SOY00411 Essay: Analyzing Overtourism and Proposing Solutions

This essay delves into the phenomenon of overtourism, examining its emergence as a significant issue for various tourism destinations. It explores the negative impacts of excessive tourism on the environment, local communities, and the quality of life for residents. The essay analyzes the causes of overtourism, including factors like cheap travel, cruise tourism, and low-cost accommodation, which lead to overcrowding and strain on infrastructure. It also discusses the conflicts arising between residents, visitors, and the tourism industry. Furthermore, the essay proposes various strategies for mitigating overtourism, such as promoting lesser-known attractions, implementing visitor restrictions, improving guest segmentation, and involving stakeholders in decision-making. It emphasizes the importance of responsible tourism, sustainable accounting, and collaboration among stakeholders to ensure the long-term viability of tourist destinations. The essay also highlights the role of governments, tourism boards, and local organizations in addressing overtourism through regulations, promotion of sustainable practices, and the use of data-driven approaches to manage tourist flows. Ultimately, the essay advocates for a holistic approach that balances tourism development with the preservation of local communities and the environment.

Over tourism

Over tourism is the excess of tourists at the destination and it results in conflicts with locals.
Tourism impacts the destination in both positive and negative way and it excessively impacted
the quality of life of residents. This discussion includes the impact of over-tourism on
environment and the issues which are faced by the locals and tourism stakeholder organization
can take the initiative for overcoming with the issues. Locals view tourism as a disruptive factor
as it is increasing the burden of their life. The conflicts are increasing among the residents,
community, visitors, and travelers. The over-tourism is increasing in the cities more. When the
maximum tourist at the destination is given for hosting but over-crowding situation occurs when
too many people visit the place. The causes of over-tourism are a large number of tourists and
visitors, disturbance because of tourists and huge physical impact (Hampton and Hampton,
2009). More over-tourism occurs in those places where the physical space is shared between
residents and visitors. Over-tourism is increasing day by day because of the developments in
other industry like the airlines has started providing cheap tickets to destination places. People
are attracted to cruise tourism and it is growing rapidly. Low-cost accommodation at the tourist
places is the reason for over-tourism as budgeted tourism attracts people to visit the place. In
recent years, the number of residents and commuters are increasing the pressure on the
infrastructures and facilities for the crowdedness. The change in experiencing the economy and
lifestyle with the increase in the leisure facilities for the visitors started contributing to the
monoculture of facilities with the hospitality facilities. At the tourist destinations in the housing
market the places for residents are decreasing and the houses on rent are more available for the
visitors (Koens, et al., 2018.
In order to deal with the over-tourism, the strategies can be adopted for decreasing the over-
tourism at the tourist destination. By promoting the less unknown attractions in the given
destination can help in decreasing the over-tourism. Regulations must be followed which also
includes the number of visitors restriction on the tourist destination can help in reducing the
number of visitors. There must be restriction. Improving guest segmentation and it is necessary
to ensure local tourism gets benefits bu providing the skills jobs and participation of locals for
the development of tourism. Stakeholders must be involved in making decisions regarding
tourism (Martin Martin, et al., 2018). At the time of booking and on websites it must include the
rules and regulations regarding tourism at a particular place to visit. For securing data and new
technologies the usage of control and exchange mechanisms will be helpful. In over-tourism it is

required to focus on four priorities for building a comprehensive fact base and updating it
regularly. Establishing a sustainable growth strategy for long term tourism and preventing future.
The society of all the sections must be involved with include the commercial, public and social.
Over-tourism affects the alienated local residents and also degrading the tourist experience,
infrastructure will be overloaded and also damaging the nature of the tourist destination. It is also
affecting the culture and heritage of the place. It is necessary to apply the rules for protecting the
place from the over-tourism (Milano, 2018). Tourism is impacting on the environment and the
communities of the destinations and also the economic conditions of the tourist destination.
Over-tourism is impacting in three ways: environmental impact, socio-cultural impact, and
economic impact. With the over-tourism the impact is majorly on environment as it includes
ecotourism, nature, wildlife and adventure tourism. The places are getting affected by the over-
tourism and it is necessary to create responsible tourism as the over-tourism diminishes the
quality of life for local residents and negative experience is created for the visitors. It is
necessary to maximize the positive impact and minimize the negative impact of tourism for
saving the tourist destination (Muler Gonzalez, et al., 2018).
Global, national and state governments can take the initiative to address the issue by taking
effective actions for reducing over-tourism. For the protection of workers, animals and popular
sights, the local government can place restrictions on the number of tourists and implementing
the rules and practices. With the involvement of various stakeholders, it will meet with
resistance. Local, state and national governments can take the initiative for receiving the tax
revenue (Oklevik, et al., 2019). In order to promote the destination, the tourism boards and
convention bureaus can manage and implement the rules and regulations. The various
destinations are taking actions against the over-tourism as it is affecting the lives of the
individuals. The various organizations at the tourist destination like hospitality, transport, and
retailer can help in overcoming the situation (Peeters, et al., 2018).
Responsible tourism must be promoted in tourism which helps in creating the places better for
visiting as it helps in improving the destination for the benefiting the local people for
maximizing the benefits from tourism and minimizing the negative impacts which include the
waste generations, damages to heritage, negative cultural impacts of visitors (Perkumienė and
Pranskūnienė, 2019). With the help of a responsible tourism approach, the issue of over-tourism

can be resolved by the stakeholders. In order to solve the problem the reduction in number
visitors will be essential in tourism.
Sustainability accounting will help in overcoming the issue of over-tourism. It is essential to
measure the money which is retained locally with the help of tourism. The involvement of the
social and environmental costs which are earned for the visitors and it is necessary to develop the
destination with the implementation of sustainability accounting practices. With the help of the
triple bottom line the benefits and costs in tourism can be measured with economic, social and
environmental (Timur and Getz, 2009). Carrying capacity must be given in which maximizing
the number of tourism and the various attraction which are required for the visitors for
accommodation.
Limiting of acceptable change as it is a participatory approach that includes the local,
government, tourism industries. Rules and regulations must include the local environment as it
must be done for future generations and another tourist. Support the local businesses which are
included at the tourist destinations (Goodwin, 2017). Sustainable tourism is beneficial for the
destination as it helps in boosting the area from the negative impact on the environment.
Sustainable tourism helps in reducing the poverty, restoration of rural and deprived areas, boost
the local products and markets, improving the infrastructure and protecting the heritages of the
tourist destination. Better collaborations within the stakeholders will help in overcoming the
issues which are occurring because of over-tourism (Timur and Getz, 2009). Along with
promoting tourism, there must be strong collaboration among the stakeholders for ensuring to
provide effective planning and managing tourism effectively. it is necessary to protect the
overcrowded areas in the tourist's destinations. In the overcrowded tourist destinations, the issue
can be resolved by limiting the transport options and making things more expensive so that it
will not be convenient for tourists to visit the place on constant basis to visit the tourist
destinations when things are expensive. It is analyzed that over-tourism is a shared
responsibility. In order to limit the growth, the administrators of city and destination managers
must acknowledge the issues and take corrective measures for solving the issues. It is analyzed
that tourism is a wider destination management system that includes considering transportation,
mobility, preservation for public spaces, local economy, housing and other various aspects of the
tourism destinations (Dodds and Burler, 2019). Tourists can contribute to effective tourism for

avoiding over-tourism by searching the regional alternatives. It is required to support the local
communities with time and money which helps in developing the needs of tourism. It is
suggested in order to overcome the issue of over-tourism, an initiative must be taken by the
locals for protecting the tourist place. It is analyzed that the causes of over-tourism are the
increase in competition between airlines for providing low-cost airline tickets to tourist places. It
is suggested to use the BigData for understanding the need for the supply and demand with the
reliable data is available it will help in forecasting the and help inadequately diluting the tourist
flow, avoiding the unpleasant queues and inconvenience. In order to manage the overflow of
tourism, good governance and political strategies from local governments are required at the
tourist destinations.

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