Share to twitterFrom Amsterdam to Venice and Barcelona, Peru and even Nepal, overtourism is a hot topic. Increasingly, local residents have been rebelling against visitors, and a subject that once was brushed aside is now getting the attention of leaders in tourism.
Put another way, if the travel and tourism industry were a sovereign nation, its output would rank it third in the world behind the U.S. and China and more than the combined GDP of Australia, Spain, Russia and South Korea. Catherine Heald, co-founder and CEO of Remote Lands, a travel company specializing in luxury trips to off-the-beaten-track destinations, pointed to the picture posted to Facebook on May 23 by Nirmal Purja. It showed a line of over 300 climbers waiting to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
At the same time, she says, perhaps the license fee of about $11,000 should be increased to bring more revenue to the country, and that climbers should also have to pass physicals before being given permission to follow in the footsteps of Sir Edmund Hillary. Mercedes Garcia, director of Barcelona Turisme, noted while that city has put a moratorium on development of new hotels in the center, the focus is now on creating and promoting new areas that will attract visitors, including moving event locations to less trafficked areas.
Still, he says, just by making changes to when and how visitors enjoy Machu Pichu, it has enabled the local authorities to actually increase ticket sales to 6,000 per day from 4,600.