More Difficult To Stem The Tourist Hordes To Europe Than It Was To Attract Them

TIME writes that last year, 51% of the tourists worldwide went to Europe–an 8% increase over the year before.

Around 87 million tourists visited France in 2017, breaking records; 58.3 million went to Italy; and even the tiny Netherlands received 17.9 million visitors.

The neoclassical gems of European cities that once made up the grand tour have been stops on package tours since the 19th century. But it’s only over the past decade or so that the number of travellers to these and other must-see destinations risks subsuming the places.

The author writes about the situation in Venice, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Norway and some other popular European destinations. 

There are many reasons for this modern explosion in tourism. Low-cost airlines like easyJet, Ryanair and Vueling expanded dramatically in the 2000s, Airbnb made accommodations less expensive, and rising prosperity in countries like China and India has turned their middle classes into avid travellers.

With tourism in 2018 expected to surpass previous records, frustration in Europe is growing. This past spring witnessed antitourism demonstrations in many cities throughout Europe

Tourism has already been driving locals out of the centre of Florence, Venice, Barcelona and other hotspots for decades.

When the residents leave and the visitors take over, what is left behind can lose some of its charm.

However, imposing too many restrictions risks alienating the residents who depend on access to tourist dollars. Tourism has come to be seen by European countries as an economic lifesaver. The industry generated $321 billion for the E.U. in 2016 and now employs 12 million people.

Local governments are trying to curb or channel the surges that clog streets, diminish housing supplies, pollute waters, turn markets and monuments into no-go zones.

Yet almost all of them are learning that it can be far more difficult to stem the tourist hordes than it was to attract them in the first place.