Issues and Strategies of Overtourism Assignment 2022

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Issues and strategies of overtourism
Name
(Affiliation Institutions)

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The changing patterns of demands, availability of cheap transportation options to tourism
destinations and more affluent middle-class generation has led to the contemporary issue of
overtourism which is experienced in diverse countries. Seraphin, Sheeran and Pilato (2018.)
defined the term Overtourism as the perceived overcrowding or congestion that occurs as a result
of excess tourists leading to conflicts with local people. As a result of that overtourism has
become an important issue in the current tourism in some parts of the worlds. The focus of this
essay is to find out the possible reasons behind overtourism in important tourists hotspots. This
essay is going to take the scenario of Barcelona as the case study where the tourism industry is
on the verge of a collapse due to the overtourism. As a matter of fact, this essay also tries to
depict a clear insight into the issue by investigating some significant factors responsible behind
the issue.
Over recent years, Overloading of the available resources has remained to be a
significant issue resulting from the issue of overtourism. Bardhan, Kurisu and Hanaki (2015
p.55-56) argued that whenever a population increases by a margin, the possibility of resource
depleting also increases by a margin. Bardhan, Kurisu and Hanaki theory is applicable to the
overtourism context that whenever the number of tourists increases in a particular destination,
the competition of available resources also increases. For example, Barcelona city has
experienced an issue of overloading of the available resources as a result of overtourism in has
significantly grown over the recent areas. A research conducted by Martín Martín, Guaita
Martinez and Salinas Fernández (2018 p. 2851) show that during the peak holiday season,
destination Barcelona host over 30 million overnight visitors in each year when compared to the
resident population of 1,625,137 as per 2017. The concern growth of tourist’s population in
Barcelona city has led to over-pressurization of available resources such as infrastructure as well

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as environmental concern like increased land, water and air pollution. Positively, the overtourism
issues have facilitated to the growth of social movements like Network of South European Cities
tourism (SET) and Assembly of Neighborhoods for sustainable tourism (ABTS) that campaigned
against overtourism and rights for local residence.
The tourist companies are trying to utilize the existing resources in such a manner that
will cost detrimental for Barcelona to manage such a huge tourist boom in the peak tourist
seasons. For example, as a result of overtourism in some region, Airbnb has been criticized by
various overtourism activists and agencies for displacing residences and reducing the
affordability of housing (Koens, Postma and Papp, 2018 p.4384). Moreover, it can be stated that
the cruise ships, duty free shopping, exclusive resorts are also considered to be important aspect
to deliver a considerable amount of impetus to the overtourism practice in Barcelona. The travel
agencies and agents are not aware of the detrimental impact on Barcelona due to overtourism.
For instance, during the tourism peak seasons, the local and international cruise industry delivers
millions of tourists annually and thousands daily to destination ports. With little being returned
to communities, the general cruise activities create both visual and physical pollution (Lamers,
Eijgelaar and Amelung, 2015). Even the city council declared an environmental emergency in
2019 where the ‘Most polluted ports in Europe’, Barcelona is suffocated with high amount of
sulphur oxide and carcinogenic nitrogen oxide coming from the visiting cruise ships (Burgen
2018).
As the towns and cities transform to accommodate diverse tourists, the international
supply chain also become successful which coincides with rising costs for local communities as
well as property speculations. From the research of Ledsom (2019) it was found that the local
residents were mostly the victim of tourist boom in Barcelona. In one hand, with the

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development in tourism the residential areas of Barcelona touch high price. It is beyond the
affordability of the local residents who are looking for new home in Barcelona. As a result of
that they are suffering immensely due to the overtourism practice. On the other hand, cultural
differences are identified as crucial problem for the local Barcelona people because they feel
suffocated due to the wave of people of different region. They do not get enough time and space
for practicing their own region or share culture with other locals. As a result of that it becomes a
serious threat to the existence of people in Barcelona and the government also realizes the fact
that overtourism damages the local culture of Barcelona. Therefore, government issues several
mitigation strategies in respect to technological developments, relationship with airlines and the
resources.
Some of the overtourism issues that need to be addressed urgently include standardization
of tourism supply, the commodification of cultures, loss of authenticity, environmental
sustainability and carrying capacity. The suggested methods which governments can use to
control overtourism include issuing permits to a particular attraction, raising prices for entrances
to both local and foreign tourism, having a great control on which business to operate in a certain
region and banning cruise ships over a certain size.
Falk (2014 p.24) remarked that use of demarketing strategies could also help to
address the contemporary issue of overtourism at both national and international levels. For
example, the Danny Boyle’s film “the beach” (Strielkowski, 2017) marketed Maya bay globally
to extend that the Thai authority was forced to act after the destination experienced overtourism
which led to shocking environmental change. According to a research conducted by Hays, Page
and Buhalis, (2013 p.127), the market strategies such as promotion of social media platforms to
convey information in relation to tourism sites to targeted audiences have boosted the awareness

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of the tourism destination by 80%. Therefore, if the marketing strategies are adopted at
international levels to discourage potential visitors from going to overcrowded destination areas,
it can significantly reduce the number of visitors in redistributing demand spatial, seasonal and
selectively. The marketing strategies need to include behavioural segmentation which has
capabilities to profile the tourism based on their travel styles, values and behaviours during the
holiday experiences. The strategies will allow tourism destination to target only type of tourists
who are respective and appreciative to the environment and are likely to generate the best local
impact to the local community. For example, the local council of Barcelona has recently adopted
the demarketing strategy of behavioural profiling and construction of destination management
strategy that has seen the country hosting tourists having a positive contribution to society.
Burning of directing cruise passengers and short term rentals can address the issues of
overtourism in both local and national levels. A research conducted by Postma and Schmuecker,
(2017 p.144- 146) shows that the short term rental for tourism contributes to overtourism by
70%. Therefore, burning the affordable means of transport such as directing cruising and short-
term rentals could scare away a number of tourism from visiting some tourism destinations.
Moreover, tourism has been mandated to register with other relevant agencies before renting on
Airbnb. In addition, the law has also restricted the number of tourists renting Airbnb to a four for
a maximum of 60 days.
Fines linked to new local laws and taxation is another way of addressing the current issue
of overcrowding. For example, the local council of Barcelona starts thinking about developing
the local establishments in terms of schools, hospitals and other necessary amenities for the local
people of Barcelona and trying to restore the healthy environment within the region. There are

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certainly a number of innovative and important initiative taken by the local Mayor and council so
that a social and ecological balance can be restored within the region properly.
Summary of overtourism issues, strategies and outcomes
Overtourism issues Strategies to address issues outcomes
- A decrease in the quality of
residence
- Carrying capacity issues
- A commodification of cultures
and inheritance.
- Overloaded of available
infrastructure
- Increase in prices of rentals and
property
- Environmental pollution
- Demarketing tourism
destinations
- Government control
through overpricing,
ticket regulating and
licensing of tourist
attraction
- Regulating the number
of cruise ships
- A low number of tourist visiting
a particular destination at a
particular time
- Proper utilization of available
resources
- Maintenance of sustainable
environment
Conclusion
The essay is trying to depict a clear portrayal of the problem that overtourism is creating
within the tourist hotspots. It becomes a challenge for the government and the local communities
to safeguard their interests and daily life which is stamped off due to the pressure of overtourism.
Therefore, this essay is trying to figure out the reasons behind overtourism in Barcelona and at
the same time highlights some of the mitigation strategy that the government should take in order
to preserve the local life and healthy environment. In Conclusion, overtourism may lead to an
economic crisis of a country if not well controlled. Government policies and procedures of

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discouraging overtourism such as restriction on the number of tourists visiting a country is the
best strategy of overcoming overtourism in regard to local, national and international
perspective.

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References
Bardhan, R, Kurisu, K and Hanaki, K, 2015. Does compact urban forms relate to good quality of
life in high-density cities of India? Case of Kolkata. Cities, vol.48, pp.55-65.
Burgen, S. 2018. How tourism is killing Barcelona – a photo essay, viewed 25 September 2019,
<https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/aug/30/why-tourism-is-killing-barcelona-
overtourism-photo-essay>.
Falk, M., 2014. Impact of weather conditions on tourism demand in the peak summer season
over the last 50 years. Tourism Management Perspectives, vol. 9, pp.24-35.
Hays, S, Page, S.J. and Buhalis, D., 2013. Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by
national tourism organisations. Current Issues in Tourism, vol.16, no.3, pp.211-239.
Koens, K., Postma, A. and Papp, B., 2018. Is overtourism overused? Understanding the impact
of tourism in a city context. Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 12, p.4384.
Lamers, M., Eijgelaar, E. and Amelung, B., 2015. The environmental challenges of cruise
tourism. The Routledge handbook of tourism and sustainability, pp.430-439.
Ledsom, A. 2019. Barcelona Is Threatening To Shut Out Tourists, viewed 25 September 2019,
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexledsom/2019/07/12/barcelona-is-ready-to-shut-out-tourists/>.
Martín Martín, J., Guaita Martínez, J. and Salinas Fernández, J., 2018. An analysis of the factors
behind the citizen’s attitude of rejection towards tourism in a context of overtourism and
economic dependence on this activity. Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 8, p.2851.

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Postma, A. and Schmuecker, D., 2017. Understanding and overcoming negative impacts of
tourism in city destinations: conceptual model and strategic framework. Journal of Tourism
Futures, vol. 3, no. 2, pp.144-156.
Seraphin, H., Sheeran, P. and Pilato, M., 2018. Over-tourism and the fall of Venice as a
destination. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, vol. 9, pp.374-376.
Strielkowski, W., 2017. Promoting tourism destination through film-induced tourism: The case
of Japan. MARKET/TRŽIŠTE, vol. 29, no. 2, pp.193-203.