Business of Tourism: Over Tourism causes consternation, concern and chaos

There's a lot of debate and discussion on " over-tourism" these days, on the Internet, print and social media. 

Its a complex subject. On one hand, tourism brings in much needed funds into local economies, helping for services and maintenance, allowing governments to subsidize citizens costs. Clearly, London's museums couldn't be free if the city didn't get so many visitors ( Or may be called "spenders'). Likewise, the big gems of tourism- Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam or Venice, Athens in Europe amongst others. But for every city overrun in Europe, there are tons of others in Asia, the USA and Africa who would love to have (even if temporarily!) the tourism dollars. 

Tourism injects life, vigour, a virtuous investment cycle, jobs, general good feeling, and yes, often times, is a strategic tool in the political or economic arsenal. 

But there are definitely downsides. Too much of a good thing can be a problem. 

Over tourism I believe generally kicks in when local culture, life patterns and services begin to change or bend to the needs and demands of a transient population which attains critical mass to actually cause these changes, and infrastructure ominously breaches the limits it was designed for faster than can be replaced or enhanced. When the local citizen finds no seat on his own city's trams or buses ( as we saw several times across Europe). Or when the local restaurants change menus to accommodate global tastes rather than offer local cuisine, when standardization rather than uniqueness becomes rampant. 

I don't come from a city or nation which suffers from any sort of over tourism, but we actually suffer from "over- population" which , if you think of it, is the same issue as over tourism- and you cant even ban airlines or cruise ships- its there, permanently, every time, every day.  In fact, Indians I believe generally visit the "first world" to experience less crowding, clean air, weather, superb infrastructure and cleanliness! 

While over tourism and over crowding are two sides of the same coin, the approaches and solutions have to be very different.  

Discussing over tourism solutions this time : 

1. Marketing can be used to phase out visits. Not always possible because of weather and vacations. 

2. Entry barriers - visa issuances can be controlled. Easiest method, but could have political and economic repercussions. 

3. Cost barriers- simply make it more expensive, which would filter out the marginal, low and budget categories, but that could be seen as unfriendly, and discriminatory (which it could well be). Cost barriers could be higher taxes, expensive room rates, differential public transport and entrance fees (which does create resentment). It could well be the entrance fees like Venice tried ( But travelers simply adjust mentally to a higher cost plane and kept coming). 

4. Open new areas : could spread the numbers across the land, but presumably, could get overwhelmed as well - necessitating newer areas every few years. Not easy. 

5. Other destinations develop- this could well cause diversion of tourism permanently and cause economic damage. This has started in Vietnam and Cambodia, which have started taking in more Indians diverting from Thailand and Singapore. (When destinations within India develop, that will also divert some tourism- but the sheer numbers of Indians means this is not a worry for Europe, USA , Singapore or UAE and others anytime soon!) 

Just some ideas but no quick solutions. As the massive middle classes of India , China and Asia in general prosper, they will travel. Its a human need. But the numbers can, and will, overwhelm. Destinations need to deal with it. 

I intend to analyze interconnected, historical and economic issues related to tourism and travel going ahead- watch this space. 

Baggage left behind!

We landed, but one of our main bags didn’t- apparently it was still in Singapore and wouldn’t arrive in Siem Reap until the next day. This was a little odd as there was an evening flight as well from Singapore. But what was bemusing was the speed and readiness of the lost / delayed baggage counter. The moment we reached the counter, the person handed us a laminated paper with pictures of bags and sizes and once we identified the bag size from the pictures, the person filled in the forms himself and within 15 minutes handed us US$100 as compensation for the late arrival of the bag. The next morning, the bag was delivered to our hotel. All smooth and without any follow-up from our side. That’s one advantage perhaps of a world class airline like Singapore Airlines.

Apparently, this is a well-known occurrence, and everyone’s used to it! Or maybe we were just lucky as there wasn’t much traffic. Or maybe the person was just very efficient. Either way, while a bit inconvenient, we weren’t complaining. The main bags with the food came with us!

And as a happy consequence of lack of clothes, we had to shop – and found a store called Ten11 (on Sivutha Boulevard- recommended by our Tuktuk driver+ guide Bannu), with some good designs, quality and value for money, courtesy Singapore Airlines US$100! What we bought was very useful when we landed in Hanoi on December 25.