TOUR BUSES AT THE PERITO MORENO GLACIER, LOS GLACIARES NATIONAL PARK, ARGENTINE PATAGONIA. PHOTO: JONATHAN TOURTELLOT
“Overtourism has been manifesting itself for over two decades in popular countries like Spain, Italy, and France. But somehow the population pressure hit the red zone this year. Says one colleague, “It’s the topic du jour. The phrase is on the lips of every travel expert, every pseudo-expert, and every travel industry opportunist.”
Residents have raised a chorus of protest: “Too many tourists!”
No surprise. From Barcelona to Venice, from Reykjavik to Santorini, residents have raised a chorus of protest: “TOO MANY TOURISTS!” Plenty of visitors chime in: Not what we came for. How can a visitor experience the delights of a foreign city if the streets are packed with thousands—yes, thousands—of cruise-ship passengers and lined with global franchises to cater to them? Serious travelers increasingly dismiss such places—“too touristy.”
Pressed beyond tolerable limits, some destinations are fighting back. Dubrovnik is instituting severe caps on cruise passengers, as is Santorini. Italy’s Cinque Terre is ready to impose quotas on people hiking between the five picturesque villages. The Seychelles wants to limit hotel sizes to protect their reputation as an Indian Ocean paradise.” (To be Continued next week)
Kate,
Weather this morning was picture perfect and clear- Tourists will be on the rampage this week if this is the case! Monterey is never going to put a limit on tourists- I think that is a pipe dream.
Seems the fundamental issue is simply (ha!) planetary over-population.
KSBW News did a segment on the overcrowding and problems in Sycamore Canyon a couple of months ago when it was relatively mellow. They should have done it this week as it is a complete circus this time of year, especially when weather is nice. I went yesterday just to visit friends and almost lost my mind. 10 minutes just to get from highway to Parks Management employee at top of road. Then 10 minute log jam in narrowest part of road in front of Penny’s. Something needs to be done to help the residents who live off that road because it is such a negative impact on their everyday life and possibly to their property values.
I think limited online reservations and a gate at top would be a potential solution.
The real problem seems to be that the folks who make money off the tourists want to expand past the limit. I quit going to most National Parks decades ago because they were just getting to be traffic jams nearly anywhere you tried to go… unless you got off the beaten track, but even then it wasn’t quite the peace and quiet it once was.
This is a NIMBY. Have you been driving anywhere in the Bay Area lately. It is jammed everywhere. Try driving in LA. There are too many people in this state. It is everywhere. In 1974 you could walk down the middle of Hwy 1 in Carmel this time of the year and not hardly see any cars. Not today. There is a rush hour traffic even in Carmel at 9:00 am and 3:00-4:00 pm.
The situation on sycamore canyon is pretty out of hand, the forest service need to finally take action on the plan to implement a shuttle.
HNY page has turned this site into a blizzard…
Our County Supervisors should come down the coast this week and try to stop at Bixby Bridge, Pfeiffer Beach, Nepenthe Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, etc. Maybe then they would get an idea of what’s really going on and how our Visitors Bureau has over promoted this area to the point that it is threatening what makes it so special. All these areas are not designed or capable of handling the thousands of people going there everyday. Not only does it diminish their experience, it is also a public safety issue for them and local residents!
I forwarded Marcus’s comment to Mary Adams.
https://bigsurkate.blog
Have you seen the video “tribute” to Big Sur, by Jack Johnson, a link to which is on http://www.kion546.com today? It’s Johnson speeding up hwy 1 in Big Sur, starting numerous campfires along the way! Appalling!!!
Kate,
Fires & Earthquakes still make themselves known during this past week. The dare of rain may come true for ’18.
And we had both today in surrounding areas…small fire on Los Laureles Grade today, too.
https://bigsurkate.blog
had to search for the Jack Johnson video but yup, it’s a thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfSXmbAGl8A
and golly there are indeed campfires, IN STRONG BREEZES EVEN! and I like the guys music, but the witless fools of the world WILL follow his lead, sheep that they are. and they ( almost ) all say ‘oh, I’ve got this handled, it’s all good. what’s your problem?’
it feels corrosive to our internal sense of peace to have to be so constantly on defense, ‘hypervigilant’ is the term from PTSD….
I vote also to disband the tourism board, give them a nice handshake on the way out the door and say “job DONE’ don’t need no more of that, thanks. enough already.
and some visitors are indeed nice people, good and sensible, bless them, but others? maybe that’s the job for the tourism board folks : teach good travel etiquette
sigh, well, another beautiful day arrives and we who are here are lucky in so many ways, struggles aside
Kate,
A few tid bits via “Quick Bites” : Mark Anderson/MCW:
• “Big Sur Food & Wine topped its triumphant return with record donations for the nonprofits it supports, pulling in $64,000 for the likes of CPOA Big Sur Relief Fund, CPOA Upper Rocky Creek Road Repair Project, Big Sur Fire, Big Sur Health Center and The Henry Miller Library (who each received $10,000).”
•” Big Sur Foragers Festival is coming up quickly (Jan. 12-14), with a new slate of in-town dinners before the climactic Fungus Face-Off at Ventana Big Sur’s new oceanview lawn (1-4pm Saturday, Jan. 13), bigsurforagersfest.org.”