Overtourism

[Mr._Graybeard]

A remarkable thread. It reminded me that I'm overdue for a visit to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Still generally peaceful and uncrowded. Great fishing, too.

The ancestral homeland ... the stretch between Marquette and Munising has some sweet memories. I try to get up there in the dead of winter at least every other year so I can remember what serious snow is like.

 

[fasteddie911]

Certainly an issue I've been thinking about more and more lately. Internet, social media, influencers, etc., overplayed "experiences" vs things, a new form of keeping up with the joneses. I think it is a problem that affects locals the most. Every tourist wants to get theirs, I see/hear people identify how bad tourism has gotten, but that they still want to go there, experience it themselves, see it before it's too late, etc. No one is willing to take a step back, self sacrifice for the greater good. When we went to venice 5yrs ago, it was pretty terrible and a zoo, definitely dampened the experience for us and probably won't go back. I feel terrible for the locals there. Family and friends in Hawaii talk about this all the time too. Quiet, local areas have become tourist havens, sometimes changing the look and feel of the area entirely.

 

[marko]

I haven't checked through all of the 100 posts here but I found this site which shows the "expectation vs reality" of going to famous sites.

If you click on each photo it flips over to show you the reality.
https://travellercollective.com/blo...AcpfmIjpgapAQRKoIhl-XrbDKhIRXQbAaAkuWEALw_wcB

 

[JoeWras]

My parents visited the Grand Canyon last year with an Airstream tour group. The South rim was packed with loud foreign speaking guides, all shouting directions to the people exiting the multiple bus loads of people with color matched shirts.

The next day, they visited the North rim, and were greeted with about 5 cars in the parking lot, and a revered silence that allowed them to take their time exploring in peace, and awe !

Shhhh! Don't give up the secret! OK, since you did...

The N. Rim is probably my favorite place in the west. Yes, I've been to Yosemite, S. Rim, Bryce, Zion, Yellowstone, etc.

The N. Rim has all the good stuff, but is very hard to get to. That's the charm. No tour buses. One of my favorite highlights of out-west vacations is sitting on the grand porch of the lodge on the N. Rim, with a few other folks. Quiet. Grab a glass of wine. Strike up a conversation and make new friends. That's what we did, and we're introverts. Watch the view, enjoy the sunset, etc. There's nowhere to go to in a rush next if you made it there, so you might as well sit down and enjoy it.

 

[neihn]

I haven't checked through all of the 100 posts here but I found this site which shows the "expectation vs reality" of going to famous sites.

If you click on each photo it flips over to show you the reality.
https://travellercollective.com/blo...AcpfmIjpgapAQRKoIhl-XrbDKhIRXQbAaAkuWEALw_wcB[/QUOT

No kidding - It was like that in places that I visited last April in Europe.

 

[neihn]

That quote from the article is probably quite true.
Bruges has been one of my favorite cities since my first visit nearly 30 years ago. But it has always been a Mecca for European tourists (as well as everyone else). But as long as you stay away from the central square you can find plenty of room to wander about on your own. It's also a great base for day trips in that part of Flanders.

+1. Visited Bruges last April. I sure want to come back there again.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Glad that I went to some of these places 10 years ago when it wasn’t so crazy.

 

[Nemo2]

Glad that I went to some of these places 10 years ago when it wasn’t so crazy.

Glad I (first) went 56 years ago.

 

[Scrapr]

Glad that I went to some of these places 10 years ago when it wasn’t so crazy.

bring on the recession!

 

[Chuckanut]

One of my favorite examples of misleading tourism advertising is a river touring company. They show these fabulous aerial views of cites, not what people see from the boats or the streets. The beautiful tourists are in uncrowded restaurants where the chef has time to come out of the kitchen and chat with them, native men and women in traditional dress smile and pose for photographs in front of quaint shops, and the tourists and locals sing and dance their way through the uncrowded streets of the cities.

 

[TDub]

Great thread, although I’ll admit it’s kind of killing my desire to travel with my boys while they’re on breaks from school..

 

[NW-Bound]

... native men and women in traditional dress smile and pose for photographs in front of quaint shops...

I just remember this 1954 song with the following lyrics:

Mambo Italiano

A girl went back to Napoli
Because she missed the scenery
The native dances and the charming songs
But wait a minute, something's wrong...​

 

[Rianne]

Just got back from whirlwind Eastern European vagabond vacation. Took carry on suitcases, jumped trains: 3 different currencies, 3 different languages all on our own. Prague, Olomouc, Vienna, Budapest. While healthy, the only way I'll travel. We walked close to 100 miles with my cousin's Apple watch keeping track. Saw huge groups of tourist tours. We stayed away on the outskirts. Talked to the locals, a few angels helped us figure out the train systems. Took trams and walked to the amazing castles and monasteries.

We booked a few walking tours, had less than 10 people in them. Went on a Danube-Wachau tour we booked on our own. Priceless. Saw a 4 1/2 hour opera at the Vienna Opera House. A kind Austrian woman let us sit up front in the 3 story box when we told her it was our first opera. Die Frau Ohne Schatten meaning "The woman without a shadow." Thought we'd leave at the first intermission, sat through the whole thing-spellbound.

We met an American couple. During our conversation we realized they were pretty wealthy. They travel the same way. Carry on suitcases, trains and $100 or less hotels or apartments. They preferred the local interaction and back road attractions. We did get scammed a couple of times, but not a big deal.

 

[aja8888]

Just got back from whirlwind Eastern European vagabond vacation. ........ We walked close to 100 miles with my cousin's Apple watch keeping track.

(my bold above)

That, in itself, is amazing! How long were you gone?

 

[Rianne]

(my bold above)

That, in itself, is amazing! How long were you gone?

16 nights. We got up in the morning and did not come back until night. We did not realize how much walking until my DC, who's been a nurse for 30 years and wears an Apple watch (actually knows how to use it because of work) started saying "Wow we've walked X miles today." The adrenaline and excitement just kept us going. My knee hurt one day, but recovered.

 

[Pellice]

I haven't checked through all of the 100 posts here but I found this site which shows the "expectation vs reality" of going to famous sites.

If you click on each photo it flips over to show you the reality.
https://travellercollective.com/blo...AcpfmIjpgapAQRKoIhl-XrbDKhIRXQbAaAkuWEALw_wcB

Is this for real? That is, these "reality" flipsides aren't photoshopped? I've never been to any of these places, so I don't know the reality.

I'm a birder, and most of my travel goes to beautiful places with some solitude. Occasionally there's a rarity that will draw a mob scene, but those are usually fun, as you encounter people you haven't seen ... since the last rarity. But I'd never have enjoyed this passion so much if it were mob scenes all the time. It isn't hard, at least in the US, to find solitude. Densely populated New Jersey has hundreds of preserves that are visited once every two weeks or so. Directions are on the web!

 

[Rianne]

Ha, the flipsides look pretty real to me, I know the Trevi Fountain is almost exactly like the flipside.

 

[athena53]

Is this for real? That is, these "reality" flipsides aren't photoshopped? I've never been to any of these places, so I don't know the reality.

I can certainly vouch for the Mona Lisa one, although the Louvre is supposed to be a lot less crowded in the evenings. I've been to the Taj Mahal (March, 2018) and it wasn't quite that bad. Lots of people, certainly, but not elbow-to-elbow.

Interesting timing: I'm partway through a podcast on Chinese tourism in France. They're actively working to make France more attractive to Chinese tourists (in the last year, airport train announcements in Mandarin were added) because the Chinese buy, buy, buy and aren't very price-sensitive.

 

[cathy63]

Is this for real? That is, these "reality" flipsides aren't photoshopped? I've never been to any of these places, so I don't know the reality.

I laughed looking at those, because I captured my own version of one when we were in Oslo in 2017. Not as bad as the Mona Lisa, and everybody was very polite and taking turns, but I was amused by the situation.

 

[Chuckanut]

Interesting timing: I'm partway through a podcast on Chinese tourism in France. They're actively working to make France more attractive to Chinese tourists (in the last year, airport train announcements in Mandarin were added) because the Chinese buy, buy, buy and aren't very price-sensitive.

When I was in Switzerland about four years ago, I was waiting for a train that was supposed to leave about 7:30 AM. I saw a huge group of Asian people piling into a train with our destination and started to run towards it fearing I might not be able to get a seat. A very nice Swiss rail employee stopped me and explained. It was the train for the Chinese tour groups. The train for the rest of us would arrive soon on another track.

Once we arrived at our mountain destination, a 10 minute walk away from the tourist area of the local village left the Chinese and a lot of other tourists behind.

Of course, to be fair to the Chinese, a mob of people is a mob of people, regardless of their nationality.

 

[braumeister]

Of course, to be fair to the Chinese, a mob of people is a mob of people, regardless of their nationality.

And I suspect the Chinese feel the same way about groups of Westerners visiting over there.

 

[ivinsfan]

And I suspect the Chinese feel the same way about groups of Westerners visiting over there.

Everyone that isn't local is a "mob" to the full time residents...but most towns like the money they spend while they are "mobbing"

 

[Nemo2]

I took my one & only trip to Cuba in the early 1970s.......at departure we had to wait for our plane to arrive, empty itself of passengers, and load us on for a turnaround.

Watching the disembarkation it soon became evident that virtually all the incoming passengers, (who had to walk right across the tarmac to the arrivals building), were girls in their late teens, (from a college somewhere in Southern Ontario IIRC).......didn't hear any "Damn tourists" remarks at that time.

 

[kcowan]

We've had this dream to go hike between the towns of the Cinque Terre when the weather is nice, after ER and while we are still young enough to enjoy it. Sadly, I am not sure there is an intersection point that doesn't include overcrowding.

It is a time-of-year thing! Try April or October. The summer seems to be cluttered up with teachers and retirees who think that the weather might be bad.

 

[davebarnes]

We just changed our 4 days in Venezia in September to 4 days in Treviso.
We have been to Venezia before.
This trip will be Bologna (day trip to Modena), Treviso, Piran, Ljubljana, Wien.

Barcelona is crowded. 10,000 people per day visit the Sagrada Familia.
But, Zaragoza (we did 3 days) is not and is delightful.
Sitges (south of Barcelona) is a cozy beach town and not crowded as long as you avoid July-August.
Irunea is very quiet if you avoid the nine-day festival of Sanfermines.

Yes, there are many anti-AirBnB signs in Coimbra, but students are very political. There are many empty building in the old part of the city that could be rehabbed.
Aveiro was very peaceful and worth the 3 days.
Porto is overrun with tourists. Lisboa is much less so.