When we think about sustainable travel, we usually dwell on the most popular topics and conversations that spark around it. We wonder, for example, what we do to limit our CO2 emissions on a trip or pick our hotels and accommodations based on their efforts towards a greener impact on our planet. But especially in the last few years, there has been another sustainability-related issue lurking in the background, and it’s called overtourism.
Lately, cities and countries alike have taken action toward the problem—including building literal fences—as overtourism can bring about complications both for residents and our planet in general. According to experts, the presence of too many tourists can damage fragile environments or landmarks, scare wildlife, increase local rents, and general overcrowding of narrow roads.
Some cities, though, are more targeted than others, and at times, pop culture has to do with it, too. Holidu, the vacation home rental agency, recently published a report on the most “over-touristed” cities in Europe and Croatia’s Dubrovnik—which in the last few years gained a lot of tourism traction thanks to it being one of the main filming sets for the HBO hit show Game of Thrones—came out on top, surpassing the infamously over-touristed Venice.
To come up with the results, Holidu considered annual tourism data from 2019 (the last pre-pandemic year) and calculated an estimation of the number of tourists to residents. According to the report, Dubrovnik counts 36 tourists for every resident. That is a lot if we consider that Dubrovnik is a relatively small city with a population of just over 41,000. In 2019, it welcomed almost 1.5 million tourists.
According to Croatia Week, overtourism has caused multiple issues in the Croatian city, from traffic jams to damages to infrastructure and a steep increase in prices and lower quality of life for residents. Dubrovnik, however, has been trying to curb the issue by using different rules and regulations. Back in 2017, for example, following a recommendation from UNESCO, the city installed daily tourist limits and 116 cameras to count the number of tourists entering the Old Town.
Last summer, Dubrovnik also launched a new animated YouTube video with tips for being a less disruptive visitor. Honestly, it’s a pretty cute watch.
In the last year, the Croatian city has been taking further steps to try to curb the issue of overtourism. At the end of 2023, through the amendment of the city’s General Urban Plan, Dubrovnik reportedly announced that it intended to ban the construction of new holiday apartments to help keep tourist levels under control, Balkan Insight reports. In April of this year, as Reuters reports, Dubrovnik voted to ban new rental permits in the Old Town and its surrounding area, which would help the city meet UNESCO standards and regulations.
Since last summer, tourists have also had to be careful about how they move around Dubrovnik. Reportedly, many residents of Old Town complained about the noise that tourists make when dragging their suitcases on the city’s cobbled streets, arguing that it would keep them awake at night, the New York Post reports. For this reason, tourists are banned from rolling their wheeled suitcases around Old Town, and those caught doing so face a fine of $288.
Source link : https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/dubrovnik-croatia-european-overtourism-data
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Publish date : 2024-07-31 07:00:00
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