNWTO 1981: 4). Mathieson & Wall (1982: 184) define it as “the maximum number of people who can use a recreational environment and without an unacceptable decline in the quality of the recreational experience.” Saveriades (2000:147) links the concept of carrying capacity directly to sustainability and tourism in a concise definition: “the sustainability of a specific level of tourist development and use within a specified region.”
Where we have overcrowding in a particular tourism area, we have a vast experience in the tourism industry for how to deal with it.
A lot of this is quite boring, but in involves:
Signage
Planning
Tourist information centres
Creating new districts for tourists
Attraction and Product development
The photos are:
Top leff – Greenwich Tourist information centre
Top Right – New York tourism signage
Bottom Right – Tourism zoning and development in Southern Africa
Bottom Left – London 2012 Olympics
19th Century Venice was crowded
21st century Venice is crowded
Venice will always be crowded. It is one of the very few truly unique tourism destinations, with a product that it is very hard to replicate – even though Las Vegas have tried!
We’ve been teaching students about the Venice pass since it was introduced almost twenty years ago
Venice has unique planning and development constraints that mean it is almost useless as an example to learn from.
The real issue, that really aggravates people, are pictures like this – of cruise ships in Venice. Somehow that seems wrong.
Stats on
Decaying and ruined infrastructure
Poor quality attarctions
Closed businesses
Social and Economic problems
You are left with destinations that have been completely designed for tourism, and can’t really do anything else
Nara Dreamland resort and theme park in Japan, opened in 1961, closed in 2006, demolished in 2017. The government had to step in and buy the land because no-one else would and eventually sold it to a developer to demolish it. A huge waste of public money.
Tunisia resorts - terrorism attacks on the beach and the capital led to drops in tourism of 20% right away, and a collapse of 90% in the British market.. This eventually decline in the national economy of around 2%.
Caribbean – after the 2017 Hurricanes, especially Hurricane Irma, some islands have had their tourism industry completely destroyed, whilst some have been lucky and only lost between 7-18%
The big question is – what else can destinations do when they are hit by undertourism? They don’t have the skills, the infrastructure or the knowledge to do anything else. This can take generations to fix.