Yesterday, overtourism. Today, social distancing.
Last month several cities and destinations around the world were drowning in tourism. Now the conversation is about how and when tourism could return. Here is an opportunity that cannot be wasted.
Hotel News Now has written on the perils of overtourism, while at the same time acknowledging the need for cities to underline their gross domestic product from what is one of the planet's true great industries.
Balance is the best solution, but that is hard to come by when there are different political and economic factors coming into play.
(On this subject, here is a blog written by colleague Stephanie Ricca, and another one penned by yours truly.)
We are not having that right now. Overtourism has disappeared in places such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dubrovnik and Venice—the usual suspects. Balance has disappeared, too, obviously. Now it is all social distancing.
The change has been dramatically swift. In five weeks, everything has altered, and it will take a while for it to get back to what it was, that is, if collectively we want it to.
If we do not put our heads together on overtourism now, then demand and supply will settle the equation for us.
There are several points that need to be discussed.
