Overtourism

en KiekCie #Overtourism

The story behind that one perfect Instagram post. We always try to capture the memories that we create from our beautiful holiday destinations. Toby from the KiekCie shares his tips to get the perfect vacation picture. Text and Pictures: Toby Serier, KiekCie member

Have you ever visited popular touristic mountain to take photos in all different poses. places like the Eiffel Tower or Venice? Maybe I guess that in the same morning thousands you traveled even further and visited the of almost identical photos were posted on all Great Wall of China or the Machu Picchu? kinds of social media. Probably in all of these, There is one thing that these places have in only the photographer and maybe some of its common. That is, the reality is different from friends and family were visible. All of their the expectations. These places are way too followers, probably almost a million, will see crowded and tourism is out of proportion. By their friend standing at this idyllic place and telling about my own experiences I would like of course, some of them will want to visit that to show one of the causes of this problem and same place. These followers are not realizing I will give some travel tips to avoid this. that they are actually misled by that photo,

When I visited mount Bromo in Indonesia, and the poster is often not realizing what the the guides promised me the most beautiful impact of the photo is. Their post is actually sunrise of Indonesia. At that moment, in causing an exponential growth in the number which I might have been a bit naïve, I of visitors. Not only tourists are disappointed expected the location on the cover of the by the crowd they encounter at touristic Lonely Planet of Indonesia. I didn’t expect a places, but also locals will face problems traffic jam of Jeeps filled with tourists who because of it and preserving the authenticity all wanted to catch the same photo at sunrise. of these places is getting harder, and harder. I Thousands of people were traveling up that think we could call the way this is spreading a social media pandemic. For this pandemic, I have a more Responsible tourism educated solution than a lockdown. When I was in Thailand, we got offered a visit There is something you should take into to an elephant sanctuary. We would probably account when planning your vacation. have had a great experience in the sanctuary, I think you should be consciously but we decided not to go there since we heard about the terrible stories about training these elephants, and we were not sure if the owners of this sanctuary had good intentions. I think in this case the elephants’ well-being was more important than our joy (and photos) and we had a great day anyway. If you want to know more about the negative sides of elephant tourism, check out the QR-code.

aware of the difference between a tourist and a traveler. On the one hand, a tourist generally wants to relax and doesn’t come too far out of its comfort zone. A tourist often seeks a (multiple) day tours in which all touristic, and therefore busy places will be visited. On the other hand, you have travelers, who go somewhere to mingle with locals, experience their culture, and try to learn new things. Travelers don’t want to plan everything upfront and like to experience and explore. A tourist is likely to end up in the overcrowded

KiekCie en places I mentioned before, whereas a traveler would try to avoid seeing these people who speak the same language and have the same accent. Therefore, I think that in order to be a sustainable tourist you should find a good balance between being a tourist and a traveler. I think you should put some effort into your own travel schedule, and research the authenticity of the places you visit. You could still visit some of the most well-known places of course, as long as you do it responsibly. A good way to do this is by asking locals for recommendations, instead of going to a big travel agency whose goal is to make as much profit as possible by sending as many people as possible. Locals can also tell you about the impact of tourism and might help you with transportation and accommodation, which will benefit the local economy as well.

Coming back to the social media pandemic I mentioned before, I would recommend everyone to post your most beautiful vacation photos online. But I would also recommend everyone to make an extra post when encountering a crowded tourist attraction with the hashtag #Overtourism, to give your followers a realistic view of the world.