Combating overtourism: Destinations switch from marketing to management

Photo by Jan Tinneberg

Destinations may be reopening their doors to tourism, but many are doing so with caution. It isn’t just the pandemic complicating travel’s bounce back, it’s that the world is different now – and there’s a growing sense of urgency that we share and explore the planet in a far more sustainable way.

The old ‘heads in beds’ marketing model, focused on attracting ever-higher tourist numbers to already crowded destinations, suddenly seems outdated, ludicrous even, in the face of climate change and environmental degradation. As we know, too many visitors concentrated in one place strains resources, vexes local people, damages ecosystems – and makes a place far less enjoyable for the visitors themselves.

Destination management, not marketing, is emerging as the more valuable tool to address and prevent overtourism, and to enable tourism bodies to gain more control over who visits, how they behave, and what they take away from the experience.

Using a mix of storytelling, community engagement, tighter regulations, and education (one size does not fit all), forward-thinking destinations are working to entice environmentally mindful travelers who respect the people and culture of a place. Attracting high-value, low-impact travelers who stay a little longer, spend a little more, take it a little slower and even do some good while they’re there is increasingly being seen as an effective way to reduce overtourism.

Sustainable and regenerative travel were already buzzwords before the pandemic hit, but talk is escalating into action as travelers plan trips, take to the skies, and finally take the overseas trips they’ve been dreaming about through the long months of the pandemic. The strategies and goals the tourism industry puts in place now – before global travel fully resumes – will have wide-reaching impacts for generations to come.

Local Input

Photo by GLP Films

The rise of destination stewardship means the views of a variety of stakeholders are finally being taken into account as the focus shifts away from maximizing tourist numbers. Non-profits, government agencies, and tourism players are all being invited to share their views, and local communities are being asked more often what they think, how they feel, and how they’d like to see tourism evolve in the place they call home.

As Center for Responsible Travel co-founder Martha Honey points out, a responsible travel approach is actually better for the traveler. “It’s not just the right thing for the planet, or for the local community, or the environment, but it actually provides a superior vacation.” In the newly released book, Overtourism: Lessons for a Better Future, Honey and co-author Kelsey Frenkiel chart a course towards managing tourism better using an inclusive and collaborative approach.

“Responsible tourism cannot be sustained when it is designed by a homogeneous group of people, because they cannot speak to all the ways that tourism benefits or harms diverse communities,” they write. “All stakeholders need to be represented, in one form or another, in tourism planning.”

Let’s take a look at some of the ways destinations are trying to change tourism for the better.

Hawai’i

Photo by Peter Lloyd

Local residents who rejoiced at empty beaches and quiet roads during the travel hiatus are feeling the jarring effects of tourism’s return. The aloha spirit can’t help but sag in the face of banked-up traffic, lines outside restaurants, and impatient vacationers jostling for a poolside sun lounger – or worse, behaving badly at the expense of local people. Hawai’i is heaving with low-spending mainlanders in a case of too many too soon.

The Hawai’i Tourism Authority (HTA) has launched a regenerative tourism campaign encouraging visitors to travel more mindfully. The campaign’s video series features local people sharing stories of their connection to the land, and sends a powerful message that visitors play an important role in protecting and restoring the real Hawaii.

The campaign is the result of Hawai’i’s regenerative tourism action plan, formulated with local input. Surveyed local residents made it clear they wanted illegal vacation rentals stamped out, visitors to be educated on how to take better care of the islands, and fees introduced for access to congested state parks and trails. The plan also focuses on measuring the social and cultural benefits of the visitor economy, rather than purely profits. 

As GLP founder Rob Holmes pointed out in a recent Skift article on Hawai’i overcrowding, the campaign balances education and inspiration through character-driven and community-led storytelling.

“The tourism board should be commended for engaging stakeholders in the community and giving travelers the tools and inspiration to be part of the solution,” Holmes says, adding that the campaign reframes Hawaii’s measure of success by celebrating regeneration and preventing overtourism rather than pushing for more visitors.

Practical measures being implemented or considered to reduce overtourism include raising the hotel room tax from 15 to 18%, capping visitor numbers to Oahu’s popular Hanauma Bay (and doubling the entrance fee), and introducing a visitor impact fee in Maui (still under debate).

Hawaiian Airlines is doing what it can to influence visitors too. Its new in-flight video asks people to explore the islands with care and offer their Kokua (help) to preserve Hawai’i’s natural resources, cultures, and communities.

Europe

Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Barcelona, and other popular European cities have long grappled with how to manage overtourism, trying everything from banning big cruise ships, city-center tourist buses and red-light district tours to diverting tourists away from stop-offs made popular on social media. The Netherlands removed an ‘I Love Amsterdam’ sign from the front of Rijksmuseum, for example, to deter the 6000-plus people coming to the site each day to take that all-important selfie.

Photo by Red Morley

Amsterdam is a victim of its own success, having invested heavily into marketing the city as a tourist destination after the 2008 global financial crisis. Cheap flights, the rise of vacation rentals via the likes of Airbnb, and its reputation as an anything-goes party capital contributed to the challenging position the city now finds itself in. Amsterdam has a population of just over a million, but more than 19 million tourists flock there in a typical (pandemic-free) year.

Tourism management, not marketing, has become the priority, as the city works to deter low-budget drinkers and pot smokers in favor of higher-spending, longer-staying visitors who are better behaved.

New Zealand

Eco-tourism is growing fast in New Zealand, but it’s effort, not luck that’s behind it. Tourism New Zealand has long incorporated the Māori principles of manaakitanga (hospitality) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship) in its campaigns to welcome visitors while encouraging them to respect its unspoiled ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ environment.

By 2019, however, tourists were swelling the country’s population of 5 million by 11 million visitors annually. Encouraging them to take the Tiaki Promise to protect and preserve the island nation’s land and culture was no longer enough – the numbers were beginning to take their toll.

Borders have been closed for the duration of the pandemic, giving New Zealand time to regroup and move forward, not just in the hope of keeping tourism sustainable, but to step into a new chapter of regenerative travel.

Reducing the impact of social media is one way New Zealand hopes to prevent the degradation of natural areas. A campaign launched in January encourages domestic (and future international tourists) to stop traveling under the ‘social media influence’ and #trysomethingnewNZ by taking selfies and other photos that haven’t been captured and posted countless times before.

Iceland

Instead of reigning in budgets during the pause in travel, Iceland boosted spending on tourism by 40% in 2020 to upgrade visitor infrastructure in national parks. The Nordic nation is also striving to attract tourist quality over quantity with a new visa allowing foreign visitors to stay for up to six months – as long as they earn a monthly salary of more than 1million ISK (USD $7,764). Attracting high-earning visitors who want to travel slowly (spending as they go) is one way Iceland is navigating the challenge of sustained economic growth whilst also conserving the environment.

Less well-off travelers aren’t being excluded, but they are being encouraged to explore more remote areas. By adding two new routes to the well-traveled ring road circumnavigating the island, Iceland hopes to spread tourist numbers.

Photo by Tim Trad

Need a hand telling a different story about your destination or sustainable brand? GLP specializes in storytelling and content marketing that drives sustainability forward. Let’s talk.