Tourist Tuesday, 4/2/19: Turismophobia

From the same article quoted on Thursday: “The Spanish have a name for the reaction of locals against overtourism which is turismofobia.”  https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-technology-can-help-us-tackle-overtourism

“By August [2017] the headlines declared that ‘tourists are no longer welcome’, and ‘residents hate tourists’ in these angry tourist hotspots. Meanwhile local governments took measures to appease residents and restore order.

In Barcelona, moratorium on the creation of new hotel rooms and tourist flats in key areas of the city has already been in place for a number of years. In Milan a ban on selfie-sticks was introduced around certain landmarks, while Rome launched a crack-down on littering and paddling in public fountains.” (https://theculturetrip.com/europe/articles/tourismophobia-is-a-thing-and-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-it/

Barcelona and Venice have taken a “punishing” approach by forbidding selfie-sticks, and fining tourists, while Amsterdam has taken a redirectingor “guiding” approach. Here is what the panel member from Amsterdam had to say:

”In 2013, we already knew that because the world economy was growing so fast, and traveling became so cheap, that the amount of people visiting our city would be too much to service in a way that didn’t harm our locals, because in the end that’s our main goal: to keep the city livable, lovable, and prosperous. So we quit promoting tourism, but there was social media. There are so many still promoting our city. And on the one hand, it makes us feel proud, because who are we? We’re the lucky people that can live in this most beautiful city in the world. On the other hand, it makes it hard because you know it will attract more people.

So we try to focus away from marketing, and instead focus on guiding. We’re an open and free country, an open city, and we would love to invite people who save their money and time to visit everything that’s valuable in our city. Only again, we want to do it in a way so that it will not harm the local people.

There are two factors—one is antisocial behavior, especially in the red light district. Visitors come and couldn’t care less where they are, they just drink their heads off. That’s a real problem. To fight that problem we have to meet with police, law enforcement, to nudge travelers, saying that of course they’re welcome and we are a city of freedom, but freedom is based on one condition and that is respect for each other and the city. The other factor is too many people in a certain spot at a certain time. If you’re in the city for the first time, you go to the highlights. In Barcelona, you want to see the Sagrada Familia. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower. But we also know that a lot of people who come to the city are repeat visitors or are Dutch, so we can guide them much more easily to other unknown spots. We have to make sure we can spread tourism but not spread the problem. Other neighborhoods are welcoming to visitors, but up to a certain point.

ME: I thought this was interesting, you did simple things. Amsterdam Beach for example or extending the range of the CityPass so it was free to get outside of the city.

GU: You have to facilitate. It starts from the perspective of the traveler. If I go to Paris, it’s easy for me to go to Versailles. Versailles is not Paris, it’s a different city, but I don’t care. We know from data that people are willing to travel for an hour if they find something of interest. That is why we collaborated with 32 other cities around Amsterdam to ask about their unique spots, and make sure visitors could get there with public transport. We all know that people are becoming more and more lazy—they want to be serviced! If you have to transfer twice, you’re not going to go. So we have a city card and we make sure all of the museums in the other cities are on the card as well, so you make it 10 times easier to go off the beaten track.

ME: I thought this was a brilliant idea: live feeds of the lines outside museums that you could check on the website, so before you go somewhere you can say, “oh that’s busy, I’ll check later.” That to me is so obvious but only you were smart enough. It’s a win-win!”

(https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-technology-can-help-us-tackle-overtourism

(To be continued…)

 

Photo Sunday, 3/31/19

Continuing on with the theme I started on favorite Big Sur books – here is probably my most valued and enjoyed book in my Big Sur Library:

1DBC2B1D-85C9-469F-8097-C71D8C9E7201

 

DDF343A2-4A4A-461D-B619-24CB644757DE

 

68744E96-23D2-4C3D-A05F-630A3A3D830F

If you still have a copy, leave a comment below.

Tourist Thursday, 3/28/19

It seems as if I have so much information I want to share regarding overtourism, I think I might have to add a second day for a while. As we all know, once fire season starts, we will all be too busy to have this discussion!

Here is the first page of a lengthy article I am reading (I will be posting more of it in the coming weeks, as well as of other lengthy articles):

5D2B091B-C5E8-4222-AFF4-62DF18E12EB8

 

It got me thinking…what are the tourist/resident ratios for other destinations? So I looked up a few: The greatest ratio given is 33:1 Here. However, there are other statistics available and the countries with the highest Yearly Tourist arrivals to residents ratio are Andorra, Macao SAR, China, Sint Maarten (Dutch part), Monaco, Aruba with a(n) Yearly Tourist arrivals to residents ratio of (2,630), (2,349), (1,169), (957), (883) % respectively. (See: http://mecometer.com/topic/yearly-tourist-arrivals-to-residents-ratio/)

So, I did a little math. A conservative estimate of the number of visitors to Big Sur given at the CCC meeting on Friday, 3/22/19 was said to be 5-6 million a year. I will use the lower, more conservative, 5 million. The number of residents in Big Sur, being generous, is approximately 1500. What does that make our tourist to residents ration: 3,333% -greater than any country in the world, by over 700%!!

I’ll let that sink in, for a moment.

Tourist Tuesday & The California Coastal Commission

This was an expansion of the oral statement Martha Diehl offered before the community meeting last Friday hosted by Supervisor Mary Adams for our Coastal Commission representative, Commissioner Groome. Martha spoke with Commissioner Groome at the pre tour meeting in the Highlands as Mary Adams requested. That one wasn’t filmed & had no audience so nobody except the invitees heard her. She was asked to give an overview of the LUP to set the scene for the driving tour before the community meeting. She also submitted this letter to the commissioner in this more expansive written format. Remember, the Coastal Commission’s purpose is to increase public access to our state’s coastal regions, which can sometimes be at odds with environmental protections and community needs. This is a long read, but well worth it. Thank you, Martha, for allowing me to publish this!

DC708319-9330-4212-88E5-86037C17FB3E1501357D-C674-41B5-BBB5-A900994BCA04E979F864-4370-4CDF-AAB3-A106F41E3B0FF3817749-A50A-4DEB-9DBA-9E2F0BE7826E2A603BF9-B889-4B6E-8283-D5770AEA242E87E27FA5-563F-4E93-A0FF-0B9A0E10F726868B31E3-B424-4E75-8BDB-5F3AF7319BEA

CCC Meeting now online!

The recent community meeting in Big Sur with California Coastal Commissioner Carole Groom is available online on the Monterey County Government Channel YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edIoIi-B8aI

Maia Carroll
Communications Coordinator
County of Monterey

Found Dog near Palo Colorado-OWNER FOUND!

This sweet guy was found last night, and taken to Jesse Villaseñor’s house. His wife said they can’t keep it much longer, but doesn’t want to take him to the pound. Do you know this dog and/or his owner:

D24906BA-C02D-47F0-B6FB-BB2501FB3792

Tourist Tuesday – Epler Wood International

The quote below is by the same woman, Meghan Epler Wood, who wrote the book I introduced last Tuesday. This quote is from her website, EplerWoodInternational, Here

“After decades of steady growth, international tourist numbers surpassed 1 billion for the first time in 2012. The report shows that destinations across the world are not prepared for the unprecedented demands this has placed on them, leading to alarming reports of overtourism. With growth set to continue exponentially, reaching 1.8 billion tourists by 2030, a global crisis is looming.

While overtourism is an important symptom, the use of vital natural, social and public assets without recompense is highlighted as the core of the problem.  The report suggests that, wherever it exists, tourism places an “invisible burden” on destinations and their residents. The invisible burden leaves inadequate revenue to provide a sustainable foundation to manage the rapid growth of tourism worldwide.

Examples of the invisible burden of tourism include the costs of:

  • expanding local infrastructure to meet growing tourism needs;
  • high demand for scarce land and valuable urban resources;
  • managing increased exposure to climate change risks, especially with coastal tourism; and
  • protecting historic public spaces and monuments.

It’s clear that the failure to properly account for the full cost of tourism growth is preventing action. Therefore, new accounting mechanisms are necessary to protect the very assets on which national economies and businesses worldwide depend.

The report explores innovations in both policy and finance to manage the invisible burden of tourism. It makes a case for public-private cooperation in the design of data-driven mechanisms for managing, monitoring and financing destinations worldwide.

The analysis began with in-depth interviews with academic, business, and global experts and a roundtable at Cornell University. It was followed up with research into current academic and case literature and sustainability studies from relevant fields such as urban planning, protected area management, environmental economics, and the digital economy.

The report will be published in March 2019.”

Closer to home, at CSUMB, Dr. Roberta Atzori and Dr. Laura Kasa are working on a case study on overtourism using as their focus Big Sur and what has happened here. Their case study will become a chapter in a book on this subject. I can’t wait to read both of these reports.

Meet with Coastal Commissioner Carole Groom Friday

Dear BSMAAC stakeholders:

This Friday, March 22, 2019 from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. at the Big Sur Lodge, Supervisor Adams is hosting Coastal Commissioner Carole Groom for a Big Sur community meeting. The meeting will include presentations from your neighbors on how the Commission’s mission to ensure coastal access intersects with the day-to-day experience of residents, public safety professionals, and business in Big Sur. There will also be a 30-minute public comment period.

You can arrive as early at 1:15 p.m. Parking for the meeting will be in the lower lot only.

Please see the attached flyer.

We look forward to seeing you.

On behalf of Supervisor Mary L. Adams,

Sarah Hardgrave

Policy Analyst

Office of Supervisor Mary L. Adams