The world's revolt against 'bad tourists'
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240522-the-worlds-revolt-against-bad-tourists
Amsterdam launches stay away ad campaign targeting young British men
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65107405
Closer to home: Yosemite reservation system
https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/reservations.htm
Why is this happening now? One hypothesis: air travel has never been better.
People love to complain about air travel, but
- inflation adjusted cost is about 10% of what it was in the 1950s and about 50-60% what it was in the 1980s after derefulation
- real-time bag tracking
- far far far safer than before - there has not been a fatal commercial crash in the US in 16 years
- far better on-time rates than before - for all the press on big delay events, I remember a time post-deregulation when hardly any flights left on time
- better oversell predictions - I used to fly either half-empty planes or planes where 30 minutes before boarding they would ask for 12 volunteers. Now planes are full and when they need volunteers, they mostly handle it a day or even three in advance.
- better in-flight entertainment
- 100% non-smoking (don't forget this one - my first flight to France, I was 1 row forward of the smoking section of a 747 with 180 Frenchies chain smoking Gauloises Bleues).
We get all of that in exchange for somewhat smaller seats and no disgusting lunch that I usually wouldn't eat anyway.
Other hypotheses
1. the largest inter-generational transfer in wealth from young to old means that young people know they will never be able to buy a home or retire, so why not enjoy life now
2. credit is easy, albeit not cheap when it comes in the form of credit card debt.
3. you just have to see those places that you see on IG
Still, I don't think any of the above would be enough (and #3 wouldn't even be a thing) if airline travel were not so cheap and good right now.
Oh... links
- https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/history-of-flight-costs
- https://moneywise.com/life/travel/airline-prices-fell-50-and-nobody-noticed
I was wrong - last fatal crash was 2009, 15 years ago
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2024/01/02/japan-plane-crash-incursions-us/72082604007/
Venice has been on an anti-tourism drive for about 3 years now. The latest facet;
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyjjy78n9zno
Venice bans large tourist groups and loudspeakers
It started with cruise ships, as their thousands of sudden-release tourons were literally pounding the city into the Grand Canal.
Charleston, SC is supposedly following Venice's lead. I've hear that city council will likely not renew cruise ship stop-overs.
What's funny about this is that as a rock climber, we have traditionally been target so se-marketing for most of my life. It's only recently as climbing gyms have alllowed for more and more climbers with jobs that tourism bureaus have realized they might want to quit working to keep us away.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/14/venice-entry-tax-failed-to-deter-tourists-critics-say?traffic_source=rss
Venice entry tax failed to deter tourists, critics say | Tourism News | Al Jazeera
Inelastic demand. DisneyWorld has the same 'problem' ...raising prices doesn't stop the flood of tourists. Not a bad problem to have, but facility wear & tear beats them to death.
BTW, Charleston, SC did stop cruise ships.