Sri Lanka placed in top 10 countries list for 'under-tourism '

Overtourism is every responsible traveller’s worst nightmare. You may have recently started hearing a lot about ‘overtourism’. The term is used to describe a large influx of tourists during a concentrated period, often in the high season. This swell of tourists floods popular destinations, strains infrastructure and drives up prices, which severely impact the community and local inhabitants.  Overtourism occurs when there are too many visitors to a particular destination.

Some may debate on the subject of ‘too many’ – be that as it may, too many is when rent prices push out local tenants to make way for holiday homes, when single lane roads become jammed with vehicles carrying tourists, when wildlife is chased away from its natural habitat, when tourists have to jostle with crowds and struggle to get a glance or take a photograph of a landmark, when fragile environments are left to deteriorate – these are all indicators that pave the way for overtourism. Overtourism is not just confined to big cities; it occurs in national parks and in the wilderness. In a nutshell, overtourism is simply a case of numbers – there are too many people in a particular place at a particular time, resulting in disturbing the quality of life for local residents’ whilst creating a negative experience for visitors.

The worldwide tourism boom has begun creating problems in some of the world’s most popular destinations, notably in Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam in Europe, where the locals have complained that their day-to-day lives are made a misery by the hordes of visitors who invade the cities. Vandalising tour buses and ‘graffiti’ on walls, telling tourists to 'go home', are ways the locals have begun expressing their resentment. Amsterdam meanwhile, has banned Airbnb short-term rentals in busy areas and has diverted cruise ships from docking in the centre.

Driven by the ‘more is better’ philosophy, the government and private sector in the tourist and travel industry, focuses almost entirely on growth – disregarding the fact that uncontrolled growth, once it crosses a threshold, creates micro-level benefits at the cost of macro-level problems. The recent case in Mirissa in the Deep South of Sri Lanka is a good example.

Other contributing problems to overtourism can include the sudden influx of beds in towns and cities, without being subject to any kind of planning, permits, standards or in almost all cases –taxes. As the ‘Home share’ concept (Airbnb is often cited as a supporting villain), spirals out of control, hosts undercut nearby hotels and accommodation providers who play-by-the-rules. More rooms mushroom, rents get pushed up whilst local people get pushed out. All this damages the local lifestyle and landscapes.

A new index created by Australian Travel Company intrepid has released the top 10 countries for overtourism as well as the 10 top nations for undertourism. The index compares total visitor arrivals in 2016 to the permanent population to create a “tourism density index”.

The Top 10 countries for overtourism

1. Croatia  (57,587,000 tourists to 4,170,600 locals - 1380.78%)                        
2. Iceland (1,891,000 tourists to 334,250 locals - 565.74%)
3. Hungary (52,890,000 tourists to 9,817,960 locals - 538.71%)
4. Denmark (28,692,000 tourists to 5,731,120 locals - 500.64%)
5. France (202,930,000 tourists to 66,896,110 locals 303.35%)
6. Czech Republic (30,915,000 tourists to 10,561,630 locals - 292.71%)
7. Singapore (16,404,000 tourists to 5,607,280 locals - 292.55%)
8. Cyprus (3,286,000 tourists to 1,170,130 locals - 280.82%
9. Greece (28,071,000 tourists to 10,746,740 locals - 261.20%)
10. Spain (115,561,000 people to 46,443,960 locals - 248.82%)

The top 10 countries for undertourism

1. Tanzania (1,284,000 tourists to 55,572,200 locals - 2.31%)
2. Papua New Guinea (198,000 tourists to 8,084,990 locals - 2.45%)
3. Kenya (1,340,000 tourists to 48,461,570 locals - 2.77%)
4. Indonesia (11,519,000 people to 261,115,460 locals - 4.41%)
5. Egypt (5,399,000 people to 95,688,680 locals - 5.64%)
6. Mozambique (1,715,000 tourists to 28,829,480 locals - 5.95%)
7. Iran (4,942,000 tourists to 80,277,430 locals 6.16%)
8. Colombia (4,048,000 tourists to 48,653,420 locals - 8.32%)
9. Sri Lanka (2,168,000 tourists to 21,203,000 locals - 10.22%)
10. China (141,774,000 tourists to 1,378,665,000 locals - 10.28%)

Interestingly, Sri Lanka, which had a single-digit % in the pre-2010 period, (for well known reasons), has since rapidly descended the ‘top 10 undertourism ladder’.

Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-hotelier.

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