2024 has been one of the biggest years for tourism in history. As of September, 790 million people had traveled abroad, 96% of 2019’s numbers, signaling that tourism has recovered from both COVID and inflation. In southern Europe, tourism has boomed, with tourist spending in Portugal forecast to be 20% higher than 2019. This has led to recent efforts by European countries to dial back on tourism.
At first blush, one may expect this to be good news for the host countries. For example, 13% of Spain’s GDP is made up of tourism. In Florida, it’s estimated that $1,500 is saved for each family in taxes by the value of tourism in the economy, and I would reason that similar numbers prevail in Europe, with tourism revenue earned from museums and other monuments covering the cost for upkeep of such destinations. Of course, tourism also helps tour companies, restaurants and shops earn more money.
In spite of these economic benefits, southern Europeans are sick of tourists. Anti-tourist sentiment has increased since the pandemic, to the extent that a scholarly paper has even been written with the slogan “Why call it tourist season if we can’t shoot them?” This summer, thousands of locals in Barcelona protested the influx of tourists by squirting tourists with water guns. It is not just locals who have grown sick of foreign tourists. Santorini has vowed to reimpose an 8,000-person cap on daily cruise visitors, Venice briefly imposed a 5-euro charge for day tourists and Amsterdam banned the construction of new hotels.
For Europe, tourism contributes to phenomena like congestion, negatively impacting local infrastructure which is not equipped to handle such high volumes of traffic. For example, the Ile d’Aix in France, an antiquated water network, has been negatively affected by tourism-induced congestion. But there are broader impacts of tourism on local economies.
There are three main factors at play here. First, a reliance on tourism makes incomes seasonal, limiting workers to employment in a volatile industry, where wages are often low. Second, an increase in the ease of travel has contributed to far more tourists staying for shorter periods in countries. On average, tourists stay in Armenia for 11 days or a fortnight in Costa Rica, but only 2 nights in France or Scandinavian countries. This increases pressure on local economies since tourists spend proportionately more on transportation, leaving local economies unable to reap significant benefits from their tourism. Finally, living costs have exploded. With the rapid increase in short-term rentals via AirBnB and other platforms, housing has been converted into short term rentals by owners, which crowds out locals. There are over 80,000 AirBnB listings in Paris, and Girona, Spain uses 59% of its housing stock on short term rentals. Meanwhile, evidence suggests that increases in short-term rentals raise rent for locals. In Venice, tens of thousands of locals have moved away from the city center as they can no longer afford to live in their own homes.
Students who are privileged enough to travel for vacations can play a role in reducing the effects of tourism. We could stay for longer in cities instead of taking day trips, travel in the off-season or visit destinations which are less familiar. Despite the fact that social media has affected how we travel, inducing us to visit specific hot spots for clout, we need to be mindful of the effect we have on local environments. Besides, there are some countries actively trying to attract tourists that still make good vacation destinations, such as Morocco.
Policymakers in Europe should also adapt to better combat the worst excesses of tourism. Current efforts to reduce day-trippers, such as cruise limits or bans, are a good start, but more needs to be done. Countries could increase programming designed to entice tourists to travel in the off-season or visit less known destinations. Furthermore, countries should not seek to deter tourists entirely, but rather plan for them in a way that affects local economies in a less detrimental way. This would primarily demand that countries loosen infrastructure and hotel planning rules. Part of this also involves enforcing rules against short-term rentals without necessarily banning them altogether. San Diego, for example, has limited short-term rentals in touristy areas to 30% of housing stock and 1% of housing in other parts of the city, while London has limited the time short-term rentals can operate to 90 days a year. This can limit the harmful effects of tourism, ensuring that cities are not overrun by tourists while maintaining tourism’s economic benefits. If tourists become more conscientious and try to avoid overcrowding popular destinations while those destinations engage in policies which do not do away with tourism entirely, summer holidays can once again become beneficial for all parties.
