Excessive Tourism Becomes A Concern For The Tourism Sector | tourism-review.com
Venice loses its cruises, Barcelona tightens control of the rents, and Dubrovnik imposes quotas on its visitors. Faced with the plague of excessive tourism, professionals in the tourism sector are looking for urgent solutions.
"In 2030, there will be 1,800 million tourists in the world. Something is certain: this infinite growth is impossible in a space that is limited, which generates more and more visible conflicts," states Roland Conrady, scientific director of the ITB, annual conclave of tourism professionals.
From 1995 to 2016, the number of international travelers has gone from 525 million to over 1,200 million thanks to low-cost airlines, and to tourists from growing markets such as China, India or the Gulf countries.
2017 has been marked by a record increase of 7% in the number of tourists in the entire world, and by unprecedented movements of rejection of excessive tourism, with several repercussions, like the distortion and ousting of local populations from their homelands.
And the first consequences or events have not taken long to manifest: in Thailand, the coral reefs of the famous Maya Bay have not survived the swimmers, and the place is now threatening with closure. In Bhutan, the government imposes tourism quotas, and in Dubrovnik the mayor forbids more than 8,000 people from entering the historic city compound per day.
