Crowded coastlines. Expensive rental fee. Tourist websites with wall-to-wall individuals.
When it pertains to overtourism, do not condemn the tourists, stated Randy Durband, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
Rather, it’s “lack of management,” he informed “Squawk Box Asia” Monday.
“I’ve been in travel and tourism for 40 years, working on committees and trade associations in Europe, North America and Asia,” he stated. “Governments around the world traditionally just didn’t think they had a role in managing.”
From advertising and marketing to handling
Destination advertising and marketing companies “must change the ‘M’ in DMO from marketing to management,” Durband informed prior to the meeting.
He included that this change has actually begun, however still in its early stage.
“This is the great awakening that needs to take place, that government needs to understand — tourism is a sector that needs management,” he stated. “There are ways to manipulate, to control, to add capacity … to tackle the problem.”
He indicated a number of instances of areas where this is currently being succeeded.
“We see good management of protected areas and national parks,” he stated. “But so much needs to be done just to create awareness that what needs to be done at the government level.”
‘Masters’ of group control
But that isn’t real of China, he stated.
“The Chinese are masters at adding capacity and managing flows,” Durband stated. He mentioned the Leshan Giant Buddha as one instance.
“Everyone comes for the Buddha, but the municipal government built an enormous attraction adjacent to it … that disperses the visitors,” he stated of the location that currently consists of established park and a cavern filled with huge sculpted numbers.
He stated Chinese authorities likewise developed a nerve center with video clip displays that track site visitors at different areas. Of the slim stairs made use of to access the Buddha: “They know before the staircases are dangerously full,” he informed Travel after the meeting.
“I think that many iconic cultural heritage sites around the world, where over-crowding is an issue, would benefit from supplementary, and ideally preliminary sites to view, that prepare the visitor in such a way that they don’t feel compelled to linger at the main attraction,” he stated.
But, he stated, all preferred websites require innovation to “monitor visitor flows.”
Managing tourist ‘streams’
He stated that the tiny French town of Saint Guilhem le Désert transformed the “flow” of tourists after a person in the community passed away from a cardiac arrest and web traffic protected against a rescue from making help.
Residents can drive right into the town, Durband stated, however site visitors are routed to park in a marked location beyond the town on weekend breaks and throughout the summer season, and after that bike, stroll or take an electrical shuttle to get to the town.
The technique can also operate in a city like Barcelona, he stated, which obtains some 17 million site visitors a year. Protestors marched through Barcelona on July 6 demanding that the city reduce the number of tourists who visit.
Demand is not going to go down.
Randy Durband
CEO of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
But the city is focused on “flow,” a spokesperson told Travel last week.
“The measure of success of tourism in Barcelona cannot focus on the volume of visitors but rather on managing the flow of people so as not to exceed a social and environmental limit,” the Barcelona City Council spokesperson said.
Durband said managing visitor flows will be particularly difficult in Barcelona. Unlike other major cities, visitors tend to congregate in the same areas that residents prefer, which increases friction between the two groups, he said.
“Everybody wants to go to the same small area of Old Town, so the dispersion would require a quite substantial strategy to make that happen,” he said.
Still, he said it’s “absolutely” possible.
“Demand is not going to go down,” he said, citing the 8 billion people that now inhabit the planet, and a growing middle class in Asia-Pacific. “So capacity needs to increase, and management approaches to disperse the visitor must improve dramatically.”
