# Overtourism: Causes, Impacts, and Global Hotspots

## Executive Summary

Overtourism represents a critical challenge in the global tourism industry, characterized by excessive tourism that negatively impacts destinations, local communities, and ecosystems.

This report examines the phenomenon of overtourism through multiple lenses—its definition, causes, widespread impacts, and notable global hotspots—while also exploring potential strategies for more sustainable tourism management.

The analysis reveals that overtourism stems from complex economic, social, and environmental factors that require comprehensive, balanced approaches to address effectively.

## Introduction

Overtourism occurs when tourist numbers exceed a destination's capacity to handle them, resulting in deterioration of the visitor experience, harm to local communities, and damage to natural environments.

As Raki Phillips, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, notes, addressing overtourism requires looking beyond just environmental concerns to include "social and economic sustainability" aspects as well.

This holistic approach is essential for developing truly sustainable tourism policies that protect local communities and natural resources while still allowing for economic benefits.

## Causes of Overtourism

### Economic Drivers
Tourism is often a primary economic engine for many destinations.

In Greece, for example, tourism is described as "the country's biggest revenue engine," creating strong government incentives to prioritize tourism growth.

In Croatia, tourism accounts for 20% of GDP—higher than the share of all industry—demonstrating the powerful economic incentives that drive destinations to attract ever-increasing numbers of visitors.

### Lack of Regulation and Planning
Several documents highlight how insufficient regulation contributes to overtourism.

One Russian document mentions how "lack of proper control" led to negative results, including infrastructure problems affecting both tourists and locals.

In many destinations, tourism development has outpaced planning and regulatory frameworks, leading to uncontrolled growth.

### Infrastructure Development Pressures
Documents from Pakistan mention how developing roads and tourism-related infrastructure could attract more visitors and foreign exchange, suggesting that infrastructure improvements, while beneficial, can also contribute to overtourism by making previously remote areas more accessible.

## Impacts of Overtourism

### Social Impacts
Overtourism creates significant social challenges for local communities:

- **Resident Displacement and Lifestyle Disruption**: In Athens' Plaka district, residents express concern that overtourism is "destroying the reason they come: the end of charm and tradition.

" The area has become so overrun that it resembles a "faux ancient Greek Disneyland.

"

- **Community Tension**: In Binibeca Vell, Menorca (known as the "Spanish Mykonos"), a village with just over 200 permanent residents receives 800,000 holidaymakers annually.

Residents complain about noisy tour guides, rubbish, and tourists taking selfies, leading to calls for authorities to take action.

- **Protest Movements**: Anti-tourism sentiments have become so strong in parts of Spain that thousands have protested with signs saying "SOS tourism" and "Tourism is eating us" in Majorca, Ibiza, and Tenerife.

### Environmental Impacts
The environmental consequences of overtourism are severe:

- **Ecosystem Disruption**: On Koh Lipe, a small island (2 miles long and 1.

5 miles wide) with 133 hotels, mass tourism has caused significant environmental problems.

During the pandemic, when tourism stopped, endangered species returned to their natural habitats, highlighting how tourism had displaced them.

- **Pollution**: Plastic pollution is a visible impact, with "piles of plastic bags" washing up onto beaches from the sea, demonstrating how tourism contributes to environmental degradation.

- **Resource Strain**: Overtourism can lead to infrastructure problems, with reports of "interruptions with electricity and water supply" affecting both tourists and locals in some destinations.

### Economic Impacts
While tourism can bring economic benefits, overtourism creates economic challenges:

- **Seasonal Vulnerability**: The pandemic revealed how communities dependent on tourism can suffer when visitors disappear, raising questions about local survival when tourism stops.

- **Inequitable Distribution**: Economic benefits from tourism often don't reach all community members equally, leading to disparities and resentment.

- **Infrastructure Costs**: The costs of maintaining and repairing infrastructure damaged by excessive tourist numbers can outweigh the economic benefits.

## Global Hotspots of Overtourism

### Mediterranean Europe
Spain appears as a significant hotspot for overtourism:
- **Binibeca Vell, Menorca**: With 800,000 annual visitors versus just 200 permanent residents
- **Athens' Plaka District**: Transformed into a "tourist trap" that residents fear is losing its authentic character
- **Majorca, Ibiza, and Tenerife**: Sites of significant anti-tourism protests

### Southeast Asia
- **Koh Lipe, Thailand**: An extremely small island supporting 133 hotels, demonstrating extreme tourism density

### South Asia
- **Kaghan Valley and Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan**: Experiencing a record number of foreign tourists, suggesting emerging overtourism pressures

## Strategies for Responsible Tourism Management

### Balanced Tourism Approaches
Ras Al Khaimah's "Balanced Tourism" strategy offers a comprehensive model that:
- Goes beyond just environmental concerns to include social and economic sustainability
- Supports smaller businesses
- Considers the local ecosystem, population, culture, and heritage
- Includes certification programs for destinations and businesses

### High Value, Low Volume Models
Bhutan provides an alternative approach with its "High Value, Low Volume" tourism policy:
- Tightly controlling tourism to prevent overcrowding and overdevelopment
- Implementing a $200 per night sustainability fee for foreign travelers
- Requiring a minimum daily spend
- Mandating visas before purchasing plane tickets
- Restricting air travel to national carriers

### Comprehensive Sustainability Frameworks
As Natalia suggests, effective tourism sustainability requires addressing three key areas:
1.

**Economic Growth**: How tourism helps communities evolve through employment and investments
2.

**Social Impact and Growth**: Fostering social cohesion and community development
3.

**Environmental Preservation**: Protecting natural resources and ecosystems

### Infrastructure and Regulation
Effective management requires:
- Proper regulation and control mechanisms
- Strategic infrastructure development that balances accessibility with preservation
- Coordination between government, industry, and local communities

## Conclusion

Overtourism represents a complex challenge that requires balanced, comprehensive solutions addressing economic, social, and environmental dimensions.

The examples from various global hotspots demonstrate that unchecked tourism growth can lead to significant negative impacts on local communities and ecosystems.

However, models like Bhutan's "High Value, Low Volume" approach and Ras Al Khaimah's "Balanced Tourism" strategy offer pathways toward more sustainable tourism that can provide economic benefits while protecting local communities and natural resources.

The key to addressing overtourism lies in developing integrated approaches that consider all three pillars of sustainability—economic, social, and environmental—and that actively involve local communities in tourism planning and decision-making processes.

# Overtourism: Causes, Impacts, and Global Hotspots

## Executive Summary

Overtourism represents a critical challenge in the global tourism industry, characterized by excessive tourism that negatively impacts destinations, local communities, and ecosystems.

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Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

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Content: Global Economic News
Increasing pressure on the Spanish tourism industry.
Uncontrolled growth in the face of more visitors
There is no longer the possibility of washing up on Spain ’ s little-known beach of Lloret de Mar — like other popular tourist resorts — on ways to conserve dwindling water resources as the country struggles with drought.
While Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the climate crisis, its main tourism sector is under increasing pressure with uncontrolled growth in the face of increased visitors, efforts to reduce its environmental impact and move towards more sustainable practices.
Danish tourist Jonas Johansson, 28, while wandering in the scorching sun along the famous northeastern resort's promenade, said: "It's a shame.
“Taking a shower is good. ”
Spain has seen very low rainfall over the past year, leaving the reservoirs of Catalonia, where the resort town of Lloret, only 29 percent full.
Since March, large parts of this northeastern region of 7.7 million people, including its capital, Barcelona, have limited the use of water for agriculture and industry to ensure the continued supply of homes.
But these measures have not won the support of everyone in a country where tourism accounts for 12 per cent of economic output and provides 2.5 million jobs.
Sarah Loledi, 55, a receptionist at a coastal hotel in Lloret, said: “Water use can be reduced in many ways, without depriving the tourism sector of the possibility of bathing. ”
"We all live on tourism revenues."
Spain is the world ’ s second most visited country after France, receiving 71.6 million visitors from around the world last year, most of them attracted by its sunny beaches.
David Sorem, a geography expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said: “We can ’ t afford uncontrolled sector growth with more and more people coming and fewer resources. ”
Sorem said a tourist in a four-star or five-star hotel could consume more than twice as much as an average citizen.
Catalonia ’ s regional government wants to ensure both tourists and locals consume the same amount of water by 2040.
Jordi Palaudelmas of the local SOS Yurit group, which has been campaigning for years for a more sustainable tourism model, said: “Water resources are limited, and if we dedicate ourselves to tourism, it means we need to rethink what resources we can or cannot give to tourists. ”
The Samba Hotel underwent a rehabilitation process in 1997 to allow it to recycle wastewater, which has so far saved 215 million liters of water, he said.
In this 434-room hotel, bathroom water is sent to a basement where it is filtered and treated, allowing it to be reused.
This system is increasingly widespread, but the sector still has a long way to go.
Laura Perez, the hotel ’ s environmental affairs officer, said: “We should have done this a long time ago. ”
A few kilometers away, sprinklers water a vast municipal garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Posters show visitors that sprinklers use recycled water, the only type of water that can be used without restrictions this summer.
Like other municipalities, Yurit has for years used recyclable wastewater to irrigate gardens and clean streets.
The drought has increased the use of recycled water by 25 per cent, although the network it provides is still very limited.
Carlos Gil, who is in charge of the parks and gardens of Lurit, said: "In coastal areas, we can save a lot of recycled water instead of going directly to the sea, by finding new uses for it."
In turn, the water park has reduced water use by 32 per cent since 2019 by changing irrigation systems and turning to plants that need less water.
The director of the complex, Julio Lopez, expressed optimism about the future, but stressed that there was still work to be done.
“Spain needs to rethink its situation and use more recycled water, ” he said.
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Content: How to be more attractive to tourists
2
Raushan Uteulina, Akmola region
As part of the execution of the instructions of the Head of State, a working group was created in the region to promote the tourism cluster
photo from the archive "KP"
Among the most promising objects that should become the hallmark of tourism in Kazakhstan at the global level, the Shchuchinsk-Borovsk resort zone is also named.
The other day, issues of tourism development were considered at a visiting meeting chaired by the akim of the region Marat Akhmetzhanov in Burabay with the participation of tour operators and businessmen.
“Today, we have created a working group of experts, representatives of the business community and local executive bodies to jointly answer the questions that hinder the development of tourism, what tools and institutions would be most effective in this matter, ” said Marat Akhmetzhanov.
The unique nature of the region creates a potential for the development of the tourist and recreational complex, however, according to statistics, the contribution of the tourism sector to the economy of the region is only 0.4%.
According to the head of the regional department of tourism Andrei Podgursky, the statistics keeps its records only on two types of economic activity - living and eating in places of accommodation.
But the sphere of tourism is closely connected with the services of the spheres: entertainment, passenger transportation, sales and so on.
Other reasons are shadow turnover or registration of entrepreneurs in other regions of the country.
Today, 90% of apartments in resort areas are rented illegally, many owners of accommodation facilities underestimate the cost of their buildings in order not to pay taxes, in the service sector every third employee is employed informally.
For the development of tourism it is important to attract investors, but in many areas of the region there are no current maps of free land plots.
Available are not updated and sometimes unreliable.
Often, many allotments are not included in the master plans of settlements, have neither a target purpose nor PDP.
It should be understood that the “naked ” land plot is not interesting to investors.
In addition, the only legitimate option for the allocation of land is an auction.
However, this imperfect procedure does not guarantee the provision of land for business development.
Due to the lack of land plots, it is difficult to attract potential investors to new development locations on the coast of Katarkol and Zhukey lakes.
By the way, such tourist facilities as Discovery, Star, Forest and Stars, Orbita are already developing here.
Today, the load of Kokshetau airport is only 2%.
You can load the air harbor only by increasing the flow of tourists throughout the year.
According to the speaker, letters about additional subsidized flights were repeatedly sent to the Ministry of Transport.
Now the departmental commission is considering the possibility of launching flights Kokshetau – Kyzylorda, Kokshetau – Aktobe.
As is known, within the framework of the three-stage Plan for the development of the Shchuchinsk-Borovsk resort zone since 2012, more than 30 billion tenge has been allocated from the republican budget for engineering, transport and other infrastructure.
It seems that much has been done, but the resort continues to experience problems, which the Head of State also recalled.
The President noted that according to the plan, 126 billion tenge was supposed to be allocated for these purposes, and in fact 35 billion tenge was allocated.
“That ’ s only 28% of the funding.
For more than ten years, the resort could not install treatment facilities.
Also, the construction of water supply networks and heat sources has not been completed, ” the President said.
The Akim of the region commented on the situation.
According to him, the construction of water disposal facilities, water and electricity supply, which began in 2017 in the resort area, was not completed and due to the “raw ” PSD – they were not designed for such a volume of infrastructure of the tourist business.
After the projects financed from the Republican budget were adjusted, the burden fell on the regional budget.
But since there are no such funds in the budget, it is necessary to conduct an audit of what has been done and on the basis of the received data to develop new projects and implement them under the strictest supervision so that each allocated tiyn is effectively used.
– The lack of proper control has led to such sad results in its time.
All this, of course, can not but affect the attractiveness of the resort area, where today there are interruptions with light, water supply, and experience inconvenience and vacationers, and local residents.
All these and other tasks will be solved in a complex.
We have a vision, mechanisms for improving and implementing infrastructure projects that will favorably affect the tourism and investment climate in the region, ” said Marat Akhmetzhanov.
In the course of the conversation, the businessmen expressed their opinion.
Among the problems they stated are the transfer of land plots, business lending, lack of personnel, interaction of agricultural producers with tourist facilities and others.
In particular, the chairman of the Republican Association of Children and Youth Tourism and Recreation, entrepreneur Kairat Sultanov proposed to give tour operators the opportunity to purchase food from local agricultural producers, bypassing intermediaries.
According to the honorary worker of tourism of the Republic of Kazakhstan, President of the Association of tourism and recreation industry of Akmola region, Professor Shynarbek Batyrkhanov, the problems of the sphere also stem from the lack of a systematic approach to a unified structure of tourism management, training of personnel.
For example, at the faculties of tourism in two Kokshetau universities less than 100 students study.
- I think there was a productive conversation, an open exchange of views on the existing problems in the field of tourism.
The issues lying in the plane of the decision of the regional akimat will be considered immediately.
The expert group that was created today will begin to work further.
Within a month, its members should submit specific conclusions, on the basis of which a package of proposals will be submitted for consideration to the Government, if necessary, to the deputies of the Mazhilis, ” Marat Akhmetzhanov summed up.
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Trampling Tourists Changing Face of Athens’ Tourist Area Plaka

It’s the dilemma of too much tourism that’s making residents of Athens’ iconic Plaka, a tourist trap area filled with trinket shops and cafes and the city’s magnet for visitors that’s making residents there say will destroy the reason they come: the end of charm and tradition.

Under the Acropolis and home to many of the city’s remaining neo-Classical buildings that define architecture, Plaka is now so overrun in the warmer weather peak period months that it looks like Santorini at its busiest.

In a feature, The Daily Beast noted how the people who are being lured by the government which wants tourism, tourism, and tourism – it’s the country’s biggest revenue engine – have made Plaka resemble a faux ancient Greek Disneyland.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/tourists-are-destroying-athens-most-beautiful-neighborhood
Architect Giorgos Zafeiriou has been living there for decades, in a building he bought and renovated in 1988, a three-story structure that’s more than 130 years old, what Athens used to look like.

From the terrace he can see the Parthenon up close, as can many of his neighbors who are lucky enough to share the view that brings people, even if outside their windows and below it’s a cacophony.

The residents say that it’s not tourism that’s ruining the neighborhood – they’ve lived with that – but overtourism and what they characterize as blind government greed that ignores what it will do the neighborhood.

“When somebody tells me ‘What a beautiful neighborhood you live in’, I usually reply by ‘Thank you, but I want to keep living in here and the neighborhood to continue being beautiful,” said Zafeirou.

He is also President of the Plaka residents initiative and they’ve had it with the noise and the hustle and bustle that’s relentless and goes on into early morning hours, making it difficult to sleep.

Much of Athens is a hodge-podge of abandoned buildings, graffiti-covered structures and an endless sea of filthy, grey concrete buildings that’s the antithesis of those in the Plaka, the city having to build structures fast after the 1950s end of the Greek Civil War as people left the countryside for the city.

Athens used to be avoided by tourists because of that ugliness, or used as a jet pit stop on the way to islands and other destinations but in recent years as it’s becoming spruced up and the young have built a buzz with unique coffee shops and restaurants, once funky neighborhoods have become popular.

PUMP DOWN THE VOLUME

And when you’re in the capital, it’s the Acropolis and Parthenon that are the lure, as well as the Plaka, which adjoins Monistiraki that was the hub of activity during the 2004 Olympics.

“It’s a must-see place to visit when you find yourself in Greece’s largest city and, along with popular islands such as Mykonos and Santorini, it’s one of the most Instagrammable areas in the country,” said the piece written by Demetrios Ioannou.

Tell that to the residents. At an event for the protection of Plaka organized by the Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage (ELLET), Maria Kokkinou, a permanent resident, spoke in front of an audience that included the mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyiannis, about what they have been dealing with as the COVID-19 pandemic winds down and tourists have returned.

“We had a very difficult summer, sleeping with earplugs and closed windows because even the double glazing cannot limit the noise. The traffic is unbearable, Plaka is full of black vans with tinted windows blocking the streets, taking up our parking spaces.”

She also issued a warning: “If we all leave and all the houses become tacky souvenir shops, the tourists will stop coming too.” A 1999 Presidential decree that’s supposed to protect the character of Plaka has been ignored, residents say, and restaurants are churning away and loud music is ceaseless.

“In the last two years the situation has become unbearable. There are days when you literally leave your house and can’t take a step,” Lydia Carras, President of ELLET and a local in the area told the news site.

Plaka has been occupied for more than 5,000 years but the modern times in the 21st Century and the hordes of tourists trampling through have made it lose the reason why people came, the resident say.

Said Zafeiriou, as he braces for what could be a record year in 2023: “All historic city centers if they lose their inhabitants after a while they languish,” without residents and turn into an unreasonable facsimile of what was.

“The state and the municipality must really look after Plaka at all costs. Plaka has something unique and must be protected. And this must be done now before all the residents leave again,” Carras warned about it.

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This report examines the phenomenon of overtourism through multiple lenses—its definition, causes, widespread impacts, and notable global hotspots—while also exploring potential strategies for more sustainable tourism management.

Title:

Content: Skift Take

The UAE’s “Nature Emirate” is on a quest to become a regional leader in sustainable tourism by 2025. Its “Balanced Tourism” approach offers vibrant nature and cultural adventures alongside support and incentives for both new and existing hotels.

As travel returns, destinations and tourism boards pivoting toward sustainability — and those with the most ambitious, authentic, and achievable sustainability goals — will reshape how we travel in the decade ahead. According to Expedia Group Media Solutions’ 2022 Sustainable Travel Study, half of consumers want to see more information on sustainability from destinations.

On a mission to engage this more responsible traveler, Ras Al Khaimah has declared its vision to become the Middle East’s most sustainable destination by 2025, with the goal of attracting over 3 million visitors annually by 2030. Its new “Balanced Tourism” strategy, created in partnership with EarthCheck, the world’s leading scientific benchmarking, certification, and advisory group for travel and tourism, goes far beyond tackling single-use plastic and promoting recycling to scale up sustainability in every sense.

The process began with a policy commitment from Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority and its partners across government and industry, before establishing the benchmarks that progress would be measured against. The second part of the sustainability strategy takes the form of two certification programs, one for the destination and one for businesses, the latter looking to drive sustainability certification for at least 30 tourism businesses initially.

To tackle hot-button issues like overtourism, Balanced Tourism encompasses areas including cultural preservation and social and economic sustainability. As Raki Phillips, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, said: “Usually everybody only talks about the environmental piece and forgets about the social and the economic piece. We wanted to make sure we were supporting smaller businesses and that whatever efforts we make also keep the local ecosystem, population, culture, and heritage in mind.”

Inspired by the blueprint set by countries like Slovenia, Costa Rica, and Rwanda, Ras Al Khaimah seeks not only to build the foundations for sustainable tourism growth at home but to establish a template for other destinations that wish to make a meaningful impact on sustainability without “greenwashing” or sacrificing tourism goals.

Sustainable Development

Tourism is a central part of Ras Al Khaimah’s economy, contributing over 5 percent of its GDP and providing around 10,000 jobs. However, this growth can also threaten the country’s natural splendor, giving rise to issues like overtourism, population growth, and environmental damage.

One way in which the tourism authority plans to combat this is by taking a measured approach to hotel development. Any property will have to abide by newly introduced green building codes that prioritize sustainable standards in areas such as food waste reduction and sustainable landscaping.

“This green hotel rating is an initiative that aims to achieve 100 percent integrated sustainability in all of Ras Al Khaimah’s hotels,” said Phillips. “We’ve also launched our green public procurement program (GPP) to support the adoption of sustainable procurement practices and produce products and services that have a low environmental impact.”

Take the recently integrated Wynn Resort, set to open in 2026. The brand is known for its pioneering approach to sustainability and energy efficiency, with a target of achieving 50 percent renewable energy by 2030. It has already implemented robust waste management programs at its properties, diverting between 26 percent and 100 percent of waste from entering landfills, as well as reducing water consumption and investing in new waste-to-energy solutions.

Sustainable development is also a question of market positioning, whether to developers, existing hotels, travelers, or the wider world. “We’re open for tourists, and we love welcoming them, but the way we message and position ourselves as a sustainable destination sets a certain expectation,” said Phillips.

Hosting upcoming events like the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2023 will also help set this expectation. Working with hotels to develop value propositions that cater to eco-conscious clients is another. “We want to make sure we are able to drive the maximum amount of profitability for hospitality partners,” said Phillips. “We are talking about a 50 percent five-star inventory.”

This means meeting with local community partners to help them understand how to drive a higher average rate rather than focusing on volume business, as well as setting KPIs and incentivizing with benefits such as tax offsetting. “We rebated 20 percent of the destination fee during Covid to help keep hotels afloat. Now we’ve added that element into sustainability, where based on specific metrics being met, we’re rewarding hotels and businesses,” said Phillips.

Attractions With Purpose

Unlike other tourist destinations in the UAE, Ras Al Khaimah has the advantage of being a developing destination — or what Phillips calls “a destination of the future.” This presents an opportunity to do things differently. And by investing around $140 million into 20 projects that will be built according to these new sustainability standards, Ras Al Khaimah is actively walking the walk when it comes to securing a more sustainable future.

Rather than massive attractions designed to drive mass volumes, the projects chosen have a strong sustainable focus, ranging from 50 kilometers of hiking trails to a tobogganing ride called the Jais Sledder. In the mountains, guests will be able to check into Anavrin Equestrian Resort, a wellness resort focused on “healing with horses” set to open in Q4 2022, and Saij Mountain Lodge, a protected and sustainably managed resort featuring lodges made from natural and sustainable materials, opening on Jebel Jais in 2023. At sea level, the proposed Scallop Ranch at Al Hamra Marina will enhance understanding of the marine ecosystem.

Cultural Conservation

Ras Al Khaimah is home to four cultural and heritage sites that are on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, the most among the Emirates. Preserving and restoring these cultural treasures is therefore a crucial part of its sustainability strategy, providing storied alternatives to crowded heritage sites for curious travelers.

Examples already underway include Suwaidi Pearls Farm, the only site in the UAE which still cultivates local pearls by hand, and Al Jazirah Al Hamra, an ancient pearling village of the Al Zaab tribe. Working with UNESCO experts and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a program is underway to restore the village using traditional, sustainable materials by 2025, as well as creating curated tours that underpin its unique tribal history.

Community and Liveability

In addition to these cultural restoration projects, the tourism authority is engaging with the local community by staging over 20 events a year, including the RAK Fine Arts Festival, RAK Half Marathon, DP World Tour, and UAE Tour. Its sustainability strategy also involves programs to help the community think more sustainably — for example, it created a Buy RAK program for local suppliers that have a very low carbon footprint, negotiating deals for local fishermen to be able to buy directly. This will be supported by a carbon-mindful event in December to further educate the community.

The tourism authority also acknowledges the importance of employee well-being, having launched RAKFAM, a series of initiatives aimed at enriching connectivity, community life, and facilities for tourism sector employees in the Emirate. With several progressive policies in place to promote employee well-being, the tourism authority was recognized as the sixth-best workplace in the UAE by Great Place to Work for 2022 in the “small and medium organizations” category.

Ultimately, Ras Al Khaimah is pioneering this holistic approach to destination management not just because it’s the right thing to do. “Our customers are demanding it,” Phillips said. “We know travelers are looking for destinations where sustainability is at the forefront.”

For more information about Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, click here.

This content was created collaboratively by Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.

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Thu 18 Apr 2024

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Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

The analysis reveals that overtourism stems from complex economic, social, and environmental factors that require comprehensive, balanced approaches to address effectively.

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Content:

Thu 18 Apr 2024

2024 newspaper of the year

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Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

## Introduction

Overtourism occurs when tourist numbers exceed a destination's capacity to handle them, resulting in deterioration of the visitor experience, harm to local communities, and damage to natural environments.

Title:

Content: ADVERTISEMENT

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Connie Mudore: What footprints do we, as tourists, leave behind?

Like most tourists, I'd come to a tropical paradise without thinking about environmental problems caused by mass tourism. With tourists gone due to COVID, endangered species' outlook had brightened.

When COVID broke out, I was an expat living in northern Thailand. In 2020, and most of 2021, the country had no access to COVID vaccines. The Thai government shut its borders to prevent the spread of disease. Most foreigners were locked out of Thailand. I was locked in.

Thailand's shutdown of international tourism reduced the spread of COVID and was good for the natural environment. Local media reported that endangered animals were returning to coastal areas. Unfortunately, the Thai economy is heavily dependent upon international tourism. For the Thai people, the shutdown was a financial disaster.

The government launched a program to boost domestic travel and offset the money lost from international tourists. It allocated $640 million to make flights and hotels within Thailand available at a deep discount. It was a chance for Thais to travel to stunning spots in their own country they'd never been able to afford.

Since I love to snorkel, Koh Lipe, Thailand's southernmost island, was on my bucket list. Fellow snorkelers told me the island was touristy but still had healthy coral that was home to 25% of the world's tropical fish. Now that the tourists were gone, it was prime time to go. Snorkeling in the skeletal remains of dead reefs on other trips with mobs of people had been depressing. Most islands in Thailand have damaged or dead reefs due to unmanaged tourism, coastal development, bleaching, and destructive fishing.

There were no direct flights from my home in Chiang Mai to Koh Lipe, so I flew first to sprawling Hat Yai, a city 500 miles south of Bangkok. There I took a minivan to a ferry landing. From the landing, a speedboat whisked passengers across turquoise waters to Koh Lipe. Strictly enforced COVID precautions required wearing masks and getting temperature checked in all public spaces including the boat.

ADVERTISEMENT

There were only a handful of passengers. The ferry rammed into waves for what felt like days but was actually only a couple of hours. By the time the boat arrived at Koh Lipe, most of the passengers were seasick. One sidecar motorbike taxi waited for customers at the landing but the driver looked at me warily. I was a foreigner who seemed ill; he asked to take my temperature. Fortunately, it was normal. Satisfied that I probably didn't have COVID, he let me climb aboard the taxi and then drove the rutted road to my hotel.

Due to the pandemic, my hotel's restaurant had cut back on the hours it was open, reduced staff, and offered a limited menu. A booking site I checked for other lodging said there were 133 hotels on Koh Lipe. Since the island is only two miles long and 1.5 miles wide, that number of hotels — even partially occupied — would mean wall-to-wall people. The thought stopped me dead in my tracks. Like most tourists, I'd come to a tropical paradise without thinking about environmental problems caused by mass tourism. With tourists gone, endangered species were now returning to their homes. Walking along the deserted beach, it struck me that while I could live without ever having been to Koh Lipe, endangered animals had no choice.

After each snorkel, on my way back to the hotel, I walked past piles of plastic bags that had washed up from the sparkling sea onto the beach and through the island's deserted walking street. Its shuttered shops and restaurants made me wonder what the locals were doing to survive.

As hoped, Koh Lipe's snorkeling was good. The reefs were mostly healthy hump coral in shades of brown with patches of pink and purple. Many types of colorful fish glided through the clear water, including a school of silver trevally that formed a giant swirling funnel. But if things continued the way they had before the pandemic, the reefs' and its inhabitants' days were numbered.

The pandemic gave Thais, and everyone else, the chance to rethink business as usual. Thais questioned whether continuing to rely on international mass tourism was a good idea. The rest of us might wonder the same. Is it necessary to destroy the planet in order to take a vacation? For the sake of our world, there has to be another way.

Connie Mudore lived abroad for over a decade. Two years ago, she and her two cats put down roots in Rochester. Originally hailing from the Midwest, Connie enjoys Rochester's small town/big city vibe.

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Thu 18 Apr 2024

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Latest
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Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

As Raki Phillips, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, notes, addressing overtourism requires looking beyond just environmental concerns to include "social and economic sustainability" aspects as well.

Title:

Content: Monday, 09 October 2023 08: 58 GMT
Investing in Smart and Sustainable Tourism Cities
(MENAFN- Alghad Newspaper)
International tourism continues to recover from the worst crisis in its history, with arrivals reaching 84% of pre-epidemic levels between January and July 2023, according to data from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The Middle East, Europe and Africa is leading the global tourism recovery with a 20% rise over pre-epidemic levels, and tourism demand continues to show remarkable resilience and sustainable recovery, even in the face of economic and geopolitical challenges. The number of international tourists worldwide increased by 43% year-on-year in the first seven months of 2023 to 700 million.
The tourism sector in Jordan continues to achieve unprecedented levels since the beginning of this year, driven by the large number of tourists coming to the Kingdom.
Figures from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities showed that the number of international visitors to the Kingdom has achieved a remarkable rise and unprecedented levels compared to the same period of previous years, where the number of visitors in the first seven months of this year 2023 reached about 3.75 million visitors, an increase of 51.3 percent compared to the same period in 2022.
Tourism is one of the main sources of income for many countries, and depends on the budgets of major countries, such as France, Spain and America, for example, in Jordan, the contribution of the tourism sector to the national economy and GDP is 14.6%.
With intense international competition to attract more tourists, many new tourism ideas are emerging.
Capitals and cities around the world have begun to shift to so-called “smart sustainable cities ”, a term that aligns with climate change and significant technological development, to enhance economic resilience and quality of life.
Jordan attaches great importance to the establishment of a sustainable tourism sector, as the tourism sector is a priority in the Kingdom ’ s Economic Vision 2033, as this sector is a key pillar of economic diversification.
Sustainable tourism is defined by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts and meets the needs of visitors, industry, the environment and host communities.
Jordan adopts future and global trends focused on responsible and sustainable tourism to enhance its competitiveness. The Kingdom is working to establish this culture among local tourist destinations, focusing on innovation and digital transformation in this sector to increase revenues and growth and enhance opportunities for SMEs. The Kingdom ’ s objectives of climate neutrality and sustainable economic development.
The Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI), issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF), measures the factors and policies that lead to the development, sustainability and resilience of the travel and tourism sector in order to contribute to economic and social development.
In order to promote sustainable tourism, a holistic blueprint for smart cities and sustainability needs to be developed, covering a variety of areas including sustainable management, performance measures, health measures, investment in digital technology, training, qualification and innovation, business environment, infrastructure development and modernization, including renewable energy systems, and smart green transportation., water management systems, waste management and air quality, agriculture and green spaces, public safety and disaster management, as well as governance.
It is also necessary to stimulate partnership efforts with the private sector to contribute to a prosperous future for the tourism sector, attract industrial and commercial investments and handicrafts, take advantage of the retail and events sectors, and digital marketing to attract more local and international visitors, so that tourism is not the determining factor in the sustainability of local communities and is an important supporter of their resources, thus creating inclusive economic growth through real and sustainable tourism products and experiences. To improve its position regionally and globally, reduce the impact of seasonality of tourism and work to enrich the product and experience of tourism continuously to prolong the duration of stay of tourists and increase their spending, and repeat their visits to enjoy new experiences.
Sustainable development will generate local jobs directly in the tourism sector and indirectly in a number of supporting and resource management sectors, and contribute to enhancing the activities of profitable local sectors, through integrated and sustainable investments through the development of an innovative package of services, products and logistical and financing solutions, designed to empower investors, entrepreneurs and tourism-related enterprises to support them and enable them to take advantage of huge opportunities in the tourism sector. The tourism sector, enhancing Jordan ’ s leading position on the global tourism map.
MENAFN08102023000072011014ID1107209206
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NEWSLETTER

Title:

Content: Muscat : It is necessary to distinguish the tourism market of Oman from other destinations to increase the number of tourists while creating the roadmap on what's the type of nationality that Oman wants, according to a top UN official.

Speaking to the Observer on the sidelines of a regional tourism conference, Natalia Bayona, Executive Director, UN Tourism, said, "To increase the number of tourists, it is essential to have air connectivity, a roadmap on what's the type of nationality that you want and what are the next steps when it comes not only for air transportation, but also to attract luxury and sustainable cruises."

On the visa facilitation report, she said, "We mentioned it briefly. But it's true that the more open a country is, it is for the better because less bureaucracy at the end of the day is for the tourists. I feel it's a very good idea. See the European Union, that's a good example. Nearly 54 per cent of international tourism goes to the European Union."

"At the end of the day, the more open and the more coordinated you are which is much better. It's more efficient, for the tourists," she added.

On sustainability in tourism, Natalia said, "Sustainability is the way you assure economic growth, social impact and growth. And of course, environmental preservation. If you have the three of them, you go into sustainability. So, when you are talking about tourism, the good thing about tourism is that it's the most human economic sector."

"When you are creating a sustainability strategy, you need to think about the three things how tourism is helping your community to evolve in terms of employment, in terms of investments, in terms of social cohesion," she added.

She said that Oman had around 4.5 million tourism arrivals last year and it is not bad when you compare the population. “Compared to Saudi Arabia, which is booming with tourism, the uniqueness of Oman is that preservation of heritage and culture has been made a strategy that is focused on bringing people, but as well to go little by little in the way they get connected to other regions and at the end that can help on the preservation of all the routes that you have here. So, I feel that both models are good. The thing is that they are different on the way.”

2022 © All right reserved for Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

This holistic approach is essential for developing truly sustainable tourism policies that protect local communities and natural resources while still allowing for economic benefits.

Title:

Content: Tourism can create the employment needed to go with economic growth

Summary

  • The share of tourism in India’s economy is a negligible 0.9%, while its share in employment is more than five times its tiny slice of GDP. Policymakers must recognize the tourism sector’s high potential for generating jobs as well as economic output.

Perhaps the most intractable economic problem facing Indian policymakers today is how to translate India’s high GDP growth into high employment growth. One clear message from the reduced BJP share of seats in Parliament, especially its reduced share from Uttar Pradesh, is voter frustration with the lack of opportunities for proper employment and decent livelihoods.

Yet, curiously, the dominant policy debates are all about maximizing GDP growth, with little attention paid to accelerating employment growth. Our economic strategy lens needs to change, focusing on employment growth alongside GDP growth.

In the early years of planned development, the emphasis was on heavy industries producing capital goods. Consumer goods industries were given short shrift. Later, when the consequences of neglecting agriculture caught up with us during the food crisis of the mid-1960s, attention shifted to agriculture and the Green Revolution.

After the foreign-exchange crisis of 1991, attention shifted again, this time to structural adjustment reforms, mainly in industry and trade policy, as well as fiscal policy. But all these shifts in policy were driven by concerns about growth of output, never by the need to optimize employment growth.

The implicit assumption was that if output growth was high, high employment growth would follow. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

If we can now shift our focus from output growth alone to optimizing growth of output and employment, looking at the comparative advantage of sectors through this bi-focal lens, the relative importance of sectors would look very different.

It is in this context that I will make a pitch in this column for tourism and allied activities. This sector has never been considered to have much economic significance, but in fact it has enormous potential that remains mostly unexploited.

India is the fifth largest economy in the world, expected to soon become the third largest. However, it is ranked 39th in the latest World Economic Forum global tourism ranking, with a share of only 1.6% in global tourism income. The share of tourism in the economy is a negligible 0.9%, down from 2.7% in 2019-20; tourism was one of the worst affected sectors in the pandemic.

Also read: India slips 10 spots since 2019 on WEF’s travel & tourism ranking despite growth

However, it is a very employment-intensive sector. The 2022-23 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) indicates that its share in employment is 5.5%: i.e., more than five times its share in GDP. Also, tourism has strong linkages with allied sectors in terms of both output and employment.

Thus, compared to its 0.9% direct share of GDP, the combined direct and indirect share is 1.8%. Similarly, its direct plus indirect share in total employment, estimated at 76 million persons, is 12.6%, well above its direct share of 5.5% (PLFS 2022-23).

This is the core of the sector’s potential significance. If the direct GDP share of tourism could be restored to its pre-pandemic level of 2.7% of GDP in, say, the next 3 years, then the total share of tourism plus allied activities would be back up to 5.4% The volume of direct plus indirect employment of the sector would then go up 95 million.

If that direct GDP share could be further raised to 5.4%, double the pre-pandemic level, in another three years, then by the end of this decade, the tourism sector could be providing total employment of 195 million. These are not small numbers. Yet, such goals are achievable.

To address the scepticism in policy circles about the possible role of tourism in optimizing both GDP and employment growth, it is useful to look around the world at what it has contributed elsewhere. This column has been inspired by what I am seeing in our sojourn through southeastern Europe, how these countries have leveraged their historical legacies and natural features to maximize tourism revenue and employment.

Also read: India’s economic boost to come from tourism finds SBI Research, UP to take lead with Ram Temple

To take just one example, in a small country of less than 4 million persons like Croatia, which has reached a per capita income level of $23,000, the services sector accounts for as much as 61% of its GDP while tourism alone accounts for 20%, higher than the share of all industry.

This is despite its limited tourism asset, a large Adriatic coastline, which is no comparison for India’s vast coastline, the Himalayas and southern hills, apart from its many game parks, cultural assets, heritage sites and innumerable sites for religious tourism.

Sceptics may still dismiss the potential of the sector in India, arguing that its role in a small country like Croatia is of little relevance to India. However, in China, the manufacturing hub of the world and an economy about five times the size of India’s, tourism contributes 11% of its GDP today, as it did before the pandemic.

So the real reason for the unimportance of tourism in India is neither its size nor lack of potential. Instead, it is a policy failure from the beginning to recognize the potential of the sector in helping optimize both GDP and employment and also earn scarce foreign exchange.

But taking tourism seriously will require not only a whole mindset change among policymakers, but also resources and incentives to put a suitable tourism ecosystem in place, from travel options to hotels to efficient high-quality services at tourism sites.

Also read: How to get more tourists to Incredible India

Hopefully, in her forthcoming budget, India’s finance minister will make a break with the past and provide adequate resources as well as incentives to accelerate the growth of this sector. The payoff in terms of output and employment growth as well as extra forex earnings would be well worth the initiative.

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
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MINT SPECIALS

Title:

Content: Muscat : It is necessary to distinguish the tourism market of Oman from other destinations to increase the number of tourists while creating the roadmap on what's the type of nationality that Oman wants, according to a top UN official.

Speaking to the Observer on the sidelines of a regional tourism conference, Natalia Bayona, Executive Director, UN Tourism, said, "To increase the number of tourists, it is essential to have air connectivity, a roadmap on what's the type of nationality that you want and what are the next steps when it comes not only for air transportation, but also to attract luxury and sustainable cruises."

On the visa facilitation report, she said, "We mentioned it briefly. But it's true that the more open a country is, it is for the better because less bureaucracy at the end of the day is for the tourists. I feel it's a very good idea. See the European Union, that's a good example. Nearly 54 per cent of international tourism goes to the European Union."

"At the end of the day, the more open and the more coordinated you are which is much better. It's more efficient, for the tourists," she added.

On sustainability in tourism, Natalia said, "Sustainability is the way you assure economic growth, social impact and growth. And of course, environmental preservation. If you have the three of them, you go into sustainability. So, when you are talking about tourism, the good thing about tourism is that it's the most human economic sector."

"When you are creating a sustainability strategy, you need to think about the three things how tourism is helping your community to evolve in terms of employment, in terms of investments, in terms of social cohesion," she added.

She said that Oman had around 4.5 million tourism arrivals last year and it is not bad when you compare the population. “Compared to Saudi Arabia, which is booming with tourism, the uniqueness of Oman is that preservation of heritage and culture has been made a strategy that is focused on bringing people, but as well to go little by little in the way they get connected to other regions and at the end that can help on the preservation of all the routes that you have here. So, I feel that both models are good. The thing is that they are different on the way.”

2022 © All right reserved for Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

## Causes of Overtourism

### Economic Drivers
Tourism is often a primary economic engine for many destinations.

Title:

Content:

Thu 18 Apr 2024

2024 newspaper of the year

@ Contact us

Latest
Latest
1m agoWhy people fall for misinformation and how to avoid being fooled
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Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

In Greece, for example, tourism is described as "the country's biggest revenue engine," creating strong government incentives to prioritize tourism growth.

In Croatia, tourism accounts for 20% of GDP—higher than the share of all industry—demonstrating the powerful economic incentives that drive destinations to attract ever-increasing numbers of visitors.

Title:

Content:
Tuesday September 28, 2021

Call to protect scenic valleys, rivers from pollution

September 28, 2021

MANSEHRA: The hikers, trekkers and people associated with the tourism industry have demanded the government to protect the scenic valleys and rivers from environmental pollution.

“The scenic valleys in Mansehra and rest of the Hazara division are facing the enormous challenges to natural beauty and environment because of the pollution and changes happening owing to the weather changes,” a member of the International Union of Nature, Sahibzada Jawad Alfaizi told a gathering held at the mountainous resort of Nasar Bagh to mark the International Tourism Day here on Monday.

The hikers, trekkers and tour operations from the Hazara division attended the event and announced to remove garbage from Saiful Muluk lake and Lolupatsar before the current season wraps up.

“It is unfortunate that people living around the Indus River, Kunhar River and Siren River have dropped commercial and domestic sewerage lines in those rivers, polluting water and environment,” Alfazi said.

Niaz Shahzad, a mountaineer, said the Kaghan valley attracted hundreds of thousands of families in summer every year but this picturesque valley was littered by the local business community and tourists.

Waseem Azam, a trekker, said the most of the participants had explored the exotic meadows and scenic destinations in Siren, Konsh and other alpine valleys in the division, adding the government should develop road and other infrastructure if it was sincere in attracting the international tourists.

“A record number of the foreign tourists for the first time since terrorism plagued the country visited the Kaghan valley and Gilgit-Baltistan and if roads and other tourism-related infrastructure was developed, the tourism could attract the foreign exchange reserves,” another a mountaineer, Muzammil Shah, said.

### Lack of Regulation and Planning
Several documents highlight how insufficient regulation contributes to overtourism.

One Russian document mentions how "lack of proper control" led to negative results, including infrastructure problems affecting both tourists and locals.

Title:

Content: Spanish anti-tourism protesters fed up with British holidaymakers last night staged the latest in a string of demos at hotspots.

Thousands took to Majorca’s streets clutching placards saying “SOS tourism” and “Tourism is eating us”. It came 24 hours after similar scenes in Ibiza, and in Tenerife last month.

Yesterday’s demo – in Majorca capital Palma – was planned by a group called Mallorca No Es Ven, which means “Majorca is not for sale”. Members say rowdy holidaymakers, mainly Brits and Germans, are hiking prices and driving locals out. They want a summer limit on vehicles and a ban on using taxpayer cash to promote the island as a party spot. One worried British holidaymaker said: “This is intimidating to ordinary people who have come for a holiday.”

Another said: “If this sort of thing continues, there won’t be many tourists left for them to complain about.”

Protester Daniella, 28, a teacher whose mum hails from Preston, Lancs, said: “Over 40% of my wages go on rent. Tourism increases the price of everything from gas to food and taxes.”

Pal Cati, 29, added: “We can’t drive any more to certain areas because there is nowhere to park.” But British expat Mitch Liebenberg, who works in the tourist industry in Ibiza, said: “They’re protesting their main source of income. What we need is to protest the government for not building the infrastructure to cope with the tourists.”

The Balearic Islands government, which is bidding to clamp down by banning booze sales at night and restricting party boats, said: “There is maximum respect for anyone who demonstrates freely and peacefully. We understand the discomfort among residents due to congestion situations.

“Tourists are still welcome, but we consider that the time has come to talk about containment and limits. We have formed the table for a social and political pact for the sustainability of the Balearic Islands, to make courageous decisions in a rigorous manner, with data and through dialogue.”

Title:

Content:
Tuesday September 28, 2021

Call to protect scenic valleys, rivers from pollution

September 28, 2021

MANSEHRA: The hikers, trekkers and people associated with the tourism industry have demanded the government to protect the scenic valleys and rivers from environmental pollution.

“The scenic valleys in Mansehra and rest of the Hazara division are facing the enormous challenges to natural beauty and environment because of the pollution and changes happening owing to the weather changes,” a member of the International Union of Nature, Sahibzada Jawad Alfaizi told a gathering held at the mountainous resort of Nasar Bagh to mark the International Tourism Day here on Monday.

The hikers, trekkers and tour operations from the Hazara division attended the event and announced to remove garbage from Saiful Muluk lake and Lolupatsar before the current season wraps up.

“It is unfortunate that people living around the Indus River, Kunhar River and Siren River have dropped commercial and domestic sewerage lines in those rivers, polluting water and environment,” Alfazi said.

Niaz Shahzad, a mountaineer, said the Kaghan valley attracted hundreds of thousands of families in summer every year but this picturesque valley was littered by the local business community and tourists.

Waseem Azam, a trekker, said the most of the participants had explored the exotic meadows and scenic destinations in Siren, Konsh and other alpine valleys in the division, adding the government should develop road and other infrastructure if it was sincere in attracting the international tourists.

“A record number of the foreign tourists for the first time since terrorism plagued the country visited the Kaghan valley and Gilgit-Baltistan and if roads and other tourism-related infrastructure was developed, the tourism could attract the foreign exchange reserves,” another a mountaineer, Muzammil Shah, said.

In many destinations, tourism development has outpaced planning and regulatory frameworks, leading to uncontrolled growth.

### Infrastructure Development Pressures
Documents from Pakistan mention how developing roads and tourism-related infrastructure could attract more visitors and foreign exchange, suggesting that infrastructure improvements, while beneficial, can also contribute to overtourism by making previously remote areas more accessible.

Title:

Content:
Tuesday September 28, 2021

Call to protect scenic valleys, rivers from pollution

September 28, 2021

MANSEHRA: The hikers, trekkers and people associated with the tourism industry have demanded the government to protect the scenic valleys and rivers from environmental pollution.

“The scenic valleys in Mansehra and rest of the Hazara division are facing the enormous challenges to natural beauty and environment because of the pollution and changes happening owing to the weather changes,” a member of the International Union of Nature, Sahibzada Jawad Alfaizi told a gathering held at the mountainous resort of Nasar Bagh to mark the International Tourism Day here on Monday.

The hikers, trekkers and tour operations from the Hazara division attended the event and announced to remove garbage from Saiful Muluk lake and Lolupatsar before the current season wraps up.

“It is unfortunate that people living around the Indus River, Kunhar River and Siren River have dropped commercial and domestic sewerage lines in those rivers, polluting water and environment,” Alfazi said.

Niaz Shahzad, a mountaineer, said the Kaghan valley attracted hundreds of thousands of families in summer every year but this picturesque valley was littered by the local business community and tourists.

Waseem Azam, a trekker, said the most of the participants had explored the exotic meadows and scenic destinations in Siren, Konsh and other alpine valleys in the division, adding the government should develop road and other infrastructure if it was sincere in attracting the international tourists.

“A record number of the foreign tourists for the first time since terrorism plagued the country visited the Kaghan valley and Gilgit-Baltistan and if roads and other tourism-related infrastructure was developed, the tourism could attract the foreign exchange reserves,” another a mountaineer, Muzammil Shah, said.

## Impacts of Overtourism

### Social Impacts
Overtourism creates significant social challenges for local communities:

- **Resident Displacement and Lifestyle Disruption**: In Athens' Plaka district, residents express concern that overtourism is "destroying the reason they come: the end of charm and tradition.

" The area has become so overrun that it resembles a "faux ancient Greek Disneyland.

"

- **Community Tension**: In Binibeca Vell, Menorca (known as the "Spanish Mykonos"), a village with just over 200 permanent residents receives 800,000 holidaymakers annually.

Title:

Content:

Thu 18 Apr 2024

2024 newspaper of the year

@ Contact us

Latest
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1m agoWhy people fall for misinformation and how to avoid being fooled
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Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

Title:

Content: Global Economic News
Increasing pressure on the Spanish tourism industry.
Uncontrolled growth in the face of more visitors
There is no longer the possibility of washing up on Spain ’ s little-known beach of Lloret de Mar — like other popular tourist resorts — on ways to conserve dwindling water resources as the country struggles with drought.
While Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the climate crisis, its main tourism sector is under increasing pressure with uncontrolled growth in the face of increased visitors, efforts to reduce its environmental impact and move towards more sustainable practices.
Danish tourist Jonas Johansson, 28, while wandering in the scorching sun along the famous northeastern resort's promenade, said: "It's a shame.
“Taking a shower is good. ”
Spain has seen very low rainfall over the past year, leaving the reservoirs of Catalonia, where the resort town of Lloret, only 29 percent full.
Since March, large parts of this northeastern region of 7.7 million people, including its capital, Barcelona, have limited the use of water for agriculture and industry to ensure the continued supply of homes.
But these measures have not won the support of everyone in a country where tourism accounts for 12 per cent of economic output and provides 2.5 million jobs.
Sarah Loledi, 55, a receptionist at a coastal hotel in Lloret, said: “Water use can be reduced in many ways, without depriving the tourism sector of the possibility of bathing. ”
"We all live on tourism revenues."
Spain is the world ’ s second most visited country after France, receiving 71.6 million visitors from around the world last year, most of them attracted by its sunny beaches.
David Sorem, a geography expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said: “We can ’ t afford uncontrolled sector growth with more and more people coming and fewer resources. ”
Sorem said a tourist in a four-star or five-star hotel could consume more than twice as much as an average citizen.
Catalonia ’ s regional government wants to ensure both tourists and locals consume the same amount of water by 2040.
Jordi Palaudelmas of the local SOS Yurit group, which has been campaigning for years for a more sustainable tourism model, said: “Water resources are limited, and if we dedicate ourselves to tourism, it means we need to rethink what resources we can or cannot give to tourists. ”
The Samba Hotel underwent a rehabilitation process in 1997 to allow it to recycle wastewater, which has so far saved 215 million liters of water, he said.
In this 434-room hotel, bathroom water is sent to a basement where it is filtered and treated, allowing it to be reused.
This system is increasingly widespread, but the sector still has a long way to go.
Laura Perez, the hotel ’ s environmental affairs officer, said: “We should have done this a long time ago. ”
A few kilometers away, sprinklers water a vast municipal garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Posters show visitors that sprinklers use recycled water, the only type of water that can be used without restrictions this summer.
Like other municipalities, Yurit has for years used recyclable wastewater to irrigate gardens and clean streets.
The drought has increased the use of recycled water by 25 per cent, although the network it provides is still very limited.
Carlos Gil, who is in charge of the parks and gardens of Lurit, said: "In coastal areas, we can save a lot of recycled water instead of going directly to the sea, by finding new uses for it."
In turn, the water park has reduced water use by 32 per cent since 2019 by changing irrigation systems and turning to plants that need less water.
The director of the complex, Julio Lopez, expressed optimism about the future, but stressed that there was still work to be done.
“Spain needs to rethink its situation and use more recycled water, ” he said.
Publish it.
More Economic News - Global

Residents complain about noisy tour guides, rubbish, and tourists taking selfies, leading to calls for authorities to take action.

Title:

Content:

Thu 18 Apr 2024

2024 newspaper of the year

@ Contact us

Latest
Latest
1m agoWhy people fall for misinformation and how to avoid being fooled
Latest
3m agoYounger middle-class women are smoking more, despite overall fall
Latest
3m agoBrexit fueling NHS shortages of antibiotics and epilepsy medication

Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

- **Protest Movements**: Anti-tourism sentiments have become so strong in parts of Spain that thousands have protested with signs saying "SOS tourism" and "Tourism is eating us" in Majorca, Ibiza, and Tenerife.

Title:

Content: Spanish anti-tourism protesters fed up with British holidaymakers last night staged the latest in a string of demos at hotspots.

Thousands took to Majorca’s streets clutching placards saying “SOS tourism” and “Tourism is eating us”. It came 24 hours after similar scenes in Ibiza, and in Tenerife last month.

Yesterday’s demo – in Majorca capital Palma – was planned by a group called Mallorca No Es Ven, which means “Majorca is not for sale”. Members say rowdy holidaymakers, mainly Brits and Germans, are hiking prices and driving locals out. They want a summer limit on vehicles and a ban on using taxpayer cash to promote the island as a party spot. One worried British holidaymaker said: “This is intimidating to ordinary people who have come for a holiday.”

Another said: “If this sort of thing continues, there won’t be many tourists left for them to complain about.”

Protester Daniella, 28, a teacher whose mum hails from Preston, Lancs, said: “Over 40% of my wages go on rent. Tourism increases the price of everything from gas to food and taxes.”

Pal Cati, 29, added: “We can’t drive any more to certain areas because there is nowhere to park.” But British expat Mitch Liebenberg, who works in the tourist industry in Ibiza, said: “They’re protesting their main source of income. What we need is to protest the government for not building the infrastructure to cope with the tourists.”

The Balearic Islands government, which is bidding to clamp down by banning booze sales at night and restricting party boats, said: “There is maximum respect for anyone who demonstrates freely and peacefully. We understand the discomfort among residents due to congestion situations.

“Tourists are still welcome, but we consider that the time has come to talk about containment and limits. We have formed the table for a social and political pact for the sustainability of the Balearic Islands, to make courageous decisions in a rigorous manner, with data and through dialogue.”

### Environmental Impacts
The environmental consequences of overtourism are severe:

- **Ecosystem Disruption**: On Koh Lipe, a small island (2 miles long and 1.

5 miles wide) with 133 hotels, mass tourism has caused significant environmental problems.

During the pandemic, when tourism stopped, endangered species returned to their natural habitats, highlighting how tourism had displaced them.

- **Pollution**: Plastic pollution is a visible impact, with "piles of plastic bags" washing up onto beaches from the sea, demonstrating how tourism contributes to environmental degradation.

- **Resource Strain**: Overtourism can lead to infrastructure problems, with reports of "interruptions with electricity and water supply" affecting both tourists and locals in some destinations.

Title:

Content: Spanish anti-tourism protesters fed up with British holidaymakers last night staged the latest in a string of demos at hotspots.

Thousands took to Majorca’s streets clutching placards saying “SOS tourism” and “Tourism is eating us”. It came 24 hours after similar scenes in Ibiza, and in Tenerife last month.

Yesterday’s demo – in Majorca capital Palma – was planned by a group called Mallorca No Es Ven, which means “Majorca is not for sale”. Members say rowdy holidaymakers, mainly Brits and Germans, are hiking prices and driving locals out. They want a summer limit on vehicles and a ban on using taxpayer cash to promote the island as a party spot. One worried British holidaymaker said: “This is intimidating to ordinary people who have come for a holiday.”

Another said: “If this sort of thing continues, there won’t be many tourists left for them to complain about.”

Protester Daniella, 28, a teacher whose mum hails from Preston, Lancs, said: “Over 40% of my wages go on rent. Tourism increases the price of everything from gas to food and taxes.”

Pal Cati, 29, added: “We can’t drive any more to certain areas because there is nowhere to park.” But British expat Mitch Liebenberg, who works in the tourist industry in Ibiza, said: “They’re protesting their main source of income. What we need is to protest the government for not building the infrastructure to cope with the tourists.”

The Balearic Islands government, which is bidding to clamp down by banning booze sales at night and restricting party boats, said: “There is maximum respect for anyone who demonstrates freely and peacefully. We understand the discomfort among residents due to congestion situations.

“Tourists are still welcome, but we consider that the time has come to talk about containment and limits. We have formed the table for a social and political pact for the sustainability of the Balearic Islands, to make courageous decisions in a rigorous manner, with data and through dialogue.”

Title:

Content:

Thu 18 Apr 2024

2024 newspaper of the year

@ Contact us

Latest
Latest
1m agoWhy people fall for misinformation and how to avoid being fooled
Latest
3m agoYounger middle-class women are smoking more, despite overall fall
Latest
3m agoBrexit fueling NHS shortages of antibiotics and epilepsy medication

Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

Title:

Content: Global Economic News
Increasing pressure on the Spanish tourism industry.
Uncontrolled growth in the face of more visitors
There is no longer the possibility of washing up on Spain ’ s little-known beach of Lloret de Mar — like other popular tourist resorts — on ways to conserve dwindling water resources as the country struggles with drought.
While Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the climate crisis, its main tourism sector is under increasing pressure with uncontrolled growth in the face of increased visitors, efforts to reduce its environmental impact and move towards more sustainable practices.
Danish tourist Jonas Johansson, 28, while wandering in the scorching sun along the famous northeastern resort's promenade, said: "It's a shame.
“Taking a shower is good. ”
Spain has seen very low rainfall over the past year, leaving the reservoirs of Catalonia, where the resort town of Lloret, only 29 percent full.
Since March, large parts of this northeastern region of 7.7 million people, including its capital, Barcelona, have limited the use of water for agriculture and industry to ensure the continued supply of homes.
But these measures have not won the support of everyone in a country where tourism accounts for 12 per cent of economic output and provides 2.5 million jobs.
Sarah Loledi, 55, a receptionist at a coastal hotel in Lloret, said: “Water use can be reduced in many ways, without depriving the tourism sector of the possibility of bathing. ”
"We all live on tourism revenues."
Spain is the world ’ s second most visited country after France, receiving 71.6 million visitors from around the world last year, most of them attracted by its sunny beaches.
David Sorem, a geography expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said: “We can ’ t afford uncontrolled sector growth with more and more people coming and fewer resources. ”
Sorem said a tourist in a four-star or five-star hotel could consume more than twice as much as an average citizen.
Catalonia ’ s regional government wants to ensure both tourists and locals consume the same amount of water by 2040.
Jordi Palaudelmas of the local SOS Yurit group, which has been campaigning for years for a more sustainable tourism model, said: “Water resources are limited, and if we dedicate ourselves to tourism, it means we need to rethink what resources we can or cannot give to tourists. ”
The Samba Hotel underwent a rehabilitation process in 1997 to allow it to recycle wastewater, which has so far saved 215 million liters of water, he said.
In this 434-room hotel, bathroom water is sent to a basement where it is filtered and treated, allowing it to be reused.
This system is increasingly widespread, but the sector still has a long way to go.
Laura Perez, the hotel ’ s environmental affairs officer, said: “We should have done this a long time ago. ”
A few kilometers away, sprinklers water a vast municipal garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Posters show visitors that sprinklers use recycled water, the only type of water that can be used without restrictions this summer.
Like other municipalities, Yurit has for years used recyclable wastewater to irrigate gardens and clean streets.
The drought has increased the use of recycled water by 25 per cent, although the network it provides is still very limited.
Carlos Gil, who is in charge of the parks and gardens of Lurit, said: "In coastal areas, we can save a lot of recycled water instead of going directly to the sea, by finding new uses for it."
In turn, the water park has reduced water use by 32 per cent since 2019 by changing irrigation systems and turning to plants that need less water.
The director of the complex, Julio Lopez, expressed optimism about the future, but stressed that there was still work to be done.
“Spain needs to rethink its situation and use more recycled water, ” he said.
Publish it.
More Economic News - Global

### Economic Impacts
While tourism can bring economic benefits, overtourism creates economic challenges:

- **Seasonal Vulnerability**: The pandemic revealed how communities dependent on tourism can suffer when visitors disappear, raising questions about local survival when tourism stops.

Title:

Content:

Thu 18 Apr 2024

2024 newspaper of the year

@ Contact us

Latest
Latest
1m agoWhy people fall for misinformation and how to avoid being fooled
Latest
3m agoYounger middle-class women are smoking more, despite overall fall
Latest
3m agoBrexit fueling NHS shortages of antibiotics and epilepsy medication

Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

Title:

Content: Global Economic News
Increasing pressure on the Spanish tourism industry.
Uncontrolled growth in the face of more visitors
There is no longer the possibility of washing up on Spain ’ s little-known beach of Lloret de Mar — like other popular tourist resorts — on ways to conserve dwindling water resources as the country struggles with drought.
While Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the climate crisis, its main tourism sector is under increasing pressure with uncontrolled growth in the face of increased visitors, efforts to reduce its environmental impact and move towards more sustainable practices.
Danish tourist Jonas Johansson, 28, while wandering in the scorching sun along the famous northeastern resort's promenade, said: "It's a shame.
“Taking a shower is good. ”
Spain has seen very low rainfall over the past year, leaving the reservoirs of Catalonia, where the resort town of Lloret, only 29 percent full.
Since March, large parts of this northeastern region of 7.7 million people, including its capital, Barcelona, have limited the use of water for agriculture and industry to ensure the continued supply of homes.
But these measures have not won the support of everyone in a country where tourism accounts for 12 per cent of economic output and provides 2.5 million jobs.
Sarah Loledi, 55, a receptionist at a coastal hotel in Lloret, said: “Water use can be reduced in many ways, without depriving the tourism sector of the possibility of bathing. ”
"We all live on tourism revenues."
Spain is the world ’ s second most visited country after France, receiving 71.6 million visitors from around the world last year, most of them attracted by its sunny beaches.
David Sorem, a geography expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said: “We can ’ t afford uncontrolled sector growth with more and more people coming and fewer resources. ”
Sorem said a tourist in a four-star or five-star hotel could consume more than twice as much as an average citizen.
Catalonia ’ s regional government wants to ensure both tourists and locals consume the same amount of water by 2040.
Jordi Palaudelmas of the local SOS Yurit group, which has been campaigning for years for a more sustainable tourism model, said: “Water resources are limited, and if we dedicate ourselves to tourism, it means we need to rethink what resources we can or cannot give to tourists. ”
The Samba Hotel underwent a rehabilitation process in 1997 to allow it to recycle wastewater, which has so far saved 215 million liters of water, he said.
In this 434-room hotel, bathroom water is sent to a basement where it is filtered and treated, allowing it to be reused.
This system is increasingly widespread, but the sector still has a long way to go.
Laura Perez, the hotel ’ s environmental affairs officer, said: “We should have done this a long time ago. ”
A few kilometers away, sprinklers water a vast municipal garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Posters show visitors that sprinklers use recycled water, the only type of water that can be used without restrictions this summer.
Like other municipalities, Yurit has for years used recyclable wastewater to irrigate gardens and clean streets.
The drought has increased the use of recycled water by 25 per cent, although the network it provides is still very limited.
Carlos Gil, who is in charge of the parks and gardens of Lurit, said: "In coastal areas, we can save a lot of recycled water instead of going directly to the sea, by finding new uses for it."
In turn, the water park has reduced water use by 32 per cent since 2019 by changing irrigation systems and turning to plants that need less water.
The director of the complex, Julio Lopez, expressed optimism about the future, but stressed that there was still work to be done.
“Spain needs to rethink its situation and use more recycled water, ” he said.
Publish it.
More Economic News - Global

- **Inequitable Distribution**: Economic benefits from tourism often don't reach all community members equally, leading to disparities and resentment.

Title:

Content: Spanish anti-tourism protesters fed up with British holidaymakers last night staged the latest in a string of demos at hotspots.

Thousands took to Majorca’s streets clutching placards saying “SOS tourism” and “Tourism is eating us”. It came 24 hours after similar scenes in Ibiza, and in Tenerife last month.

Yesterday’s demo – in Majorca capital Palma – was planned by a group called Mallorca No Es Ven, which means “Majorca is not for sale”. Members say rowdy holidaymakers, mainly Brits and Germans, are hiking prices and driving locals out. They want a summer limit on vehicles and a ban on using taxpayer cash to promote the island as a party spot. One worried British holidaymaker said: “This is intimidating to ordinary people who have come for a holiday.”

Another said: “If this sort of thing continues, there won’t be many tourists left for them to complain about.”

Protester Daniella, 28, a teacher whose mum hails from Preston, Lancs, said: “Over 40% of my wages go on rent. Tourism increases the price of everything from gas to food and taxes.”

Pal Cati, 29, added: “We can’t drive any more to certain areas because there is nowhere to park.” But British expat Mitch Liebenberg, who works in the tourist industry in Ibiza, said: “They’re protesting their main source of income. What we need is to protest the government for not building the infrastructure to cope with the tourists.”

The Balearic Islands government, which is bidding to clamp down by banning booze sales at night and restricting party boats, said: “There is maximum respect for anyone who demonstrates freely and peacefully. We understand the discomfort among residents due to congestion situations.

“Tourists are still welcome, but we consider that the time has come to talk about containment and limits. We have formed the table for a social and political pact for the sustainability of the Balearic Islands, to make courageous decisions in a rigorous manner, with data and through dialogue.”

Title:

Content: Global Economic News
Increasing pressure on the Spanish tourism industry.
Uncontrolled growth in the face of more visitors
There is no longer the possibility of washing up on Spain ’ s little-known beach of Lloret de Mar — like other popular tourist resorts — on ways to conserve dwindling water resources as the country struggles with drought.
While Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the climate crisis, its main tourism sector is under increasing pressure with uncontrolled growth in the face of increased visitors, efforts to reduce its environmental impact and move towards more sustainable practices.
Danish tourist Jonas Johansson, 28, while wandering in the scorching sun along the famous northeastern resort's promenade, said: "It's a shame.
“Taking a shower is good. ”
Spain has seen very low rainfall over the past year, leaving the reservoirs of Catalonia, where the resort town of Lloret, only 29 percent full.
Since March, large parts of this northeastern region of 7.7 million people, including its capital, Barcelona, have limited the use of water for agriculture and industry to ensure the continued supply of homes.
But these measures have not won the support of everyone in a country where tourism accounts for 12 per cent of economic output and provides 2.5 million jobs.
Sarah Loledi, 55, a receptionist at a coastal hotel in Lloret, said: “Water use can be reduced in many ways, without depriving the tourism sector of the possibility of bathing. ”
"We all live on tourism revenues."
Spain is the world ’ s second most visited country after France, receiving 71.6 million visitors from around the world last year, most of them attracted by its sunny beaches.
David Sorem, a geography expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said: “We can ’ t afford uncontrolled sector growth with more and more people coming and fewer resources. ”
Sorem said a tourist in a four-star or five-star hotel could consume more than twice as much as an average citizen.
Catalonia ’ s regional government wants to ensure both tourists and locals consume the same amount of water by 2040.
Jordi Palaudelmas of the local SOS Yurit group, which has been campaigning for years for a more sustainable tourism model, said: “Water resources are limited, and if we dedicate ourselves to tourism, it means we need to rethink what resources we can or cannot give to tourists. ”
The Samba Hotel underwent a rehabilitation process in 1997 to allow it to recycle wastewater, which has so far saved 215 million liters of water, he said.
In this 434-room hotel, bathroom water is sent to a basement where it is filtered and treated, allowing it to be reused.
This system is increasingly widespread, but the sector still has a long way to go.
Laura Perez, the hotel ’ s environmental affairs officer, said: “We should have done this a long time ago. ”
A few kilometers away, sprinklers water a vast municipal garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Posters show visitors that sprinklers use recycled water, the only type of water that can be used without restrictions this summer.
Like other municipalities, Yurit has for years used recyclable wastewater to irrigate gardens and clean streets.
The drought has increased the use of recycled water by 25 per cent, although the network it provides is still very limited.
Carlos Gil, who is in charge of the parks and gardens of Lurit, said: "In coastal areas, we can save a lot of recycled water instead of going directly to the sea, by finding new uses for it."
In turn, the water park has reduced water use by 32 per cent since 2019 by changing irrigation systems and turning to plants that need less water.
The director of the complex, Julio Lopez, expressed optimism about the future, but stressed that there was still work to be done.
“Spain needs to rethink its situation and use more recycled water, ” he said.
Publish it.
More Economic News - Global

- **Infrastructure Costs**: The costs of maintaining and repairing infrastructure damaged by excessive tourist numbers can outweigh the economic benefits.

Title:

Content: Spanish anti-tourism protesters fed up with British holidaymakers last night staged the latest in a string of demos at hotspots.

Thousands took to Majorca’s streets clutching placards saying “SOS tourism” and “Tourism is eating us”. It came 24 hours after similar scenes in Ibiza, and in Tenerife last month.

Yesterday’s demo – in Majorca capital Palma – was planned by a group called Mallorca No Es Ven, which means “Majorca is not for sale”. Members say rowdy holidaymakers, mainly Brits and Germans, are hiking prices and driving locals out. They want a summer limit on vehicles and a ban on using taxpayer cash to promote the island as a party spot. One worried British holidaymaker said: “This is intimidating to ordinary people who have come for a holiday.”

Another said: “If this sort of thing continues, there won’t be many tourists left for them to complain about.”

Protester Daniella, 28, a teacher whose mum hails from Preston, Lancs, said: “Over 40% of my wages go on rent. Tourism increases the price of everything from gas to food and taxes.”

Pal Cati, 29, added: “We can’t drive any more to certain areas because there is nowhere to park.” But British expat Mitch Liebenberg, who works in the tourist industry in Ibiza, said: “They’re protesting their main source of income. What we need is to protest the government for not building the infrastructure to cope with the tourists.”

The Balearic Islands government, which is bidding to clamp down by banning booze sales at night and restricting party boats, said: “There is maximum respect for anyone who demonstrates freely and peacefully. We understand the discomfort among residents due to congestion situations.

“Tourists are still welcome, but we consider that the time has come to talk about containment and limits. We have formed the table for a social and political pact for the sustainability of the Balearic Islands, to make courageous decisions in a rigorous manner, with data and through dialogue.”

Title:

Content:
Tuesday September 28, 2021

Call to protect scenic valleys, rivers from pollution

September 28, 2021

MANSEHRA: The hikers, trekkers and people associated with the tourism industry have demanded the government to protect the scenic valleys and rivers from environmental pollution.

“The scenic valleys in Mansehra and rest of the Hazara division are facing the enormous challenges to natural beauty and environment because of the pollution and changes happening owing to the weather changes,” a member of the International Union of Nature, Sahibzada Jawad Alfaizi told a gathering held at the mountainous resort of Nasar Bagh to mark the International Tourism Day here on Monday.

The hikers, trekkers and tour operations from the Hazara division attended the event and announced to remove garbage from Saiful Muluk lake and Lolupatsar before the current season wraps up.

“It is unfortunate that people living around the Indus River, Kunhar River and Siren River have dropped commercial and domestic sewerage lines in those rivers, polluting water and environment,” Alfazi said.

Niaz Shahzad, a mountaineer, said the Kaghan valley attracted hundreds of thousands of families in summer every year but this picturesque valley was littered by the local business community and tourists.

Waseem Azam, a trekker, said the most of the participants had explored the exotic meadows and scenic destinations in Siren, Konsh and other alpine valleys in the division, adding the government should develop road and other infrastructure if it was sincere in attracting the international tourists.

“A record number of the foreign tourists for the first time since terrorism plagued the country visited the Kaghan valley and Gilgit-Baltistan and if roads and other tourism-related infrastructure was developed, the tourism could attract the foreign exchange reserves,” another a mountaineer, Muzammil Shah, said.

Title:

Content:

Thu 18 Apr 2024

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Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

Title:

Content: Global Economic News
Increasing pressure on the Spanish tourism industry.
Uncontrolled growth in the face of more visitors
There is no longer the possibility of washing up on Spain ’ s little-known beach of Lloret de Mar — like other popular tourist resorts — on ways to conserve dwindling water resources as the country struggles with drought.
While Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the climate crisis, its main tourism sector is under increasing pressure with uncontrolled growth in the face of increased visitors, efforts to reduce its environmental impact and move towards more sustainable practices.
Danish tourist Jonas Johansson, 28, while wandering in the scorching sun along the famous northeastern resort's promenade, said: "It's a shame.
“Taking a shower is good. ”
Spain has seen very low rainfall over the past year, leaving the reservoirs of Catalonia, where the resort town of Lloret, only 29 percent full.
Since March, large parts of this northeastern region of 7.7 million people, including its capital, Barcelona, have limited the use of water for agriculture and industry to ensure the continued supply of homes.
But these measures have not won the support of everyone in a country where tourism accounts for 12 per cent of economic output and provides 2.5 million jobs.
Sarah Loledi, 55, a receptionist at a coastal hotel in Lloret, said: “Water use can be reduced in many ways, without depriving the tourism sector of the possibility of bathing. ”
"We all live on tourism revenues."
Spain is the world ’ s second most visited country after France, receiving 71.6 million visitors from around the world last year, most of them attracted by its sunny beaches.
David Sorem, a geography expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said: “We can ’ t afford uncontrolled sector growth with more and more people coming and fewer resources. ”
Sorem said a tourist in a four-star or five-star hotel could consume more than twice as much as an average citizen.
Catalonia ’ s regional government wants to ensure both tourists and locals consume the same amount of water by 2040.
Jordi Palaudelmas of the local SOS Yurit group, which has been campaigning for years for a more sustainable tourism model, said: “Water resources are limited, and if we dedicate ourselves to tourism, it means we need to rethink what resources we can or cannot give to tourists. ”
The Samba Hotel underwent a rehabilitation process in 1997 to allow it to recycle wastewater, which has so far saved 215 million liters of water, he said.
In this 434-room hotel, bathroom water is sent to a basement where it is filtered and treated, allowing it to be reused.
This system is increasingly widespread, but the sector still has a long way to go.
Laura Perez, the hotel ’ s environmental affairs officer, said: “We should have done this a long time ago. ”
A few kilometers away, sprinklers water a vast municipal garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Posters show visitors that sprinklers use recycled water, the only type of water that can be used without restrictions this summer.
Like other municipalities, Yurit has for years used recyclable wastewater to irrigate gardens and clean streets.
The drought has increased the use of recycled water by 25 per cent, although the network it provides is still very limited.
Carlos Gil, who is in charge of the parks and gardens of Lurit, said: "In coastal areas, we can save a lot of recycled water instead of going directly to the sea, by finding new uses for it."
In turn, the water park has reduced water use by 32 per cent since 2019 by changing irrigation systems and turning to plants that need less water.
The director of the complex, Julio Lopez, expressed optimism about the future, but stressed that there was still work to be done.
“Spain needs to rethink its situation and use more recycled water, ” he said.
Publish it.
More Economic News - Global

## Global Hotspots of Overtourism

### Mediterranean Europe
Spain appears as a significant hotspot for overtourism:
- **Binibeca Vell, Menorca**: With 800,000 annual visitors versus just 200 permanent residents
- **Athens' Plaka District**: Transformed into a "tourist trap" that residents fear is losing its authentic character
- **Majorca, Ibiza, and Tenerife**: Sites of significant anti-tourism protests

### Southeast Asia
- **Koh Lipe, Thailand**: An extremely small island supporting 133 hotels, demonstrating extreme tourism density

### South Asia
- **Kaghan Valley and Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan**: Experiencing a record number of foreign tourists, suggesting emerging overtourism pressures

## Strategies for Responsible Tourism Management

### Balanced Tourism Approaches
Ras Al Khaimah's "Balanced Tourism" strategy offers a comprehensive model that:
- Goes beyond just environmental concerns to include social and economic sustainability
- Supports smaller businesses
- Considers the local ecosystem, population, culture, and heritage
- Includes certification programs for destinations and businesses

### High Value, Low Volume Models
Bhutan provides an alternative approach with its "High Value, Low Volume" tourism policy:
- Tightly controlling tourism to prevent overcrowding and overdevelopment
- Implementing a $200 per night sustainability fee for foreign travelers
- Requiring a minimum daily spend
- Mandating visas before purchasing plane tickets
- Restricting air travel to national carriers

### Comprehensive Sustainability Frameworks
As Natalia suggests, effective tourism sustainability requires addressing three key areas:
1.

Title:

Content:
Tuesday September 28, 2021

Call to protect scenic valleys, rivers from pollution

September 28, 2021

MANSEHRA: The hikers, trekkers and people associated with the tourism industry have demanded the government to protect the scenic valleys and rivers from environmental pollution.

“The scenic valleys in Mansehra and rest of the Hazara division are facing the enormous challenges to natural beauty and environment because of the pollution and changes happening owing to the weather changes,” a member of the International Union of Nature, Sahibzada Jawad Alfaizi told a gathering held at the mountainous resort of Nasar Bagh to mark the International Tourism Day here on Monday.

The hikers, trekkers and tour operations from the Hazara division attended the event and announced to remove garbage from Saiful Muluk lake and Lolupatsar before the current season wraps up.

“It is unfortunate that people living around the Indus River, Kunhar River and Siren River have dropped commercial and domestic sewerage lines in those rivers, polluting water and environment,” Alfazi said.

Niaz Shahzad, a mountaineer, said the Kaghan valley attracted hundreds of thousands of families in summer every year but this picturesque valley was littered by the local business community and tourists.

Waseem Azam, a trekker, said the most of the participants had explored the exotic meadows and scenic destinations in Siren, Konsh and other alpine valleys in the division, adding the government should develop road and other infrastructure if it was sincere in attracting the international tourists.

“A record number of the foreign tourists for the first time since terrorism plagued the country visited the Kaghan valley and Gilgit-Baltistan and if roads and other tourism-related infrastructure was developed, the tourism could attract the foreign exchange reserves,” another a mountaineer, Muzammil Shah, said.

Title:

Content: BETA
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10 Best Bucket List Trips For Your Post-Pandemic Travels

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We all know that leisure travel is coming back in a huge way, with jammed airports, limited availability in hot destinations, and record bookings for many travel companies.

But there’s more to the life-after-COVID travel phenomena than just pent-up demand. The nature of the way people will vacation has changed. The shutdown caused by the global pandemic was unprecedented and like nothing in our lifetime, but also served as a warning that you never know what’s coming next, from other diseases to natural disasters to the quickly worsening effects of climate change to war. The sense that “life is too short” and a new fatalism is one side effect of the pandemic. That in turn has led people to stop putting things off for the future, especially an uncertain future. For many people, life’s big trips have always been scheduled for “someday,” and increasingly, someday is now. People are putting a priority on once-in-a-lifetime experiential trips, or “Bucket List” travel, and after extensive interviews with some of the world’s top travel agents and outfitters and more than 30 years of personal experience on the topic, I’ve compiled this list for anyone who is wondering where to go next to experience something much more incredible than the typical vacation.

But everyone’s travel style is different, and if you have a passion for something like golf or skiing, one of those trips will be on you Bucket List, and if you don’t you won’t care. I’ve mixed things up here with a variety to try to cover something for everyone.

When appropriate, I also give specific recommendations for the best outfitters or specialty tour operator to make these dreams come true, but if you travel a lot and want it to be the best it can be, I always recommend using a good travel agent. I’ve written extensively on all the many reasons why this will make your trip better, safer and often cheaper, and you can read a lot more about these advantages here. If you do use a travel agent - and you should - you can pass on my specific recommendations and get the best of both worlds.

African Safari: For the most part, this list is in no particular order, but this is an exception, which is why I put if first. To me this the very epitome of the Bucket List concept, because unlike most of the others, I can’t imagine a personality that would not be wowed. It’s for everyone, and it is truly something you need to experience in your lifetime. I’ve had the good fortune to have been many times, and I would go again tomorrow, because for me it never gets old - it’s more than a once-in-a-lifetime trip - but at least once!

The classic is East Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, but if I were planning your trip and you had never been, I would suggest South Africa, or South Africa and Botswana. South Africa has a lot more non-wildlife appeal, wine country, amazing food, beaches, golf, classic luxury trains, and Cape Town is one of the world’s great cities. Southern Africa is easier to get to and has better luxury safari lodges and much better luxury non-safari hotels and resorts. Botswana probably has the very best concertation of pure wildlife viewing and some of the best lodges of the eight marquee African safari countries I’ve visited. However, East Africa has two unique appeals, the annual great migration across the Serengeti, one of earth’s premier natural wonders, and proximity to Rwanda and its unique gorilla trekking. Gorillas are not found in the same places as all the other desirable African animals and for many travelers gorilla trekking (you have to go on foot to see them) is the single most amazing wildfire experience on earth, and a Bucket List trip in its own right. But it lasts only a day or two, so it is best combined with a conventional East African safari.

Do It Best: Micato Safaris is my pick for making this dream trip a dream come true - by a mile. Not only are they the best safari outfitter I know, but the best company of any kind in the entire travel industry I’ve experienced, and I’m not alone - Micato is the only 10-time winner of any World’s Best Award category from Travel + Leisure Magazine, all for World’s Best Safari Operator. This is a complex trip with a lot of moving parts and using Micato will alleviate all planning concerns and guarantee a great time (read more here). This is especially true if you add gorilla trekking, for which permits are strictly required, very limited, demand far exceeds supply, and insider connections help. Micato has those, I’ve seen it myself.

Easter Island, Chile: People ask me all the time what the best place I’ve ever been is, and it’s kind of stupid question that can’t have an answer in the apples to oranges world of travel. But on the rare occasion when I am asked what the most interesting place I’ve ever been is, I don’t hesitate to say Easter Island. It’s really like nothing else you can imagine, a very remote, almost magical tropical island out of King Kong, where the entire civilization vanished mysteriously, and despite years and years of scientific research, we still don’t know much about the culture, the people or why they vanished. We do know they left behind the mysterious Moai, towering stone statues whose movement over long distances and placement rivals the inconceivable construction of the pyramids in terms of “how on earth did they do that?” Easter Island is a widely overlooked once-in-a-lifetime trip (though I’d gladly go back) that is best done from Santiago, Chile, in turn a great overlooked weekend city destination with amazing food and wine.

Until very recently the best place to stay - by a wide margin - was Explora Rapa Nui. Explora is a personal favorite brand of mine, a Chilean-based group of world-class, eco-sensitive, all-inclusive adventure lodges in places like Patagonia, the Atacama Desert and Machu Pichhu that is justifiably renowned for the excellence of its full-time, in-house guide staff. They lead guests on a huge slate of daily outdoor adventures, all included in rates along with excellent food and wine. Explora Rapa Nui is still a great choice, but was joined just last month by the new Nayara Hangaroa. Nayara is a Columbian-owned luxury eco-lodge chain with half a dozen locations in Central and South America. I have not been to any but they have an excellent reputation.

Skiing Japan: If you don’t ski, Japan is still an awesome vacation destination, exceedingly rich in culture, history, natural wonders and arguably the very best food country on the planet. But if you ski, it’s even better, a no-brainer - they get more snow than any other place in the world, and it is dry, light perfect powder. There are a huge array of resorts, but I especially like the Nagano area, a Winter Olympics venue which has a far more local Japanese feel, with lots of traditional inns (ryokans) and hot spring towns (onsens). Nagano is also accessible by train from Tokyo, and relatively close to Kyoto, so it can be combined into an epic Japan trip.

For American skiers, the northern island of Hokkaido has been more popular, but that’s only because it is what the ski and outdoor magazines and films have covered with a close-minded focus. Hokkaido does get slightly more snow than Nagano, but the difference is irrelevant given that they both get twice as much snow (or more) as other top destinations like Utah and the Alps. Niseko is the biggest and most popular resort on Hokkaido, and has lots of big modern full-service hotels including a new ultra-luxe Ritz-Carlton Reserve. It makes for an easy turnkey ski vacation, but feels very Westernized, more like going to Whistler than Japan (think lots of burgers and tacos), and because it’s easy to fly directly to Sapporo (yet another Winter Olympics host), less conducive to combining with other highlights of Japan.

Do It Best: Scout Ski is a boutique ski travel planning service that covers the world but specializes in Japan, and specializes in the U.S, U.K., Australian and New Zealand markets, very good and very knowledgeable. Alpine Adventures is a larger full-service ski travel specialist that does a great job.

Golf in Scotland: The birthplace of the game and the Holy Grail for golfers. You can have a fantastic golf trip to Scotland without playing the vaunted Old Course at St. Andrews, but if you are talking Bucket List, you sort of have to do it, and once you are there, there are so many great courses immediately around the area - Muirfield, Kingsbarns, New Course, Dumbarnie Links, and more, that’s it’s a waste of travel time to try to zip around the country hitting all the top “must-plays.” Unless you are chartering helicopters there are just too many of them. I’d do an extended stay in St. Andrews and then tack on one other key stop, like the North/Highlands (Royal Dornoch, Castle Stuart, Nairn, Brora); the Southwest/Ayrshire Coast (Royal Troon, Prestwick, Dundonald); Aberdeen (Royal Aberdeen, Cruden Bay); or for the adventurous, the Kintyre Peninsula (Machrihanish, Machrihanish Dunes) with a possible extension to Islay (Machrie).

Do It Best: Securing an Old Course tee time in advance is quite tricky but key to making the other pieces of the puzzle work, and the complex logistics and many moving parts of a Scottish dream golf trip are best left to very experienced pros. I recommenced Haversham & Baker and Perry Golf.

Tuscany: There are a lot of fantastic vacation destinations around the world, and you could make an argument for many other regions, but the reality is that Americans consistently dream of going to Italy more than any other country, and in Italy Tuscany is the 800-pound gorilla of wow factor. There are so many amazing hilltop villages and cities, large and small, each unique in character, plus all the vineyards (it’s where the Chianti region lies), plus the less visited coastal section, plus the gateway city of Florence, just so much to see and do - and eat - that it’s a place you could visit again and again without repeating. Sienna, Montalcino, Monteriggioni are all musts, but I love Lucca, often skipped over by tourists, the Maremma is for wine lovers, home of the vaunted Super Tuscans, and the list goes on and on.

Tuscany is just a fairy tale destination that consistently delivers on the promise of an amazing trip, and it is home to everything from mom-and-pop inns to a vast slate of world-class luxury hotels to a famously broad assortment of villa rentals. For this reason, it is one of the most broadly accessible destinations on this list, and can be done on a limited budget, with extremely deep pockets or everything in between. It’s hard to do a cheap African safari or dream golf trip to Scotland, but there’s a Tuscany for every traveler.

Do It Best: IC Bellagio is an Italy-based, Italy-focused, Italy-expert company that handles every aspect of Italy travel, from booking top tour guides and drivers to having connections with all the best hotels, villas, resorts, restaurants and attractions. I always suggest using an expert travel agent, and if you do they are probably just going to call IC Bellagio, and this is one of those rare instances where you can do it yourself.

Israel: With something for everyone, Israel is steeped in thousands of years of history, easy to navigate, and ideal for everyone from solo travelers to multi-generational families. If you are interested in religion, Jerusalem is the holiest city in the world - for Jews, Christians, and Muslims - home to the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. But Israel’s two biggest cities could not be more different - hipper sibling Tel Aviv is one of the coolest cities in the Mediterranean region, with world class nightlife, dining, and beaches. Both are very appealing, and outside these urban centers there’s a lot more, with gorgeous scenery, varied ecosystems, lots of historic ruins and outdoor activities. While many other countries - like the U.S. - have this mix of urban and natural attractions, you usually have to sacrifice something. But Israel is the size of New Jersey, making it not only possible but easy to explore in depth. The South features the harshly beautiful Negev Desert, the North lush Galilee, and waters include the Mediterranean, Red Sea and famously salty Dead Sea. This in turn means lots of beaches, plus excellent SCUBA diving, from ancient shipwrecks to undersea caverns. For more info, check out the government tourism site. I have not been myself, so Israel is currently tied with Bhutan atop on my own personal Bucket List.

Bhutan: Probably the least visited of the world’s “must-see” countries, Bhutan is often referred to as “The Last Shangri La,” or “Paradise Found.” It is the only Buddhist nation on earth, and gave the world the radical concept of using Gross National Happiness to measure its national success, instead of the more common money-driven metrics. It has been less than half a century since Bhutan first decided to allow tourism at all, and since then it has been tightly controlled to prevent overcrowding and over development, a policy known as “High Value, Low Volume.” It makes it an expensive place to visit, especially since they tacked on a $200 a night sustainability fee for foreign travelers. There is also a required minimum daily spend, which can be hotel, meals, tours guides and such, and a visa is required before you can buy plane tickets, which is important because you can only fly there on the national carriers (see the national tourism site for more info). The process is easier than it sounds if you go through a travel agent or tour operator, and Bhutan is home to many exceptional hotels, with multiple outposts of each of three top luxury brands, Aman, COMO and Six Senses.

In the last full year of pre-COVID travel, 2019, just over 300,000 travels visited Bhutan (in contrast, the city of Las Vegas alone saw over 30 million) making it the place to go for the person who has been everywhere. But I want to go for natural beauty, the world’s highest mountain range, the Himalayas, full of gorges and waterfalls, for the famously photogenic cliffside monasteries, to avoid crowding and pollution, and most of all, to hike. A big highlight is the new Trans Bhutan Trail, a 250-mile-long footpath linking Haa to Trashigang that has been eagerly awaited in the outdoors community and is expected to immediately become one of the world’s greatest walks. The trail was just opened by the King of Bhutan less than two weeks ago. Bhutan itself only just reopened to international travel on September 23 and is ready for visitors. I’m ready to be one of them!

Do It Right: Red Savannah, a luxury travel company specializing in tailor-made trips around the world, has a lot of Bhutan packages and just introduced three new itineraries (8,10 1 and 12 days) offering various tastes of the new hiking trail, and they can facilitate all travel arrangements and requirements.

Angkor Wat & Siem Reap, Cambodia: There is something compelling about ruins and ancient civilizations, especially for American travelers, who have little of these at home, with the notable exception of Native American cliff dwellings in the canyons of the Southwest - which are well worth visiting. Ruins are what drive so many travelers to journey to places like Machu Picchu, Greece, Egypt, Jordan and many other spots, but few destinations compare in scope to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. The scale is mind blowing, much bigger than most people who have seen pictures expect, especially since so-called travel bloggers and influencers all take the same shot in one or two locations. Angkor Wat literally translates to City of Temples, and it is not one building, or even one group of buildings, but rather multiple sites spread over 154 square miles - seven times the size of Manhattan - containing roughly 1000 pieces of architecture. These in turn were built over a 500-year period from the 9th to 14th centuries, and there is a lot to see. Highlights include the namesake Angkor Wat temple, Angkor Thom (technically a different city of ruins), Ta Prohm, the overgrown jungle temple used to film the original Tomb Raider movie, Ta Som, Ta Nei, Preah Khan, Preah Ko, Pre Rup, East Mebon, and Banteay Srei, among other sites. Some of these are hidden gems, rarely visited by Western tourists and refreshingly empty alternatives to the overcrowded highlights. You could easily spend a week in the area, and that’s just ruins.

The gateway is the modern city of Siem Reap, which is fascinating in its own right, with tons of hotels, shopping, dining, and different touristic sights such as floating villages, cultural centers and even a pretty good golf course. The food is wonderful and even though there are luxury hotels here, Cambodia is an inexpensive place, and packages with park admission, guides and food are all great values. I recommend the Anantara Angkor Wat, an outpost of the Thailand-based global luxury chain Anantara, which combines a first rate, secluded resort that is home to excellent dining and its own cultural offerings with a variety of reasonably priced packages including lots of guided excursions.

Around the World Cruise: Personally, I’m not a cruise traveler, and this is not on my list, but the appeal is undeniable - in many ways it’s the bucket that holds the Bucket List. Many people absolutely love cruises, and there is no bigger, more epic trip than a global circumnavigation, a dream that goes back as far as humans have been taking to the sea. Along the way you see it all (not literally, but still a lot), typically visiting 25 to more than 60 countries, and many of the other Bucket List spots on this list: cruisegoers can take safaris, visit Tuscany, explore Angkor Wat and so on. Not every line offers around the world itineraries, but those that do tend to skew high end, which is nice because you are going to be on the ship a long time, like 100+ to 275 days. These trips should be planned a year or two in advance, and some lines offering them include Regent Seven Seas, Azamara, Viking, Royal Caribbean, Cunard, Silversea, Seaborne, MSC, Princess, Holland America and Oceania. Definitely call your travel agent for these.

Munich’s Oktoberfest: We have natural attractions, manmade ruins, sporting highlights, and epic journeys, so how about an event experience? For this it’s hard to beat Oktoberfest, which is quite literally the biggest party in the world. I’ve been twice and found it absolutely fascinating, would gladly return, and know people who make it an annual pilgrimage and have been many times. It is also full of surprises and far more than just a lot of beer drinking - it has been a major celebration for well over two centuries. Back on October 12, 1810 Bavaria’s Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen, and in the process set a new gold standard for no-holds-barred wedding parties. The soiree was non-stop for five days, with an actual wedding at some point, plus city-wide celebrations, including a horse race. Locals loved the big party so much they decided to repeat it the following year, minus the wedding. And the next, and the next, until Oktoberfest evolved into the current 16-day spectacle of parades, rides, entertainment, food, culture, attractions and yes, lots of beer.

200-plus years of rehearsals have allowed Munich to perfect the world’s biggest bash, which runs like clockwork despite being of such epic proportions. Before COVID it drew around 6 million visitors in just over two weeks - far more than the combined populations of our third and fourth biggest cities, Chicago and Houston, and more tourists than visit the Grand Canyon in an entire year. On average close to 8 million giant liter steins, each close to three typical U.S. beers, are consumed. It always begins on a Saturday (in September not October!) with a citywide parade and symbolic transport of kegs from downtown to the festival park, where the Mayor taps the first one and proclaims Oktoberfest open. Opening weekend is the best time to visit for spectacle, and is also considerably less crowded than the final weekend (but things are least hectic during the week). It is aimed at Munich citizens all ages, not just adult drinkers, and the grounds occupy 100-acres with a State Fair feel. There are rides, games, displays, and more wurst and food stands than you could count, and the famous beer tents are just 17 of more than 600 vendors. That being said, the “tents” are actually temporary buildings that take months to erect, include high-capacity commercial kitchens, performance stages for bands, balconies, and enough bathrooms to cope - the largest hold over 10,000 drinkers. They are also reserved and ticketed, and the biggest mistake travelers make (thousands of them annually, unfortunately) is to show up expecting to get in. It is very, very important to plan ahead and do it right, including scarce flights, lodging and especially tent table tickets, so call your travel agent!

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Thu 18 Apr 2024

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Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

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Content: Muscat : It is necessary to distinguish the tourism market of Oman from other destinations to increase the number of tourists while creating the roadmap on what's the type of nationality that Oman wants, according to a top UN official.

Speaking to the Observer on the sidelines of a regional tourism conference, Natalia Bayona, Executive Director, UN Tourism, said, "To increase the number of tourists, it is essential to have air connectivity, a roadmap on what's the type of nationality that you want and what are the next steps when it comes not only for air transportation, but also to attract luxury and sustainable cruises."

On the visa facilitation report, she said, "We mentioned it briefly. But it's true that the more open a country is, it is for the better because less bureaucracy at the end of the day is for the tourists. I feel it's a very good idea. See the European Union, that's a good example. Nearly 54 per cent of international tourism goes to the European Union."

"At the end of the day, the more open and the more coordinated you are which is much better. It's more efficient, for the tourists," she added.

On sustainability in tourism, Natalia said, "Sustainability is the way you assure economic growth, social impact and growth. And of course, environmental preservation. If you have the three of them, you go into sustainability. So, when you are talking about tourism, the good thing about tourism is that it's the most human economic sector."

"When you are creating a sustainability strategy, you need to think about the three things how tourism is helping your community to evolve in terms of employment, in terms of investments, in terms of social cohesion," she added.

She said that Oman had around 4.5 million tourism arrivals last year and it is not bad when you compare the population. “Compared to Saudi Arabia, which is booming with tourism, the uniqueness of Oman is that preservation of heritage and culture has been made a strategy that is focused on bringing people, but as well to go little by little in the way they get connected to other regions and at the end that can help on the preservation of all the routes that you have here. So, I feel that both models are good. The thing is that they are different on the way.”

2022 © All right reserved for Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

**Economic Growth**: How tourism helps communities evolve through employment and investments
2.

Title:

Content: Spanish anti-tourism protesters fed up with British holidaymakers last night staged the latest in a string of demos at hotspots.

Thousands took to Majorca’s streets clutching placards saying “SOS tourism” and “Tourism is eating us”. It came 24 hours after similar scenes in Ibiza, and in Tenerife last month.

Yesterday’s demo – in Majorca capital Palma – was planned by a group called Mallorca No Es Ven, which means “Majorca is not for sale”. Members say rowdy holidaymakers, mainly Brits and Germans, are hiking prices and driving locals out. They want a summer limit on vehicles and a ban on using taxpayer cash to promote the island as a party spot. One worried British holidaymaker said: “This is intimidating to ordinary people who have come for a holiday.”

Another said: “If this sort of thing continues, there won’t be many tourists left for them to complain about.”

Protester Daniella, 28, a teacher whose mum hails from Preston, Lancs, said: “Over 40% of my wages go on rent. Tourism increases the price of everything from gas to food and taxes.”

Pal Cati, 29, added: “We can’t drive any more to certain areas because there is nowhere to park.” But British expat Mitch Liebenberg, who works in the tourist industry in Ibiza, said: “They’re protesting their main source of income. What we need is to protest the government for not building the infrastructure to cope with the tourists.”

The Balearic Islands government, which is bidding to clamp down by banning booze sales at night and restricting party boats, said: “There is maximum respect for anyone who demonstrates freely and peacefully. We understand the discomfort among residents due to congestion situations.

“Tourists are still welcome, but we consider that the time has come to talk about containment and limits. We have formed the table for a social and political pact for the sustainability of the Balearic Islands, to make courageous decisions in a rigorous manner, with data and through dialogue.”

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Content: Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Global Travel urges governments to support sustainable marine fuels
Julia Simpson, President and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), said there is a welcome by Council members of the UN ’ s ambitious plan to achieve net zero emissions from international shipping by 2050, an important milestone for the cruise industry and our planet.
Julia added that the council urges governments to support sustainable marine fuels, coastal energy and other zero-emission technologies in all shipping sectors and cooperation between governments and industry is vital to achieve net zero emissions.
Sustainable growth in travel and tourism, including aviation, rail and cruise companies, remains a key target for the sector worldwide.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) is the global authority on the economic and social contribution of travel and tourism and aims to promote sustainable growth of the travel and tourism sector and works with governments and international institutions to create jobs, boost exports and achieve prosperity.

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Content: Global Economic News
Increasing pressure on the Spanish tourism industry.
Uncontrolled growth in the face of more visitors
There is no longer the possibility of washing up on Spain ’ s little-known beach of Lloret de Mar — like other popular tourist resorts — on ways to conserve dwindling water resources as the country struggles with drought.
While Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the climate crisis, its main tourism sector is under increasing pressure with uncontrolled growth in the face of increased visitors, efforts to reduce its environmental impact and move towards more sustainable practices.
Danish tourist Jonas Johansson, 28, while wandering in the scorching sun along the famous northeastern resort's promenade, said: "It's a shame.
“Taking a shower is good. ”
Spain has seen very low rainfall over the past year, leaving the reservoirs of Catalonia, where the resort town of Lloret, only 29 percent full.
Since March, large parts of this northeastern region of 7.7 million people, including its capital, Barcelona, have limited the use of water for agriculture and industry to ensure the continued supply of homes.
But these measures have not won the support of everyone in a country where tourism accounts for 12 per cent of economic output and provides 2.5 million jobs.
Sarah Loledi, 55, a receptionist at a coastal hotel in Lloret, said: “Water use can be reduced in many ways, without depriving the tourism sector of the possibility of bathing. ”
"We all live on tourism revenues."
Spain is the world ’ s second most visited country after France, receiving 71.6 million visitors from around the world last year, most of them attracted by its sunny beaches.
David Sorem, a geography expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said: “We can ’ t afford uncontrolled sector growth with more and more people coming and fewer resources. ”
Sorem said a tourist in a four-star or five-star hotel could consume more than twice as much as an average citizen.
Catalonia ’ s regional government wants to ensure both tourists and locals consume the same amount of water by 2040.
Jordi Palaudelmas of the local SOS Yurit group, which has been campaigning for years for a more sustainable tourism model, said: “Water resources are limited, and if we dedicate ourselves to tourism, it means we need to rethink what resources we can or cannot give to tourists. ”
The Samba Hotel underwent a rehabilitation process in 1997 to allow it to recycle wastewater, which has so far saved 215 million liters of water, he said.
In this 434-room hotel, bathroom water is sent to a basement where it is filtered and treated, allowing it to be reused.
This system is increasingly widespread, but the sector still has a long way to go.
Laura Perez, the hotel ’ s environmental affairs officer, said: “We should have done this a long time ago. ”
A few kilometers away, sprinklers water a vast municipal garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Posters show visitors that sprinklers use recycled water, the only type of water that can be used without restrictions this summer.
Like other municipalities, Yurit has for years used recyclable wastewater to irrigate gardens and clean streets.
The drought has increased the use of recycled water by 25 per cent, although the network it provides is still very limited.
Carlos Gil, who is in charge of the parks and gardens of Lurit, said: "In coastal areas, we can save a lot of recycled water instead of going directly to the sea, by finding new uses for it."
In turn, the water park has reduced water use by 32 per cent since 2019 by changing irrigation systems and turning to plants that need less water.
The director of the complex, Julio Lopez, expressed optimism about the future, but stressed that there was still work to be done.
“Spain needs to rethink its situation and use more recycled water, ” he said.
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More Economic News - Global

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Content: Muscat : It is necessary to distinguish the tourism market of Oman from other destinations to increase the number of tourists while creating the roadmap on what's the type of nationality that Oman wants, according to a top UN official.

Speaking to the Observer on the sidelines of a regional tourism conference, Natalia Bayona, Executive Director, UN Tourism, said, "To increase the number of tourists, it is essential to have air connectivity, a roadmap on what's the type of nationality that you want and what are the next steps when it comes not only for air transportation, but also to attract luxury and sustainable cruises."

On the visa facilitation report, she said, "We mentioned it briefly. But it's true that the more open a country is, it is for the better because less bureaucracy at the end of the day is for the tourists. I feel it's a very good idea. See the European Union, that's a good example. Nearly 54 per cent of international tourism goes to the European Union."

"At the end of the day, the more open and the more coordinated you are which is much better. It's more efficient, for the tourists," she added.

On sustainability in tourism, Natalia said, "Sustainability is the way you assure economic growth, social impact and growth. And of course, environmental preservation. If you have the three of them, you go into sustainability. So, when you are talking about tourism, the good thing about tourism is that it's the most human economic sector."

"When you are creating a sustainability strategy, you need to think about the three things how tourism is helping your community to evolve in terms of employment, in terms of investments, in terms of social cohesion," she added.

She said that Oman had around 4.5 million tourism arrivals last year and it is not bad when you compare the population. “Compared to Saudi Arabia, which is booming with tourism, the uniqueness of Oman is that preservation of heritage and culture has been made a strategy that is focused on bringing people, but as well to go little by little in the way they get connected to other regions and at the end that can help on the preservation of all the routes that you have here. So, I feel that both models are good. The thing is that they are different on the way.”

2022 © All right reserved for Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

**Social Impact and Growth**: Fostering social cohesion and community development
3.

Title:

Content: Muscat : It is necessary to distinguish the tourism market of Oman from other destinations to increase the number of tourists while creating the roadmap on what's the type of nationality that Oman wants, according to a top UN official.

Speaking to the Observer on the sidelines of a regional tourism conference, Natalia Bayona, Executive Director, UN Tourism, said, "To increase the number of tourists, it is essential to have air connectivity, a roadmap on what's the type of nationality that you want and what are the next steps when it comes not only for air transportation, but also to attract luxury and sustainable cruises."

On the visa facilitation report, she said, "We mentioned it briefly. But it's true that the more open a country is, it is for the better because less bureaucracy at the end of the day is for the tourists. I feel it's a very good idea. See the European Union, that's a good example. Nearly 54 per cent of international tourism goes to the European Union."

"At the end of the day, the more open and the more coordinated you are which is much better. It's more efficient, for the tourists," she added.

On sustainability in tourism, Natalia said, "Sustainability is the way you assure economic growth, social impact and growth. And of course, environmental preservation. If you have the three of them, you go into sustainability. So, when you are talking about tourism, the good thing about tourism is that it's the most human economic sector."

"When you are creating a sustainability strategy, you need to think about the three things how tourism is helping your community to evolve in terms of employment, in terms of investments, in terms of social cohesion," she added.

She said that Oman had around 4.5 million tourism arrivals last year and it is not bad when you compare the population. “Compared to Saudi Arabia, which is booming with tourism, the uniqueness of Oman is that preservation of heritage and culture has been made a strategy that is focused on bringing people, but as well to go little by little in the way they get connected to other regions and at the end that can help on the preservation of all the routes that you have here. So, I feel that both models are good. The thing is that they are different on the way.”

2022 © All right reserved for Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

**Environmental Preservation**: Protecting natural resources and ecosystems

### Infrastructure and Regulation
Effective management requires:
- Proper regulation and control mechanisms
- Strategic infrastructure development that balances accessibility with preservation
- Coordination between government, industry, and local communities

## Conclusion

Overtourism represents a complex challenge that requires balanced, comprehensive solutions addressing economic, social, and environmental dimensions.

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Thu 18 Apr 2024

2024 newspaper of the year

@ Contact us

Latest
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1m agoWhy people fall for misinformation and how to avoid being fooled
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Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

Title:

Content: Global Economic News
Increasing pressure on the Spanish tourism industry.
Uncontrolled growth in the face of more visitors
There is no longer the possibility of washing up on Spain ’ s little-known beach of Lloret de Mar — like other popular tourist resorts — on ways to conserve dwindling water resources as the country struggles with drought.
While Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the climate crisis, its main tourism sector is under increasing pressure with uncontrolled growth in the face of increased visitors, efforts to reduce its environmental impact and move towards more sustainable practices.
Danish tourist Jonas Johansson, 28, while wandering in the scorching sun along the famous northeastern resort's promenade, said: "It's a shame.
“Taking a shower is good. ”
Spain has seen very low rainfall over the past year, leaving the reservoirs of Catalonia, where the resort town of Lloret, only 29 percent full.
Since March, large parts of this northeastern region of 7.7 million people, including its capital, Barcelona, have limited the use of water for agriculture and industry to ensure the continued supply of homes.
But these measures have not won the support of everyone in a country where tourism accounts for 12 per cent of economic output and provides 2.5 million jobs.
Sarah Loledi, 55, a receptionist at a coastal hotel in Lloret, said: “Water use can be reduced in many ways, without depriving the tourism sector of the possibility of bathing. ”
"We all live on tourism revenues."
Spain is the world ’ s second most visited country after France, receiving 71.6 million visitors from around the world last year, most of them attracted by its sunny beaches.
David Sorem, a geography expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said: “We can ’ t afford uncontrolled sector growth with more and more people coming and fewer resources. ”
Sorem said a tourist in a four-star or five-star hotel could consume more than twice as much as an average citizen.
Catalonia ’ s regional government wants to ensure both tourists and locals consume the same amount of water by 2040.
Jordi Palaudelmas of the local SOS Yurit group, which has been campaigning for years for a more sustainable tourism model, said: “Water resources are limited, and if we dedicate ourselves to tourism, it means we need to rethink what resources we can or cannot give to tourists. ”
The Samba Hotel underwent a rehabilitation process in 1997 to allow it to recycle wastewater, which has so far saved 215 million liters of water, he said.
In this 434-room hotel, bathroom water is sent to a basement where it is filtered and treated, allowing it to be reused.
This system is increasingly widespread, but the sector still has a long way to go.
Laura Perez, the hotel ’ s environmental affairs officer, said: “We should have done this a long time ago. ”
A few kilometers away, sprinklers water a vast municipal garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Posters show visitors that sprinklers use recycled water, the only type of water that can be used without restrictions this summer.
Like other municipalities, Yurit has for years used recyclable wastewater to irrigate gardens and clean streets.
The drought has increased the use of recycled water by 25 per cent, although the network it provides is still very limited.
Carlos Gil, who is in charge of the parks and gardens of Lurit, said: "In coastal areas, we can save a lot of recycled water instead of going directly to the sea, by finding new uses for it."
In turn, the water park has reduced water use by 32 per cent since 2019 by changing irrigation systems and turning to plants that need less water.
The director of the complex, Julio Lopez, expressed optimism about the future, but stressed that there was still work to be done.
“Spain needs to rethink its situation and use more recycled water, ” he said.
Publish it.
More Economic News - Global

Title:

Content: Muscat : It is necessary to distinguish the tourism market of Oman from other destinations to increase the number of tourists while creating the roadmap on what's the type of nationality that Oman wants, according to a top UN official.

Speaking to the Observer on the sidelines of a regional tourism conference, Natalia Bayona, Executive Director, UN Tourism, said, "To increase the number of tourists, it is essential to have air connectivity, a roadmap on what's the type of nationality that you want and what are the next steps when it comes not only for air transportation, but also to attract luxury and sustainable cruises."

On the visa facilitation report, she said, "We mentioned it briefly. But it's true that the more open a country is, it is for the better because less bureaucracy at the end of the day is for the tourists. I feel it's a very good idea. See the European Union, that's a good example. Nearly 54 per cent of international tourism goes to the European Union."

"At the end of the day, the more open and the more coordinated you are which is much better. It's more efficient, for the tourists," she added.

On sustainability in tourism, Natalia said, "Sustainability is the way you assure economic growth, social impact and growth. And of course, environmental preservation. If you have the three of them, you go into sustainability. So, when you are talking about tourism, the good thing about tourism is that it's the most human economic sector."

"When you are creating a sustainability strategy, you need to think about the three things how tourism is helping your community to evolve in terms of employment, in terms of investments, in terms of social cohesion," she added.

She said that Oman had around 4.5 million tourism arrivals last year and it is not bad when you compare the population. “Compared to Saudi Arabia, which is booming with tourism, the uniqueness of Oman is that preservation of heritage and culture has been made a strategy that is focused on bringing people, but as well to go little by little in the way they get connected to other regions and at the end that can help on the preservation of all the routes that you have here. So, I feel that both models are good. The thing is that they are different on the way.”

2022 © All right reserved for Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

The examples from various global hotspots demonstrate that unchecked tourism growth can lead to significant negative impacts on local communities and ecosystems.

Title:

Content: Spanish anti-tourism protesters fed up with British holidaymakers last night staged the latest in a string of demos at hotspots.

Thousands took to Majorca’s streets clutching placards saying “SOS tourism” and “Tourism is eating us”. It came 24 hours after similar scenes in Ibiza, and in Tenerife last month.

Yesterday’s demo – in Majorca capital Palma – was planned by a group called Mallorca No Es Ven, which means “Majorca is not for sale”. Members say rowdy holidaymakers, mainly Brits and Germans, are hiking prices and driving locals out. They want a summer limit on vehicles and a ban on using taxpayer cash to promote the island as a party spot. One worried British holidaymaker said: “This is intimidating to ordinary people who have come for a holiday.”

Another said: “If this sort of thing continues, there won’t be many tourists left for them to complain about.”

Protester Daniella, 28, a teacher whose mum hails from Preston, Lancs, said: “Over 40% of my wages go on rent. Tourism increases the price of everything from gas to food and taxes.”

Pal Cati, 29, added: “We can’t drive any more to certain areas because there is nowhere to park.” But British expat Mitch Liebenberg, who works in the tourist industry in Ibiza, said: “They’re protesting their main source of income. What we need is to protest the government for not building the infrastructure to cope with the tourists.”

The Balearic Islands government, which is bidding to clamp down by banning booze sales at night and restricting party boats, said: “There is maximum respect for anyone who demonstrates freely and peacefully. We understand the discomfort among residents due to congestion situations.

“Tourists are still welcome, but we consider that the time has come to talk about containment and limits. We have formed the table for a social and political pact for the sustainability of the Balearic Islands, to make courageous decisions in a rigorous manner, with data and through dialogue.”

Title:

Content:
Tuesday September 28, 2021

Call to protect scenic valleys, rivers from pollution

September 28, 2021

MANSEHRA: The hikers, trekkers and people associated with the tourism industry have demanded the government to protect the scenic valleys and rivers from environmental pollution.

“The scenic valleys in Mansehra and rest of the Hazara division are facing the enormous challenges to natural beauty and environment because of the pollution and changes happening owing to the weather changes,” a member of the International Union of Nature, Sahibzada Jawad Alfaizi told a gathering held at the mountainous resort of Nasar Bagh to mark the International Tourism Day here on Monday.

The hikers, trekkers and tour operations from the Hazara division attended the event and announced to remove garbage from Saiful Muluk lake and Lolupatsar before the current season wraps up.

“It is unfortunate that people living around the Indus River, Kunhar River and Siren River have dropped commercial and domestic sewerage lines in those rivers, polluting water and environment,” Alfazi said.

Niaz Shahzad, a mountaineer, said the Kaghan valley attracted hundreds of thousands of families in summer every year but this picturesque valley was littered by the local business community and tourists.

Waseem Azam, a trekker, said the most of the participants had explored the exotic meadows and scenic destinations in Siren, Konsh and other alpine valleys in the division, adding the government should develop road and other infrastructure if it was sincere in attracting the international tourists.

“A record number of the foreign tourists for the first time since terrorism plagued the country visited the Kaghan valley and Gilgit-Baltistan and if roads and other tourism-related infrastructure was developed, the tourism could attract the foreign exchange reserves,” another a mountaineer, Muzammil Shah, said.

Title:

Content: Global Economic News
Increasing pressure on the Spanish tourism industry.
Uncontrolled growth in the face of more visitors
There is no longer the possibility of washing up on Spain ’ s little-known beach of Lloret de Mar — like other popular tourist resorts — on ways to conserve dwindling water resources as the country struggles with drought.
While Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the climate crisis, its main tourism sector is under increasing pressure with uncontrolled growth in the face of increased visitors, efforts to reduce its environmental impact and move towards more sustainable practices.
Danish tourist Jonas Johansson, 28, while wandering in the scorching sun along the famous northeastern resort's promenade, said: "It's a shame.
“Taking a shower is good. ”
Spain has seen very low rainfall over the past year, leaving the reservoirs of Catalonia, where the resort town of Lloret, only 29 percent full.
Since March, large parts of this northeastern region of 7.7 million people, including its capital, Barcelona, have limited the use of water for agriculture and industry to ensure the continued supply of homes.
But these measures have not won the support of everyone in a country where tourism accounts for 12 per cent of economic output and provides 2.5 million jobs.
Sarah Loledi, 55, a receptionist at a coastal hotel in Lloret, said: “Water use can be reduced in many ways, without depriving the tourism sector of the possibility of bathing. ”
"We all live on tourism revenues."
Spain is the world ’ s second most visited country after France, receiving 71.6 million visitors from around the world last year, most of them attracted by its sunny beaches.
David Sorem, a geography expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said: “We can ’ t afford uncontrolled sector growth with more and more people coming and fewer resources. ”
Sorem said a tourist in a four-star or five-star hotel could consume more than twice as much as an average citizen.
Catalonia ’ s regional government wants to ensure both tourists and locals consume the same amount of water by 2040.
Jordi Palaudelmas of the local SOS Yurit group, which has been campaigning for years for a more sustainable tourism model, said: “Water resources are limited, and if we dedicate ourselves to tourism, it means we need to rethink what resources we can or cannot give to tourists. ”
The Samba Hotel underwent a rehabilitation process in 1997 to allow it to recycle wastewater, which has so far saved 215 million liters of water, he said.
In this 434-room hotel, bathroom water is sent to a basement where it is filtered and treated, allowing it to be reused.
This system is increasingly widespread, but the sector still has a long way to go.
Laura Perez, the hotel ’ s environmental affairs officer, said: “We should have done this a long time ago. ”
A few kilometers away, sprinklers water a vast municipal garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Posters show visitors that sprinklers use recycled water, the only type of water that can be used without restrictions this summer.
Like other municipalities, Yurit has for years used recyclable wastewater to irrigate gardens and clean streets.
The drought has increased the use of recycled water by 25 per cent, although the network it provides is still very limited.
Carlos Gil, who is in charge of the parks and gardens of Lurit, said: "In coastal areas, we can save a lot of recycled water instead of going directly to the sea, by finding new uses for it."
In turn, the water park has reduced water use by 32 per cent since 2019 by changing irrigation systems and turning to plants that need less water.
The director of the complex, Julio Lopez, expressed optimism about the future, but stressed that there was still work to be done.
“Spain needs to rethink its situation and use more recycled water, ” he said.
Publish it.
More Economic News - Global

However, models like Bhutan's "High Value, Low Volume" approach and Ras Al Khaimah's "Balanced Tourism" strategy offer pathways toward more sustainable tourism that can provide economic benefits while protecting local communities and natural resources.

Title:

Content: Muscat : It is necessary to distinguish the tourism market of Oman from other destinations to increase the number of tourists while creating the roadmap on what's the type of nationality that Oman wants, according to a top UN official.

Speaking to the Observer on the sidelines of a regional tourism conference, Natalia Bayona, Executive Director, UN Tourism, said, "To increase the number of tourists, it is essential to have air connectivity, a roadmap on what's the type of nationality that you want and what are the next steps when it comes not only for air transportation, but also to attract luxury and sustainable cruises."

On the visa facilitation report, she said, "We mentioned it briefly. But it's true that the more open a country is, it is for the better because less bureaucracy at the end of the day is for the tourists. I feel it's a very good idea. See the European Union, that's a good example. Nearly 54 per cent of international tourism goes to the European Union."

"At the end of the day, the more open and the more coordinated you are which is much better. It's more efficient, for the tourists," she added.

On sustainability in tourism, Natalia said, "Sustainability is the way you assure economic growth, social impact and growth. And of course, environmental preservation. If you have the three of them, you go into sustainability. So, when you are talking about tourism, the good thing about tourism is that it's the most human economic sector."

"When you are creating a sustainability strategy, you need to think about the three things how tourism is helping your community to evolve in terms of employment, in terms of investments, in terms of social cohesion," she added.

She said that Oman had around 4.5 million tourism arrivals last year and it is not bad when you compare the population. “Compared to Saudi Arabia, which is booming with tourism, the uniqueness of Oman is that preservation of heritage and culture has been made a strategy that is focused on bringing people, but as well to go little by little in the way they get connected to other regions and at the end that can help on the preservation of all the routes that you have here. So, I feel that both models are good. The thing is that they are different on the way.”

2022 © All right reserved for Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

The key to addressing overtourism lies in developing integrated approaches that consider all three pillars of sustainability—economic, social, and environmental—and that actively involve local communities in tourism planning and decision-making processes.

Title:

Content:

Thu 18 Apr 2024

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Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

Residents of the Menorcan village of Binibeca Vell said they welcomed British tourists, but needed support from the authorities to cope

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.

Most Read By Subscribers

Title:

Content: Global Economic News
Increasing pressure on the Spanish tourism industry.
Uncontrolled growth in the face of more visitors
There is no longer the possibility of washing up on Spain ’ s little-known beach of Lloret de Mar — like other popular tourist resorts — on ways to conserve dwindling water resources as the country struggles with drought.
While Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the climate crisis, its main tourism sector is under increasing pressure with uncontrolled growth in the face of increased visitors, efforts to reduce its environmental impact and move towards more sustainable practices.
Danish tourist Jonas Johansson, 28, while wandering in the scorching sun along the famous northeastern resort's promenade, said: "It's a shame.
“Taking a shower is good. ”
Spain has seen very low rainfall over the past year, leaving the reservoirs of Catalonia, where the resort town of Lloret, only 29 percent full.
Since March, large parts of this northeastern region of 7.7 million people, including its capital, Barcelona, have limited the use of water for agriculture and industry to ensure the continued supply of homes.
But these measures have not won the support of everyone in a country where tourism accounts for 12 per cent of economic output and provides 2.5 million jobs.
Sarah Loledi, 55, a receptionist at a coastal hotel in Lloret, said: “Water use can be reduced in many ways, without depriving the tourism sector of the possibility of bathing. ”
"We all live on tourism revenues."
Spain is the world ’ s second most visited country after France, receiving 71.6 million visitors from around the world last year, most of them attracted by its sunny beaches.
David Sorem, a geography expert at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said: “We can ’ t afford uncontrolled sector growth with more and more people coming and fewer resources. ”
Sorem said a tourist in a four-star or five-star hotel could consume more than twice as much as an average citizen.
Catalonia ’ s regional government wants to ensure both tourists and locals consume the same amount of water by 2040.
Jordi Palaudelmas of the local SOS Yurit group, which has been campaigning for years for a more sustainable tourism model, said: “Water resources are limited, and if we dedicate ourselves to tourism, it means we need to rethink what resources we can or cannot give to tourists. ”
The Samba Hotel underwent a rehabilitation process in 1997 to allow it to recycle wastewater, which has so far saved 215 million liters of water, he said.
In this 434-room hotel, bathroom water is sent to a basement where it is filtered and treated, allowing it to be reused.
This system is increasingly widespread, but the sector still has a long way to go.
Laura Perez, the hotel ’ s environmental affairs officer, said: “We should have done this a long time ago. ”
A few kilometers away, sprinklers water a vast municipal garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Posters show visitors that sprinklers use recycled water, the only type of water that can be used without restrictions this summer.
Like other municipalities, Yurit has for years used recyclable wastewater to irrigate gardens and clean streets.
The drought has increased the use of recycled water by 25 per cent, although the network it provides is still very limited.
Carlos Gil, who is in charge of the parks and gardens of Lurit, said: "In coastal areas, we can save a lot of recycled water instead of going directly to the sea, by finding new uses for it."
In turn, the water park has reduced water use by 32 per cent since 2019 by changing irrigation systems and turning to plants that need less water.
The director of the complex, Julio Lopez, expressed optimism about the future, but stressed that there was still work to be done.
“Spain needs to rethink its situation and use more recycled water, ” he said.
Publish it.
More Economic News - Global

Title:

Content: Muscat : It is necessary to distinguish the tourism market of Oman from other destinations to increase the number of tourists while creating the roadmap on what's the type of nationality that Oman wants, according to a top UN official.

Speaking to the Observer on the sidelines of a regional tourism conference, Natalia Bayona, Executive Director, UN Tourism, said, "To increase the number of tourists, it is essential to have air connectivity, a roadmap on what's the type of nationality that you want and what are the next steps when it comes not only for air transportation, but also to attract luxury and sustainable cruises."

On the visa facilitation report, she said, "We mentioned it briefly. But it's true that the more open a country is, it is for the better because less bureaucracy at the end of the day is for the tourists. I feel it's a very good idea. See the European Union, that's a good example. Nearly 54 per cent of international tourism goes to the European Union."

"At the end of the day, the more open and the more coordinated you are which is much better. It's more efficient, for the tourists," she added.

On sustainability in tourism, Natalia said, "Sustainability is the way you assure economic growth, social impact and growth. And of course, environmental preservation. If you have the three of them, you go into sustainability. So, when you are talking about tourism, the good thing about tourism is that it's the most human economic sector."

"When you are creating a sustainability strategy, you need to think about the three things how tourism is helping your community to evolve in terms of employment, in terms of investments, in terms of social cohesion," she added.

She said that Oman had around 4.5 million tourism arrivals last year and it is not bad when you compare the population. “Compared to Saudi Arabia, which is booming with tourism, the uniqueness of Oman is that preservation of heritage and culture has been made a strategy that is focused on bringing people, but as well to go little by little in the way they get connected to other regions and at the end that can help on the preservation of all the routes that you have here. So, I feel that both models are good. The thing is that they are different on the way.”

2022 © All right reserved for Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising (OEPPA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).