Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Margarite Pardue Anderson asks What are your thoughts on the recent pushback on tourism in places like Barcelona or the Canary Islands where locals are marching through the streets to protest all the foreigners coming to these locations? I actually have a lot of sympathy because of the problems caused by overtourism, but I don’t really see an effective solution. I think you might have some good ideas.

I have a great deal of sympathy for cities and towns that suffer from overtourism. I’ve experienced it firsthand many times.

That being said, the problem with overtourism isn’t too many tourists per se. There are too many tourists in the same place at the same time.

Most people only know about a few placed and so where they will visit will be limited to what they know.

Most people also only have a certain window when they can travel, usually in the Nothern Hemisphere summer.

I’ve been to Barcelona many times in different times of the year. Visiting in December is a vastly different experience than visiting in July. Likewise, I’ve been to Ibiza and Mallorca in December and there were almost no tourists.

Ultimately, the solution is to do what Venice does and charage tourists and entrance fee. It would limit tourism and bring money into the community

If you don’t want to pay the fee, then you need to go somewhere else. There are lots of amazing places in the world, the problem is most of them are not top of mind for most people.