The following is an article “When Tourists Complain Of Too Many Tourists” by Marc Pulisci.
According to Worldometers, there are 7.7 billion people in the world today. Whether you live in America, Europe, or Asia, that number continues to grow at an alarming rate annually, and chances are you already feel that the place you call home is starting to become overcrowded.
If overpopulation is a problem that world leaders have been trying to address for some time now, they now face a new dilemma that has arisen as a result of the world’s ever-growing population—“overtourism”.
Popular destinations such as Barcelona and Venice have long been suffering from overtourism, wherein the volume of tourists in any given location is such that the daily lives of those who live there start to become affected in a negative way. Once considered to be a welcome opportunity to generate extra revenue for tourist-friendly nations, overtourism now poses a threat to some governments.
Amsterdam has too many tourists… according to tourists
Most recently, Amsterdam in the Netherlands has joined the Spanish and Italian cities as the latest casualty to suffer from the relatively new problem that overtourism brings. As a result of cheap flights offered by budget airlines to these destinations all year-round, the influx of tourists in droves is proving too much for some local governments to handle.
One of the clear and present problems that overtourism brings is the inconvenience experienced by the locals. For one, traffic has become heavier in the Dutch capital that has a population of fewer than 1 million. Despite being a bicycle-friendly city with an efficient public transport system to boot, road users are starting to feel the brunt of overtourism as they find themselves having to share the roads with tour operators carrying busloads of tourists that number a whopping 20 million annually.
Going Dutch
Residents of idyllic neighborhoods who value the serenity of their picturesque city have also started to complain about rowdy tourists creating a ruckus as they make their way from one night spot to another in drunken stupors.
Drastic measures such as increasing hotel room taxes and prohibiting short-term rentals on AirBnb are already being implemented by the city council in a desperate attempt to attract more desirable tourists and curb the arrivals of those who are part of the problem.
By employing stricter policies on tourist behavior such as imposing penalties for disorderly conduct, something that Venice has been doing for years now which appears to be working in its favor, there is still hope for Amsterdam and others suffering from overtourism, who simply need to play their cards right in order to arrive at a win-win situation for locals and tourists alike.
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