Tourism Recreation Research

ISSN: 0250-8281 (Print) 2320-0308 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtrr20

Is over-tourism the downside of mass tourism?

To cite this article: (2018) Is over-tourism the downside of mass tourism?, Tourism Recreation
Research, 43:4, 415-416, DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2018.1513890

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2018.1513890

Published online: 10 Sep 2018.

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TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH
2018, VOL. 43, NO. 4, 415–416
https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2018.1513890
EDITORIAL
Is over-tourism the downside of mass tourism?
Over-tourism is a new-found word to be introduced in
the tourism lexicon. Only Collins online dictionary
describes it as ‘a phenomenon of popular destinations
or sights becoming overrun by tourists in an unsustain-
able way’. It is different from mass tourism or the
concept of crowding. Gathering a large number of
people/tourists at a destination always leave behind pol-
lution, littering and other negative effects that destroy
the amenity and freshness of a place. Over-tourism
menace is not confined to big cities, it can happen even
in green national parks. The best destinations, whose
residents love their dwelling place to death, guard their
landscape cautiously and protect it against negatives
perpetuated by the presence of too many people.
Over-tourism came into usage in 2017, although the
term was introduced earlier; but the phrase did not
gain the popularity that it deserved. As over-tourism
increases, residents find it difficult to enjoy their place
because of traffic jams, degradation of landscapes, con-
gestion and vandalism. In other words, the presence of
over tourism can be suspected when local people
cannot walk on the street without rubbing shoulders
with crowd of tourists. Some scholars are of the
opinion that sometimes people gather together for
some cogent reason, such as warning or a clarion call
of some impending conflicts or even a brawl. Sometimes
local people do not like to host too many visitors for
reason of carrying capacity limitation. Such instances
create unrest and anxiety amongst the local people –
they believe that they own the land and therefore they
have legitimate right to protect and preserve it against
misuse.
Over-tourism describes destinations where the host or
guest, locals and visitors feel that there are too many visi-
tors and that quality of experience is at stake. Over-
tourism is now a global problem. Unstoppable tourism
is galloping fast. Practically every country of the world
practices tourism, good or bad. Presently over one
billion people are on the move. The West has the
largest share; countries like France, Spain USA, and
Germany have taken the lead, while China is coming
up as the top most tourist generating country of the
world. Most international trips are to Europe (66%) and
North America (30%). With the increase of mass
tourism, domestic tourism also emerged notably.
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Currently, domestic tourism is reported between 5 and
6 billion a year (Harrison, 2017; UNWTO, 2013). In some
countries, domestic tourism amounts to more than five
times of international tourists (Ghimire, 2001).
As said earlier, gathering of people at any location is
not necessarily over tourism or mass tourism. The latter
is a form of tourism that involves tens and thousands
of people going to the same resort often at the same
time of the year. It is the most popular form and the
cheapest way of enjoying holidays. In most cases, it is
in the form of package tourism. Tourism has the propen-
sity to grow faster, much like wildfire, and in this process
environment has to pay the price. Nevertheless, mass
tourism brings wealth which helps poor countries in
the Third World and creates employment opportunities.
In 2014, tourism generated 9.8% of global GDP and
supported 277 million jobs: in other words, 1 out of 11
jobs worldwide (World Travel and Tourism Council
[WTTC], 2014). All-out efforts are made to increase
tourist numbers without caring for the limits to growth
or threshold of carrying capacity of a biosphere, resulting
in the loss of environment. Tourism is a game of numbers
– more the merrier – but excess growth in tourism is dis-
astrous. In fact, environment is tourism. Ideally, countries
with most tourists per head of population suffer from
over tourism. Metro cities all over the world suffer from
over-tourism.
In Europe, excess growth of tourism breeds problems
that local people bear the brunt of. Very often over-
tourism creates animus and hatred between the host
and guest societies. Barcelona in Spain is a living
example of this facet. Recently, this enchanting city has
witnessed a huge mass of people marching on the
street to demand that Spanish government should
allow more refugees into the country than visitors.
They cried en-mass ‘tourists go home’ (Burgen, 2018).
Because of over tourism and the discomfort and
unease caused to people by tourists, locals begin to
hate them when they know tourism is their wherewithal
and socio-economic support; tourism is indeed Barcelo-
na’s major industry. Tourism at the cost of ‘too many’ is
not only a threat to environment security, but a chal-
lenge to amenity resources.
Most tourism grows into mass tourism (Butcher,
2017). Big urban attractions turn into necropolises.
416 EDITORIAL
Many promising cities of Europe, particularly metros
suffer from over-tourism. Even in the Third World
countries, large cities have developed into gigantic
urban agglomerations: for example, Mumbai and
Kolkata also have developed this character.
Goa in India may not have attained oversize but its
story very much resembles with Barcelona’s episode.
Goa, with its fishing villages, was discovered by the wan-
dering Hippies in 1960s but soon it was placed on the
world map. According to Directorate of Tourism, Goa
attracted 92,667 tourists in 1985 but the number shot
up to 680,683 in 2016; the flow goes on. Creation of
Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) was the first achievement
of Goan community. Goankers, are a strong, religious and
ethical community who have their own idea of building a
soft, benign and organic sustainable tourism area
whereas the state government was interested in
leisure-oriented commercial tourism. This raised conflict
and as a measure of defence, Goans organised a civilian
army of local people who pressed the Goan government
to retain Goa’s traditional economy or they would not
allow foreigners to nudism and naked dancing at
Anjuna resort. They, with the help of law, stopped con-
struction of 5-star hotels, razed many high-cost hotels.
They did not allow passenger jets to land on Goan soil.
This anti-tourism battle goes on.
Tourism is what people make of it. Tourism is not only
a business; it has its physical, social, cultural and political
aspects. These bottom lines have limits which should be
respected. Stakeholders and researchers of tourism
should find ways to make the destinations a better
place to live in or visit.
Harold Goodwin suggests that responsible tourism
can ward off many negative aspects of over-tourism
such as how to avoid landscape damages, pollution, ani-
mosity and hatred or vandalism caused by over-tourism’s
rowdyism. Responsible Tourism is an antithesis of over
tourism. It minimises negative social, economic and
environmental impacts and increases welfare of the
local communities. It should be noted that tourism is
the biggest user of common pool resources which
should be parsimoniously used, properly consumed
and wisely harvested. Loss of these resources would
fuel pandemonium: local people are displaced; green
lawns go bare; beaches littered. The big problem is
that if over-tourism continues to destroy destinations,
the world shall be shorn of it beauty. If we really love
our planet Earth, we have to care for its health by control-
ling ever-increasing human population. While birthrate
has declined in many parts of the world, the human
population is still increasing by about 80 million a year
(UN, 2012). This demographic inertia must stop for sus-
tainability – unless society as a whole adopts sustainable
culture, we cannot think of a sustainable world – too
many people would create blind spots; tourism will die
its own death. In the words of William Wordsworth, the
English poet, ‘the world is too much with us’ – too
much pollution, too much poverty, too much population
– will make this planet an inferno.
There is a need to understand over-tourism phenom-
enon and its impacts on society. The noble objective of
tourism is to promote fellow feeling and brotherhood,
not avarice or hatred. I hope scholars of tourism would
further explore this field of study and submit their
findings for better discourse.
References
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Why Barcelona chose migrants over visitors. Retrieved from
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Butcher, J. (2017). The morality of mass tourism. In D. Harrison &
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Ghimire, K. B. (2001). The native tourist: Mass tourism within
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Editor-in-Chief