The Absurdity That Traveling Fast And Often Is Enriching For Tourists And Destinations

The truth is that our travel experience sucks and local places crumble

Hello out there - in a rushed world,

Here comes your weekly permission to Un-rush and Slow Down.

Timeless insights and impulses on how the power of slow helps you grow - in a rushing world crushing your life.

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IMPULSE

We Bought Into The Absurdity That Traveling Fast And Often Is Enriching For Tourists And Destinations

Two things about our way of traveling these days struck me when we returned from Lisbon, scouting for a Street Photography workshop:

1. Resident’s places turned quick turn-over tourism rentals.

2. Streets of life turned congested multi-vehicle traffic arteries.

We've dug into the over-tourism mess so deeply that residents and city authorities around the globe are grappling with a more balanced approach that would allow for a more harmonious coexistence between residents and tourists. In Lisbon, there is no time and space left between the people who can tell you stories about their place and culture and the ducks, tuk-tuks, trams, vintage cars, and Ubers filled with rushing visitors.

Just like the motto of the American police force, shoot first, ask questions later, suggesting taking action before fully considering the consequences, world destinations impulsively bent over backward to welcome tourism as fast as possible without fully understanding the situation.

This is the absurdity. Cities that couldn’t jump fast enough on the bandwagon of tourism hype, now want to slow down, paddle back, and welcome travelers only like a light rain breeze and not have them flooding places like a rainstorm.

Instead of creating a balance right from the start, people and cities stumbled into the salvation bringing tourism business, eyes on numbers and currencies first, anger about destructive consequences later.

Destinations are hitting the brakes to slow down

There is a debate playing out across Europe, as cities wrestle with how best to tackle over-tourism, as well as city infrastructures that were constructed to travel fast (which never worked out). This is not about rejecting tourism but about a smarter, harmonious, and less toxic way of modern-day co-living for locals, expats (or digital nomads nestling in), and tourists on top of it. Looking at misuse of housing, and overuse of traffic and sightseeing sites.

Lisbon, for example, feels like a hybrid of international expats and students, tourists, and some leftover locals.

Cities in Spain started a “sticker rebellion”, marking houses with “This was once my home” stickers or similar messages. It’s not about a rejection of tourism, neighbors got fed up and started a desperate fight for living space in places where tourist rentals have outstripped the number of homes for locals.

The influx of tourists has also impacted local stores. Just look at Venice, where you can barely find “normal” shops to get things for daily living. Local fruit shops and bakeries are steadily replaced with souvenir stands and luggage storage in major tourist cities across Europe. Where is the balance? One resident of a small Spanish town says: “I don’t have anything against tourism. Tourists visit my bar, and I’ve been a tourist. But we have to regulate tourism – me and half the city can’t live like this.”

Posting a video showing missing tiles and damaged facades, Seville’s mayor José Luis Sanz announced, “We are planning to close the Plaza de España and charge ­tourists to finance its conservation and ensure its safety.”

Rushing to see the world diminishes the pleasure of enjoying it

More people than ever on this planet have the means and the opportunity to travel. But this traveling on a massive scale has gotten out of control and resulted in major negative impacts on places and its people. It threatens the environment and locals’ quality of life, and jeopardizes historic sites, city structures, and infrastructures. All of which doesn’t exactly contribute to a great holiday stay.

“Mass tourism is destroying our city.” This is a refrain heard in historic ­cities across Europe. Mass tourism, promoted by cash-hungry councils since the 2008 crash and fueled by cheap flights and online room rentals, has become a monster.

Quick, short-term profit trumps thoughtful long-term planning

And now we are paying the bill for it.

What to do about it, though, is not easily to be answered. It’s a big question after we bought for too long into the absurdity of faster tourism saving our cities and making everyone better off. Slowing down when we love the quick buck and get things done quickly is not easy. Delicate ­balances are needed between the much-needed revenues and jobs generated by tourism, and the ­quality of life of residents. It is a difficult balance between managing tourism and ­discouraging it.

A strategy for some cities is to charge for the big attractions. Or to charge an “entrance fee” for day travelers entering the city, as Venice recently introduced. Another method could be, what Athens did, to install time slots for certain attractions.

It is great that cities and governments come up with all kinds of schemes to manage their hot spot tourist destinations. But it also feels as if the whole world has turned into a Disneyland. If you want to enrich your cultural senses and understanding of history, you have to pay to visit the Hagia Sophia, Acropolis, or the entire city of Venice. That feels “unnatural” and not right but given the massive influx of people constantly traveling the world, it feels now necessary. Every city, irrespective of its size, should ideally champion the ethos of sustainable, grounded living.

Overtourism

The Collins Dictionary defines overtourism as the phenomenon of a popular destination or sight becoming overrun with tourists in an unsustainable way. It is the congestion or overcrowding from an excess of tourists, resulting in conflicts with locals.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) defines overtourism as "the impact of tourism on a destination, or parts thereof, that excessively influences perceived quality of life of citizens and/or quality of visitor experiences in a negative way". This definition shows how overtourism can be observed both among locals, who view tourism as a disruptive factor that increasingly burdens daily life, as well as visitors, who may regard high numbers of tourists as a nuisance.

The term has only been used frequently since 2015, but is now the most commonly used expression to describe the negative impacts ascribed to tourism

What was traveling in the past, and what is it today?

Curiosity and adventure

You can look at traveling from different perspectives. Way back we had adventurous travelers who were curious about the world, cultures, people, and different ways of living. They took on the perils and inconveniences of transport, distance, and no infrastructure on site for travelers.

Availability and accessibility

Then traveling became more and more available and accessible to a broader audience, and tourism structures developed with expanding concepts on how to host and cater to traveling foreigners.

Sharing and immersion

Then there is the perspective of the local person in a place. As a local, you are proud of your place, traditions, and culture and want to share it with others from the outside.   

Bucket lists and Instagram

Meanwhile, bucket lists dictate travel itineraries and tourists hop from one landmark to another. Selfies and Instagramming became more important than the actual experience of the place. Escaping your daily rat race and partying in whatever faraway place became the destination travel purpose.

Slow traveling and awareness

And then…. There is a new sense of traveling. Slow traveling.

Slow travel is not just about reducing pace. It is about immersing yourself in the experience, forming genuine connections, embracing the nuances of the journey, and being aware of where you are and who and what is around you. It is about what traveling has been about ages ago: to become part of local life and culture, weaving yourself into the fabric of a community, its traditions, and its daily rhythms. Furthermore, it rejects those rushing, checking-off-the-list whirlwind trips that leave you exhausted and superficial. Instead, it is about connecting to the place and its people, and not connecting to your device to superficially scan the place.

Photo © by author | Lisbon 2024

What can YOU do?

(plus some links and further reading)