Tourism is an important economic action for different countries and places, attracting people who boost trade and guarantee cultural exchange. However, it can be considered a problem when it reaches the point of “overtourism”, considerably affecting tourist cities.
“Overtourism” happens when a tourist destination receives too many people, to the point of affecting the quality of life of the inhabitants and damaging the local infrastructure. As happens, for example, in Venice, a city that has 50 thousand inhabitants, but received 5.5 million tourists in 2019.
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At this moment, cities are no longer able to meet this demand and are experiencing overcrowding, high prices, congestion and even environmental problems.
These problems are beginning to be noticed by tourists, mainly with the increase in prices and the less warm reception from the inhabitants of destinations.
(Image: Freepik/Reproduction)
“Cities that were once peaceful are now facing an invasion of tourists, which can cause environmental problems, infrastructure and social conflicts”, explained Lúcia Silveira Santos, PhD student in Tourism at the University of São Paulo. Paulo (USP).
In an interview with Jornal da USP, the researcher pointed out that the cities were not designed to receive this high number of visitors.
Thus, this phenomenon provokes a negative reaction from residents in tourist attractions, generating retaliation from the population and tougher measures from local governments. In the case of Venice, the city banned cruises and decided to charge an entry fee of 5 euros.
Another place that suffered from cruise tourists was the city of Dubrovnik, in Croatia. Currently, the number of boats that can dock is limited in order to contain the flow of people at the site. Other cities apply fees for short-term visitors.
(Image: Freepik/Reproduction)
Despite the current conflicts surrounding global tourism, this flow of people to various destinations still brings many benefits to cities.
Therefore, Mário Beni, a specialist in Tourism and professor at USP, believes that “overtourism” can be overcome by controlling the trade tourism and encouraging travel to less busy destinations.
However, Lúcia Silveira Santos reinforces that tourists must also change their stance. “As travelers, we also play a fundamental role”, so visitors should be more aware, support local businesses and choose sustainable means of transport.
In this way, a balance will be established between tourism and quality of life of the residents of the destinations. Other favored points would be the preservation of the cities’ infrastructure and environment.
From this movement together, traveling to famous and lesser-known destinations will be a much more interesting, conscious and profitable adventure.
