Tourists clog the narrow streets of Copenhagen’s popular Nyhavn district. (Image: Jim Glab)
When you’ve traveled to overseas destinations, have you sometimes found yourself overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of other visitors at popular places– and perhaps felt bad about being part of the whole spectacle?
Some of those destinations feel bad about it, too; and in spite of the millions of dollars that tourists spend, some places are starting to push back against the numbers, the noise and the occasional naughtiness.
That’s according to a recent report in the New York Times, which cited actions that various destinations have been taking to preserve their sanity and dignity in the face of tourist hordes.
In Copenhagen, for instance, the city has established “quiet zones” where tour guides and their charges have to shut up. The Danes also bar foreigners from buying beachfront property, and encourage them to use bicycles for in-town transportation, the report notes.
The visitor onslaught has been so serious in Barcelona — where the number of annual visitors exceeds the number of residents by more than six to one — that the city imposed a year-long ban on the opening of any new tourist accommodations.
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Disrespectful or illegal visitor behavior has also part of the reason for the pushback, including recent reports of tourists posing nude at heritage sites or places sacred to the locals. And media reports about outrageous behavior by some nationalities, especially unsophisticated tourists from China, have been numerous.
“The United Nations World Tourism Organization projects that by 2030, global tourism will reach 1.8 billion trips a year,” the Times report says. “It is now so big that it will inevitably be part of conversations about climate change, pollution and migration. Without serious government attention, many beloved places will be at risk of being trammeled and damaged — what those in the tourism industry call being loved to death.”
Readers: Which destinations have you visited that seem to be the most overrun by tourists? What’s the most obnoxious tourist behavior you’ve witnessed?
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There can always be too much of a good thing. An empty street is unexciting, but huge crowds are uncomfortable and often intimidating or dangerous. Best to find a happy medium wherever you go if you can. Suggestion: Travel off season, when fewer people take vacations.
I just returned from Paris and I could swear that I have not seen a place that had more Chinese, Filipinos and Vietnamese. Have to say they were the rudest people I’ve ever seen in my whole life. I saw so many acts of rudeness at the Louvre between pushing, shoving and trying to take away things like seats that you’re holding for others. I couldn’t get out of Paris fast enough and of course what do you think I find at the airport but more Chinese, Filipinos and Vietnamese being even more ruder.
Siem Reap and Angkor Wat were very overrun with tourists. I felt I was in some S.E. Asian version of Las Vegas and Disneyland.
Recall the 2012 Summer Olympics was noted for renters being put out in the street and replaced by those willing to pay the big sterlings, even for a short period of time. Two years later, the Russians returned to Soviet standards for the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
And when the tourist money dries up, how many become unemployed?