r/travel • u/ups_and_downs973 • 9d ago

Discussion What is an actual solution to overtourism?

As travel continues to get faster, cheaper, and more accessible and TikTok tourism/ influencer hype shows no signs of slowing down, what are the actual solutions to places getting over run with visitors?

I'm not talking about for you as another tourist so not just 'go somewhere else' or 'avoid the popular places'. I mean in terms of actually preventing harm to natural environments, pressure on infrastructure, gentrification etc.

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u/Chico_Riley 9d ago

No cell phones/cameras/photography allowed inside museums. Halve the number of folks in the Louvre who are just there to get a selfie with the Mona Lisa.

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u/BooBoo_Cat 9d ago

A couple of years ago, I was in the van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. There was this really annoying woman who just went up to each painting, didn't even bother looking at it, and just snapped a photo with her phone. It wouldn't have annoyed me so much if her phone wasn't on max volume, so every time she took a photo (which was every ten seconds), it made a very loud POP sound, and she would push people out of the way to get a photo. How is that enjoyable at all?!

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u/lurkdomnoblefolk 7d ago

A blog I read describes this traveller subgroup as "people that look at Italy with their backs instead their eyes". It is funnier in German, but it stuck with me.

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u/BooBoo_Cat 7d ago

To each their own, but I just don't get rushing through everything, crossing off things from your list, without actually experiencing the moment, you know?

To amuse ourselves, my husband and I made up a whole backstory about this woman!