Most of us are tourists. At least sometimes . Last year, the earth's population made 1.4 billion tourist trips abroad, which is more than doubling only since the turn of the millennium.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization recently noted that growing tourism is one of the strongest forces behind the economic growth that the world has experienced over the last fifty years.
Tourism in decent proportions and with local roots is one of the most sustainable ways of creating jobs and economic growth. If the guest houses, hotels, cafes and restaurants are owned by the locals - and can local authorities levy tourist taxes and earn VAT money on the visitors - there are good chances that tourism does not make the locals clench their fists in the pocket of anger.
But that's not always the case.
In many iconic places, tourists have become so numerous that they threaten to destroy the local culture and trample the environment.
Many new groups and nationalities in the world today have the financial opportunity to visit Venice's canals and the Spanish Steps. It creates a terrible congestion and at the same time threatens to wipe out what made you initially choose to go there: the local peculiarities and the specific culture under the shiny varnish of globalization. Not so fun when local craftsmen had to move out, as rents were ripped up, and replaced by shops and cafes belonging to international chains.
Cities, regions and countries around the world are setting themselves on fire. Everyone wants a bigger part of the cake and is working intensively to attract tourists.
In Barcelona, it has long been a priority to increase tourist flows . Ten years ago, I met Barcelona's tourism manager who proudly told us how to sponsor Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona movie, which quickly paid off, as the number of visiting American tourists increased. Hurray! shouted the head of tourism. But then the backlash came in the form of popular street protests against the backs of the over-exploitation.
At the same time, the charter companies are increasingly working with economies of scale. Not so many years ago, for example, Swedish Leisure Travel had several trips to less-exploited destinations on the Mediterranean.
After the climate debate gained momentum following a report from the UN Climate Panel in 2006, even train charters were invested. But the train journeys were canceled because they were not large enough.
Today, the Swedish charter company is part of the German holiday group Tui with 30 million travelers a year from 25 countries.
Now it applies to them as well as to Europe's other travel giants: preferably no small fancy family pensions in odd places, preferably large hotel complexes at already established destinations where tourists can fly in tens of thousands. Economy in other words.
But we can't blame everything on the tour operators. Everyone who occasionally goes abroad for a holiday has a responsibility. Of our trips to the sun, now only a small fraction of the charter goes. Instead, we package the trip itself. We book air tickets (and to some extent train tickets), rental car, hotel and holiday apartment on various sites on the net.
What should we do with the power we have to decide transport modes, destinations and accommodations?
The best thing we can do to not contribute to overexploitation is not to go to the most well-known places and be crowded. The pyramids, the Leaning Tower, the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower perform best in image and film. Instead, travel to a similar city, beach or island near the world famous neighbor.
Folegandros instead of Santorini, Valencia instead of Barcelona . Chioggia instead of Venice, Piedmont instead of Tuscany. And make sure you stay at a small guest house, bed and breakfast or homestay. Then you increase the chances that the money stays in local pockets and does not disappear to shareholders in Frankfurt and London.
The profit is double. You help spread the tourist income to more people and counteract the concentration of the profits at the top of society. And then the chance increases that you get to experience something that feels a little more genuine and genuine.