A new report has revealed that more than two-thirds of British holidaymakers would steer clear of destinations suffering from overtourism at peak times and change their plans
More than half of holidaymakers would change their travel plans if aware of overtourism in a popular destination at peak times, according to a new report.
Travel Weekly’s latest Insight Report, has revealed that around two-thirds of holidaymakers would change their plans “if aware there had been protests against too many visitors to a destination”.
A number of destinations across Europe have experienced protests against overtourism in the last year, most notably Spain, including the Balearics and Canary Islands.
Despite the high amount of holidaymakers expressing that they would change their plans if they became aware of protests, fewer than half of respondents (46 per cent) had actually heard of ‘overtourism’ and only 40 per cent were aware of recent protests.
Young adults were also less likely to have heard of either overtourism or the recent protests. Only one in three 16-34-year-olds (32 per cent) had heard the term overtourism compared with half (53 per cent) of those aged 45-54 and two thirds (64 per cent) of those aged 55-plus.
Only 24 per cent of those aged 16-44 had heard about protests compared with 48 per cent of 45-54-year-olds and 62 per cent of those aged 55 and over, added Travel Weekly.
The research by Service Science and Kantar was conducted on January 3-6 among 1,281 UK adults.
The associate director of Service Science, who conducted the research, Tom Costley commented that there were “mixed responses to awareness of overtourism” but that “there was clear support for choosing an alternative destination if travellers became aware of overtourism or local protests in a destination”.
As part of different research conducted by YouGov, over half of respondents in Spain (54 per cent), France (50 per cent), the UK (48 per cent) and Germany (49 per cent) would support taxes to reduced overtourism. More than half also said they would support limits on tourists numbers, including 50 per cent in the UK, 60 per cent in Spain and 62 per cent in France and Germany.
Last year, over 10,000 protestors swarmed the streets of Palma de Mallorca, the largest city of the Balearic Islands, to demonstrate against mass tourism. Many participants were arguing that they had been priced out of the property market due to the surge in holiday homes and short-term rentals.
A number of protestors were seen with signs with a variety of slogans including ‘Let’s change course and set limits on tourism’, ‘Stop destroying Mallorca’, ‘Your luxury, our misery’, and ‘This isn’t tourismophobia, it’s numbers: 1,232,014 residents, 18 million tourists’.
Other destinations have also experienced protests and a number of measures have been introduced to try and limit the impacts of overtourism. For example, in Venice, Italy, measures introduced include charging an entry fee, limiting group sizes and banning loud speakers.
