Tourism success is coming to an end: No destination in the world has found a formula to avoid overcrowding | Economy

The uncontrolled tourism that emerged after the pandemic has become a global problem that has reappeared in Spain with the same intensity as in other major destinations such as Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, Paris or New York. Taxes, bans on cruise ships, hotel moratoriums or restrictions on apartment rental platforms such as Airbnb are some of the measures implemented. For now, everything with little success. Only a few…

The uncontrolled tourism that emerged after the pandemic has become a global problem that has resurfaced with the same intensity in Spain as in other major destinations such as Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, Paris or New York. Taxes, bans on cruise ships, hotel moratoriums or restrictions on apartment rental platforms such as Airbnb are some of the measures implemented. For now, all with little success. Only a few destinations in the world have managed to partially correct these problems with drastic and unpopular measures. Japan was a pioneer in 2018 by eliminating all illegal offers on Airbnb under threat of ending its business. And Bhutan, a country with an area smaller than Extremadura, imposed a prohibitive tax of $200 per day per tourist, which was initially reduced to $100 this year to prevent the massive arrival of travelers. The tiny Himalayan kingdom has become the sole global exception to mass tourism, while Japan is studying new measures as it faces an unexpected event: the yen’s weakness has attracted a wave of tourists, with more than 32 million visitors expected in 2019, a record to date.

The question seems obvious: can tourism be stopped? What can big destinations do to fix overcrowding? In Spain, the Balearic Islands have tried everything. And almost everything has been in vain. It was the first autonomy to introduce an ecotax in 2016, the amount of which ranges from one to four euros per day; it was also a pioneer in reducing the number of accommodation spaces in both hotels and homes in 2022; innovated by banning tourist rentals in multi-family buildings, and it is also the only community where a city council, Palma, has signed an agreement with the World Cruise Ship Association (CLIA) to limit the arrival of these ships to the city’s port. Now only three boats can dock per day, of which only one can have a capacity of more than 5,000 passengers.

But, despite these measures, tourist arrivals between January and April have reached an all-time high. In those four months, almost two million travelers have arrived, around 205,000 more than in the same period of 2019. The Misiones Tourismos Más Vida platform has called for a demonstration against tourist overcrowding in Palma on July 21. Jaume Pujol, spokesman for the organization, believes that it is necessary to put limits on tourist flow in the short term. “The platform is committed to regulating the number of tourist flights arriving at airports, further restricting cruise ship arrivals, preventing foreigners from buying homes and limiting vehicle arrivals,” he explains.

Vacation apartments are in the spotlight of destinations, the tourism industry and even social groups. Everyone blames them for a model that prioritizes uncontrolled growth and that has stripped the rights of the population. “It is necessary to set limits. In the Canary Islands, the number of homes for tourist use has gone from 5,000 to 53,000 in just one year,” insists Eugenio Reyes, spokesman for Ben Mezcal-Ecologistas en Acción, one of the most active organizations in the protests experienced by the archipelago in late April. Reyes focuses the criticism on the new owners and managers of the property: “Tourism in the Canary Islands has a 100-year history and has never generated problems of coexistence with neighbors. This conflict has arisen with the emergence of vulture funds that build thousands of 21 square meter homes that, due to their size, are not for the resident population, but for tourists, ”he denounced.

The Barcelona City Council approved a hotel moratorium in 2017, still in force, which has put pressure on the licensing of tourist apartments since 2014. That’s not enough: last week it announced its intention to phase out all holiday homes within five years. This Friday the condition was increased: the city will raise the tourist tax from 3.25 to 4 euros (the maximum possible) for all types of accommodation. Only the PP and Vox (six councillors out of 41) voted against.

International rejection

The rejection of tourist apartments in Spain is comparable to the situation experienced by international destinations such as Rome or New York. The Italian capital has become a jungle of vacation rentals, with 15,000 authorized apartments as well as those that operate outside the law. “The historic center is facing a dramatic situation, and this is because the government does not allow us to block new openings in the non-hotel sector, which is growing disproportionately,” claimed tourism councilor Alessandro Onorato in a statement to the newspaper. Republic,

New York followed in Japan’s footsteps and banned tourist rentals in September 2023. Since that date, the New York hotel business has continued to grow stronger and the Big Apple has enjoyed the highest hotel occupancy among the top 25 markets in the United States. With 86.6% of total occupancy. According to the Travel Weekly portal, this record was reached in December, when the average daily rate rose by almost 11% to $393. The veto on tourist rentals is also joined by the disappearance of 16,500 rooms due to the conversion of one in five hotels in the city into a shelter for migrants. Tourist pressure and migrant pressure have turned the search for affordable housing into a difficult and arduous task: the minimum for a perfect room, without delay, is more than $300 per night.

“The consequences of the steps taken in cities like New York are already being seen and are totally counterproductive,” criticizes Adolfo Meras, president of Madrid Aloja, an association that brings together 300 managers with a portfolio of 4,500 homes for tourist use in the capital. “The interest of tourists in the city remains intact, the only thing that has been achieved is that the price of hotel rooms has skyrocketed and the demand for tourist accommodation has shifted to other nearby urban centers, such as New Jersey. In this way, a type of tourism with greater purchasing power has been prioritized, eliminating family tourism from the equation,” he adds. Barcelona is now the champion, the restrictive trend that Meras maintains deepens the “feeling of helplessness” for the sector. “It makes us think that we will eventually become a city like New York, where exorbitant prices will be in the hands of large hotel groups, family tourism will be discouraged and only the opportunity to travel on a large scale will remain,” he adds.

But in many of these cities, finding affordable rent has become a dream. And housing has been a central element in the recent protests against touristization that have emerged in Spain, from the Canary Islands to Malaga, this Saturday. “For seven years we have been trying to avoid the civil uprising that we have seen in recent months and it has been caused by housing for tourist use, which has had an unsustainable and untenable development for residents,” stressed José Luis Zoreda, executive vice president from Exceltur. This Lobby Represents companies such as Melia, Riu, NH or Iberostar, and will present a full report next Wednesday with proposals for action to prevent this rejection.

Limitations on cruises

Along with holiday apartments, the other big sector facing accusations of overcrowding is cruise ships. Venice has reduced them to a minimum, Palma accepts only three per day and Barcelona, ​​Europe’s main port, is trying to reduce arrivals. “The resolution of conflicts between tourists and neighbors depends on many factors. In Venice, for example, five years ago there were a lot of cruise passengers and now they have been reduced to a minimum due to the restrictions. Despite almost disappearing, the situation of tourist congestion has worsened, ”highlighted Afredo Serrano, director of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA, for its acronym in English) in Spain. “It is a mistake to blame cruise ships for mass tourism, since they represent no more than 4% of passengers,” he stressed.

Precisely, Venice has implemented one of the most innovative measures to reduce tourist arrivals, which consists of applying a tax of 5 euros that must be paid by day visitors, that is, those who do not spend the night in the city. The project is in the testing phase until mid-July, although in the first eight days the planned collection for the first three months of the test (723,000 euros) had already been exceeded, which suggests that the objective of reducing receipts has not been achieved as expected.

On the other hand, council spokesmen say Amsterdam has opted for a more comprehensive approach with the implementation of hundreds of measures designed to achieve a “livable, clean and sustainable” city without blaming travellers. In the case of hotels, a new hotel can only be built if another one closes first, but those already approved in previous plans (around 20) will continue. In the case of cruise ships, the passenger terminal will have a single berth, and from 2027 the ships will have to use electricity on land. Moving the terminal to a point further away from the centre is planned in 2035. The city council is committed to analysing the financial consequences of these decisions.

Despite the efforts, the total number of annual overnight stays by tourists in the capital of the Netherlands will be 20.6 million in 2023. The city council has committed to not exceeding 20 million in a city with 935,000 inhabitants. The tourist rate in all types of accommodation is 12.45 euros per night (without VAT), while the average across the country is 2.34 euros. Those who arrive by boat have to pay 14 euros.

Paris, due to its position, does not care about cruise ships. But the most visited city in the world is not free from the problems of managing huge crowds of tourists. The mayor’s office announced last week that it would ban the access of tourist buses, including electric ones, to the limited traffic zone that will open next October. However this veto of access to the center of the French capital can be lifted in exceptional cases, for example if the vehicles are heading to the Louvre parking lot. Elbow-bumping and crowding all around mona lisaThe iconic image, similar to Leonardo da Vinci’s own work, has a guaranteed future.

with information from Lucia Bohórquez (Palma de Mallorca), Dani Cordero (Barcelona), Guillermo Vega (Gran Canarian palms), Lorena Pacho (Rome), Isabel Ferrer (The Hague) and Maria Antonia Sanchez-Vallejo (NY)

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