Tourism is the key to the economy of many countries. However, some destinations popular with visitors are struggling with uncontrolled mass tourism.
Residents and local authorities in areas where there is a regular influx of visitors during the peak tourist season are becoming increasingly vocal about the fact that residents are being evicted from entire neighborhoods to make way for tourist accommodation, that services are unable to meet growing demand and pollution – among other problems.
Some local governments are making decisions to avoid the effects of mass tourism while still welcoming tourists.
Among the most popular measures are tourist tax, which asks visitors to pay a generally small fee in addition to the normal costs of their stay.
Local authorities around the world have also decided to limit the daily number of visitors who can access particularly busy areas.
The last city likely to make a similar decision is Seville, in Spainwhere visitors may soon have to pay a fee to explore the Plaza de España.
Seville Mayor José Luis Sanz wrote on X: “We plan to close the Plaza de España and make tourists pay to finance its conservation and security.”
The message was accompanied by a video showing missing tiles in the space, damaged facades and street vendors stationed in alcoves and on staircases.
Other crowded cities have gone so far as to literally ask tourists, or at least a certain type of visitor, to stay away.
Among them is Amsterdam, Netherlands, which ran an advertising campaign in 2023 bluntly inviting people planning a rowdy getaway to go elsewhere.
Lanzarote, extremely popular among the British, is trying to target wealthier visitors who are less likely to consume large quantities of cheap alcohol.
Authorities on the Indonesian island of Bali also appear to want to attract fewer unruly tourists and more people interested in the area's natural beauty.
Barcelona, another popular Spanish city, began taking steps in 2022 to limit the number of visitors by cracking down on the size of tourist groups, among other measures. Anti-tourism graffiti expressing how locals feel when they feel their homes are being invaded by vacationers has also dotted the city for years.
Another city of art very attached to mass tourism is Venice, in Italyjust like Santorini, Greece, where a local population of around 10,000 sees around two million people flock to their beaches every summer.
Have you ever visited any of these destinations? Have you ever gone to a vacation spot and not felt welcome?
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