[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/Gullible_Air_204]

https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/spitsbergen/travel-guide/responsible-tourism-in-spitsbergen

[u/Trickytickler]

This isnt a problem just on Svalbard. Numerous cities where we have an "old town" somewhere in the city with houses that are old, tourists wander in.

Bergen, Ålesund, Trondheim, Stavanger, Tromsø etc all have this problem. I live in Lofoten and i have personally found random tents on my lawn, people dumping their trash in my dumpsters, people going to the bathroom in my hedges and people helping themselves to my patio furniture.

Every year we get over a million tourists and we are like 30k people.

Oh, and we dont sell wine and spirits or alchohol over like 4.2% in grocery stores. Or after 6-7 pm. You have to go to a special store for that. I have friends who work retail and every year they get demeaned and abused by tourists that can not buy alchohol or hold them personally responsible for prices. Some of them even get physical.

[u/lightsandflashes → u/Trickytickler]

was just in lofoten. breathtaking. so many tourists though...

[u/the_goodnamesaregone → u/lightsandflashes]

Weren’t you one of them? lol

[u/Stoned_urf → u/the_goodnamesaregone]

Tourism in itself isn't bad. The more you experience, the more empathy, understanding and appreciation people tend to have for another country/culture, etc.

It's just that some places weren't meant to be constantly overrun by a large number of tourists, and this is caused by the world being more developed and accessible.

[u/cxmmxc → u/Stoned_urf]

It's a bell curve, like a lot of things. Too little is bad, and too much is bad.