Overtourism
I recently chatted about selling one’s mother with locals of a far-away Croatian island boiling in the summer heat and drowning in hordes of tourists. The stories, scenes and faces merged into a spontaneous article about over-tourism, a topic that recurringly and increasingly frequently floods the media and stirs public opinion.
Scene 1 / 19 July 2024
On Friday evening, news reporter Rosvita Pesek dramatically announced overtourism on RTV, the central Slovenian TV station. Her interlocutor, Emil Juvan, the dean at the Faculty of Tourism – Turistica, swiftly put the topic into perspective. Both agreed that profits are luring but diminish the quality of life in cities. The problem is our fixation on growth, which we measure through the number of arrivals and overnight stays instead of listening to locals and how they perceive the thronging tourists. For many, tourism is emerging as one of the most notable sustainability problems from the perspective of waste, energy use and skyrocketing prices of apartments. Thus, the question is how much tourism can we tolerate and which measures will help us develop a more sustainable tourism industry? Perhaps the solution lies in rearranging school vacations.
Scene 2 / 21 July 2024
“We are fed up with tourists and waste,” say two older locals in Odeon Bar amid Črnomelj. “They only bring waste to Bela krajina and have no manners. Someone will need to put an end to this.” That is how locals of a destination with a handful of hotels and apartments see overtourism. Practically overnight, tourism has become an adversary of a destination that received the Slovenia Green bronze label for its sustainability efforts.
Scene 3 / 21 July 2024
The European North is frantically racing towards the South. The A1 motorway is jam-packed. Most registration plates come from Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden and other Nordic countries. The call of the warm sea is impossible to ignore. The Meditteranean summons me, too, and we head for Split, as we have been doing for years. I partake in the joint burning of fossil fuels en route to the seaside. Luckily, you rarely see only one passenger in cars. That reduces the negative carbon balance to some degree.
Scene 4 / 21 July 2024
A record-breaking 97 aircraft landed at Split Airport, including 19 from the UK. With the help of Flight Radar, I discerned that 3376 British passengers arrived in Split in just one day. Monday will bring another 13 flights from Britain. According to official records, Split is home to 160,577 inhabitants. On Sunday, that number increased by 2.1%, courtesy of tourists from the UK. If we juggle the statistics, we can calculate that over 16 thousand tourists arrived in Split only by plane. That increased the population of Split by 9,96%. No wonder the city promenade has an incessantly revolting odour of sewer.
Scene 5 / 22 July 2024
Wherever tourists flock in hordes, the gastronomic offering becomes touristified. In Split, the newly established embassies of English tourists are Irish-and-British-inspired pubs. I am flabbergasted when reading the numerous half-witted questions by British travellers on booking platforms who ask questions like: “I am travelling to Split soon. Can someone point me to a good British or Irish pub in the city?” Shouldn’t you be interested in the konobas and local, authentic menus? The emerging Harats (Irish pubs) and Flags (British pubs) are a plague pestering the city once renowned for its laid-back, droll culture and the slogan “Nothing against Split”.
Scene 6 / 23 July 2024
In the heart of Split, I noticed a poster that read #Stanarizajedno – Residents Together. A group of locals in Split who no longer believe in harmonious co-living with tourists has begun collecting signatures to rid Split of mass tourism and apartments for tourists. You can learn more about the petition here. The group is led by the renowned Split journalist Žaklina Jurić. They demand that residential buildings stop being used for tourist apartments and urge authorities to alter the tourist strategy. The initiators underline that mass tourism has halted the normal development of Croatian cities.
Scene 7 / 23 July 2024
Split’s most venerable pharmacy, Varoš, has been serving customers since 1854. Today, it is gloomily vacant in anticipation of the next proprietor. The pharmacy itself began a new chapter in the nearby shopping centre. Locals say they fear the old pharmacy may transform into another British pub or liquor store similar to the World Drinks store vis-a-vis the pharmacy packed day-round. The local media reports about tourists disturbing the night peace: “Every night at 23:00, our agony begins anew…”
Scene 8 / 25 July 2024
Climate activists have glued themselves to the runway strip at Frankfurt Airport, bringing air traffic to a grinding halt. The airport was halted by the radical climate activist group Last Generation. They have been urging the public to stop using fossil fuels by 2030. After almost two hours, the traffic began operating normally again. Approximately 140 flights were cancelled. The protest triggered absolute chaos at the airport, which died down a day later. At Split Airport, the entire air traffic system crashed on Monday, resulting in several cancelled flights. The latest reports reveal the system failed due to a hacker attack by the group Akira.
Scene 9 / 26 July 2024
In Barcelona, protests against mass tourism continue. Protesters and vigilantes alike, armed with water guns, took to the streets to spray tourists and passers-by with water as they ate lunch. They even symbolically shut down restaurants by putting barricade tape around them. During their protest, they demanded that the authorities limit the number of foreign visitors in Barcelona. “We have nothing against tourists, but Barcelona has become impossible for normal living because of the absurd numbers,” said one of the protesters for AFP.
Scene 10 / 27 July 2024
The media portal Slobodna Dalmacija wrote: “According to the number of arrivals, tourist numbers have increased by 12.93%. According to overnight stays, the numbers are up by 14.7% compared to the record six months in 2019. Should there be no negative surprises, the Zadar county will generate over 15 million overnight stays. Most guests come from Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Austria. All come by car, meaning the destination has great accessibility.” That is the logic dominating Croatian media these days.
Extra scene 11 / 29 July 2024
A fight broke out in Hvar between two restaurateurs. Josip Ćurković, the co-owner of one of Hvar’s best-known clubs, Carpe Diem, assaulted Ivan Gospodnetić, the owner of Gariful Restaurant, another hotspot for luminaries visiting the island. The fight ended worst for Gospodnetić’s chef, who wished to help but ended with traumatic brain injury. On Sunday evening, several locals gathered on Hvar’s streets as a sign of support for the assaulted owner and chef. According to Croatia Index, the “silent protest” was not as silent as the name suggests, given the gathered locals sang and blocked the entrance to the restaurant Carpe Diem.
How to move forward?
The fact remains that something has gone awry. The scenes from the past few days are a stark reminder that there are limits – even in tourism.
I have been organising events for the past three decades. If I needed to summarise my mission, I would say it is to convince and enthral foreign event organisers to bring their event to Slovenia and New Europe. In other words, I wish to persuade them to attract as many attendees as possible to our country, city or destination. In economic terms, we aspire our events to foster as many multiplicative effects as possible. The tourist sector benefits most from them. We also strive to organise events in the off-season. For years, we were self-assured that our events would help change the world and create a better society (tourism), transform our attendees, and contribute to a better environment. Only a handful of us believe in the latter. The fact remains that something has gone awry. The scenes from the past few days are a stark reminder that there are limits – even in tourism. We forget that there are limits to endless growth – limits set by Mother Nature and our fellow citizens. I am aware that I represent part of the problem. Radical change is imperative to change our society.
How to move forward, I ponder amid the summer heat on a far-away Adriatic Islet.
The tourism and meetings industries are de facto economic sectors, generating a considerable percentage of the GDP in several countries. In Croatia, they contribute 20% of the national GDP, whilst in Slovenia, they contribute close to 13%. If we added the meetings industry to these numbers, the balance would be higher by 5 to 7%, as research from Germany suggests. Consequently, the carbon footprint, short-term effects (impact) and legacy are high. Impact and legacy, in particular, can be multiplied positively or negatively. The gentrification of cities is certainly not something tourist strategists wish for. In light of recent events, both industries seem to be advancing on the wrong path. The countless certificates, green subsidies, European projects and tourism strategies for development are not solving the core of the problem. Apart from Scandinavia, there is not a single country or region that is not obsessed with tracking the growth of tourism arrivals. The further south one goes, the further this trend becomes apparent. A glance at local media outlets reveals this obsession with numbers. It starts annually in July when media platforms begin targeting us with new tourist records. The picture in Slovenia is similar, although we have been elegantly avoiding directly citing numbers and replacing them with evaluations of the ongoing season. Among Google’s top hits, you can, nonetheless, find articles titled “Slovenian tourism broke records in 2023”. What records?! Perhaps the record low added value per employee in Slovenian tourism? The latter is significantly lower than the country’s average, amounting to 61,003 EUR.
Climate activists (or climate terrorists to some) are further infuriated when reading data about the growth of tourism. It is only a matter of time before they begin launching campaigns at the largest international events. For now, we can only guess what drove them to attack French railways before the opening ceremony of the Olympics. When will such an event occur at your event(s)?
How to move forward?
The fundamental challenge in tourism is understanding the core difference between a sustainable and regenerative approach. In other words, you can see the industry through a firefighters’ lens or the lens of preventive transformation. Currently, we are caught in a SUSTAINABILITY PARADIGM, where we wish to cause as little environmental damage and emissions as possible when visiting a destination. Sustainability means to sustain, preserve and endure. This firefighters’ tactic is championed by almost every destination. In this light, countless strategies, recommendations, strategic projects and other initiatives are invented daily. Although they are praiseworthy, they do not work. If they did, the scenes disclosed in the introduction would never have happened. Many innovations labelled sustainable are, in reality, unsustainable. Consider electric vehicles or glamping, which have been mushrooming in the industry. Don’t glamping resorts usually come with heated pools?
Conversely, the REGENERATIVE PARADIGM advocates an entirely changed tourism model of development. The simplest way to explain it is to understand how a destination improves after tourists visit it. Event organisers can leave a destination in a better state, too. Regenerative events help destinations improve compared to their state before the event. This strategy is one of the most eye-catching features of the Olympic spectacle in Paris. In my view, this will make the Olympics in Paris a game-changer. Up to now, most events were focused on sustainability, creating a strategy for harmonious co-living between humankind and the biosphere. In Paris, however, they have addressed the need to preserve our planet for future generations. Systematically encouraging a positive and regenerative impact on local communities sits at the heart of the regenerative paradigm. It also advocates the model of circular economy. It will be fascinating to read the analyses after the event. For starters, I suggest reading their page here.
The essence of the regenerative paradigm is to understand the difference between two key results of tourism and events in the community:
- IMPACT – SHORT-TERM, measurable (SMART) effects of tourism and events
- LEGACY – LONG-TERM, positive effects of tourism and events on the community
Both can be measured easily and tracked through efficient destination marketing.
If we zone in on the effects and impact, we must understand that they correlate to the end of sustainability fairytales. They herald the start of proper and comprehensive product and corporate measurement of carbon footprint in both industries. The CSRD Directive, the European legislation for sustainability reports, already demands that large corporations write detailed sustainability reports. In an internal study we conducted for the needs of our project, Planet Positive Event, we found out that Generation Z is particularly sensitive to greenwashing. They do not concern themselves with the numerous certificates and green schemes. They expect transparent communication about the carbon footprint of products, even tourist ones. If you don’t believe us, see the projects rolled out by global corporations, including Loreal, Adidas, airlines and other tour operators. Soon, green tourism schemes will trail behind carbon footprint calculations validated by independent institutions. As an example, see what CWT calculates for Booking nowadays. With every reservation, you also get feedback about your carbon footprint.
How not to move forward?
Calculating the carbon footprint of tourism products is vital for several reasons. First, it allows environment-responsible tourists to decide between superior and inferior tourism products. Second, such calculations will force providers to seek and develop more carbon-neutral products. Third, the calculations will drive tourist destinations to consider their net zero carbon emissions.
As it stands, tourist destinations are among the best in greenwashing, even though they often do it unwantedly. That coincides with Pareto’s rule. 80% of greenwashing occurs because of a lack of experience, unapt communication strategies and absence of know-how. Most of the time, destinations greenwash even if their purposes are well-intended. On the other hand, 20% of greenwashing is deliberate. The latter incites 80% of critical reactions from the public. Do you still recall the Rynair controversy, when they turned into Ruinair overnight after claiming to be the airline with the lowest carbon footprint? That scandal made the airline industry far more responsible.
I heard an intriguing comment these past days that tourism is similar to cooking lobsters – locals – who must be boiled alive. At some destinations, tourism is headed that way. Lobsters, though, are fed up with being cooked at boiling temperatures.
Thus, the second part of the regenerative formula has less to do with calculations and more with a holistic approach. It talks about how event organisers shouldn’t progress in the future. Managers of tourist destinations should stop solely promoting destinations and instead become responsible chiefs of their outposts. That goes for both tourist organisations and convention bureaus. The conflict between sales, marketing, development and governance functions within destination organisations is obsolete. This division of roles is the reason for mistakes that lead to overtourism. Often, there is a direct correlation between the amount of funds invested by policymakers into marketing and sales. A paradox lies in the difference in investments between autocratic and democratic countries and the funds they pour into improving their tourist image.
That is why destination organisations must finally take matters into their own hands and begin with serious development management. As they are predominantly public institutions, this coincides with their mission. I don’t suggest they start charging for entrance to their chunks of paradise. For starters, destinations should track arrivals and overnight stays and implement smarter KPIs, such as the percentage of income generated by overnight stays invested into the wellbeing of locals and improving their quality of life. Another indicator would be to track the level of gentrification caused by tourism. The comparison between the average price of real estate in real-time shows this best. The proposed Slovenian legislation for the tourism sector is revolutionary in this field, as it aims to limit short-term tourist accommodations via platforms such as Booking and Airbnb. The legislation aspires to limit such renting to 30 days per year (now limited to 150). Expectedly, the proposal stirred the Slovenian public, as it was envisaged by civil society. This law, if passed, will be a best-case practice of harmonious living between locals and tourists.
In any case, we must stop with the discourse that our livelihood and economic durability depend on the number of tourist arrivals. At the same time, we must give up the war rhetoric that refers to tourist flows as offensives and hotel capacities as weapons used in offensives.
Alas, no one has been voicing their concerns about the adverse effects of annual tourist offensives, such as the carbon footprint of the traffic rolling across Slovenia towards Croatia, impacting the quality of life for many locals.
Some time ago, we thought the pandemic made us shrewder and more responsible. We believed it stopped our obsession with the endless growth and tourism vulgarisation. Perhaps we even learned something from it. However, the wheels of our industry came to a screeching stop due to an invisible virus, and as can be seen today, radical protesters, hackers, climate activists, terrorists and unhappy locals. I hope the problem is plain to see. We will likely be responsible for the negative consequences if we don’t find these matters problematic.
If I want to change the world, I must start with myself
How I could have travelled to the paradise island with the smallest carbon footprint:
- Distance by land: 451 kilometres in one direction
- Distance by sea: 53 kilometres in one direction (33 nautical miles)
- Distance by rail: 429 kilometres in one direction
- Distance by air: 322 kilometres in one direction
IF I COULD TRAVEL BY PLANE
Short haul flight, EF=0,1859 kg CO2e/passenger (644 km)
Ferry – car passenger, 1 passenger EF=0,1293 kg CO2e/km (123 km/passenger)
135,62 kg CO2
SHOULD I GO BY CAR AND FERRY?
Medium car, gasoline, 1 passenger EF=0,1847 kg CO2e/km (902km, 2 passengers in the vehicle)
Ferry – car passenger, 1 passenger EF=0,1293 kg CO2e/km (123 km/passenger)
99,20 kg CO2
SHOULD I GO BY SHUTTLE AND FERRY?
Van, diesel, 6+1 passengers EF=0,2316 kg CO2e/km/6 (902 km, 6 passengers in the vehicle)
Ferry – car passenger, 1 passenger EF=0,1293 kg CO2e/km (123 km/passenger)
50,72 kg CO2
SHOULD I GO BY FLIXBUS AND FERRY?
Coach, diesel, 30 passengers EF=0,0273 kg CO2e/passenger km (902 km/passenger)
Ferry – car passenger, 1 passenger EF=0,1293 kg CO2e/km (123 km/passenger)
40,52 kg CO2
SHOULD I GO BY TRAIN AND FERRY?
International rail, EF=0,0045 kg CO2e/passenger km (858 km/passenger)
Ferry – car passenger, 1 passenger EF=0,1293 kg CO2e/km (123 km/passenger)
18,76 kg CO2
It is plain to see that there are better alternatives than travelling by car running on petrol. If I had taken two additional passengers, my carbon footprint would have drastically dropped. In that case, I would have lowered my carbon footprint by 58% or 57.55 kilogrammes of CO2. We can only start making changes by measuring our carbon footprint. In my case, I could have planned my journey to the paradise island via the following car-sharing platform: https://prevozi.si/.
That is only one example of a concrete activity that arises thanks to carbon footprint measurements. I wish providers of tourist services would help me plan my next vacation. Only a handful of them think this way nowadays.
Hidden in paradise (my personal recommendation)
If you wish to know where over-tourism has not eclipsed authenticity on the many Croatian islands dotting the Adriatic, you will not learn that from me. I am afraid sharing this secret would be followed by the final tourist occupation on that island. Out of 246 islands in Croatia, 66 of them are inhabited. Some remain respectful towards the future of living on islands despite the temptations of tourism. Such humble Mediterranean islands are the closest definition of five-star tourism, associated with Hvar and close followers, Korčula and Vis. In the face of over-tourism, some islands remain hidden in paradise.
