Tourism at risk from too many tourists

It’s that time of the year again when tourism industry people look to the 2020 horizon, cogitating on what the 12 months ahead holds for Ireland.

While record visitor numbers have mixed with concerns over Brexit fallout during recent years, a mood of generally optimistic caution prevails amongst seasoned players in the business as the new year edges closer.

However, as Ireland continues to rack up record numbers of visitors, the danger of ‘over-tourism’ may well become an unwanted by-product of this success.

Many cities around the world are already grappling with visitor numbers so large that they are negatively impacting local commerce — a situation that has given rise to graffiti like ‘Tourist go home!’ sprayed on prominent structures.

Cities like Barcelona, Venice, Rome and Paris are well known for their over-powering crowds during the summer months, and while Dublin and Ireland are nowhere near these levels of saturation yet, the danger signs are gathering.

In addition, the growing concern around sustainability will trouble tourism over the next decade as air travel — so vital to our island nation — becomes a bigger issue.

Tourism is responsible for 5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions — with transport, including flying — accounting for three-quarters of this.

Around 1.4bn people now travel and holiday around the world every year, and while this has brought significant economic benefits to many regions, its environmental impact has been largely ignored up to now.

As the spectre of climate change becomes ever more pressing, the industry will have to factor in better control of greenhouse gas it produces in order to achieve net zero emissions. While the term ‘over-tourism’ has been in existence for a decade or more, it began to feature more prominently in news media around 2017 as visitor congestion in a number of famous places garnered a dramatic community backlash.

As the food markets in Barcelona swelled with onlookers, Rome’s piazzas clogged with strollers, and Venice’s narrow streets plugged solid with tour groups, local businesses reacted strongly with protest marches, demands for better regulation, a reduction in industry permits and even the closing of some Greek islands for certain periods.

Suddenly, ‘over-tourism’ became a hot topic, responsible for damaging the environment and having a detrimental impact on local residents’ lives.

In 2018, the Oxford English Dictionary made ‘over-tourism’ one of its words of the year.

“Factors such as climate change, over-tourism, the disruptive force of new technologies and the growing evidence of an ‘experience economy’ mean that the operational model of tourism must change and, resultantly, the type of tourism policies we develop must respond,” according to Jim Deegan of the National Centre for Tourism Policy Studies at the University of Limerick.

Speaking at the recent 10th Annual Tourism Policy Conference, entitled ‘Irish Tourism: From Bust to Boom in 10 Years: Learning from The Past and Shaping the Next 10 Years,’ Mr Deegan said the challenge for the industry is to “decouple tourism growth” from environmental impact.

“Until recently, tourism as a sector was generally regarded as being clean and benign for the environment, but of course, the large emissions associated with transport and the energy use in hotels and other tourism businesses have now come under the spotlight.”

Ireland has benefited enormously from the growth of tourism — with visitor numbers having jumped from 1.4m in 1968 to 9.6m in 2018.

Recent government statistics showed that Ireland’s tourism revenue targets of €5bn, and visitor numbers of 10m were reached seven years early — prompting the establishment of new targets for 11.6m arrivals and a revenue of €6.5bn by 2025.

While over-tourism is not yet posing problems for Ireland, concerns exist around Dublin’s current lack of hotel rooms, “tourists complaining about too many tourists” and gentrification, where visitors risk pricing out residents.

According to Caeman Wall, Fáilte Ireland’s head of economic and industry analysis: “Our focus on seasonality is paying off; regionality is a longer-term bet. Success in our home market is vital for a more balanced form of regional growth. Seasonality takes the pressure off the current hot-spots and delivers balanced regional development.”

A new global study warns that nine cities around the world are suffering from over-tourism, or facing potential problems due to high visitor numbers.

The Destination 2030 study by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) listed Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Prague, Rome, San Francisco, Stockholm, Toronto, and Vancouver, as the urban centres most likely to be particularly stretched to cope.

Significantly, the report found that high visitor numbers are “testing readiness” for growth in the likes of London, Madrid, and Dublin.

“Tourism authorities in many major cities around the world are working incredibly hard to prepare for the future,” said WTTC president and CEO Gloria Guevara.

“However, for a city to truly thrive and for travel and tourism to develop in a sustainable manner, city planning authorities, developers, investors, legislators and community groups, need to understand how prepared the city is for future expected growth in tourism and the resulting challenges and opportunities it may face.”

As the Irish tourism industry readies itself to cope with Brexit fallout, growing sustainability requirements and attempting a more even spread of visitor numbers across the island, 2020 will present new challenges for a part of the national economy needing careful handling for the demands of a whole new decade.