Hey there! I haven’t been very active on this blog lately and also I haven’t traveled much in the past couple months.
But on the plus side, I have made a huge progress in dealing with the reverse culture shock caused by my return to Italy. Yes, I still feel a bit like a fish out of water and sometimes I want to run away but fish don’t run *sigh*.
A fish frustrated it can’t run
Also, my little brain has been thinking over and over about how tourism has evolved over the last decades and it keeps yelling at me: “SOMETHING MUST CHANGE!”
But what’s wrong with tourism?
Quite a few things.
Tourism has increased exponentially in the last 10 years, and it is expected to grow even more in the years to come – which is great, considering that it already represents an important percentage of many countries’ GDP.
But there is a problem: IT IS NOT SUSTAINABLE, not the way it is today and not for the long haul.
Two parrots worried about the future of tourism!
Why?
There are volumes and volumes that talk about why tourism has become unsustainable but, in a nutshell, these are the three main issues:
- mass tourism is destroying our cultural heritage, ecosystems and local cultures
- many people feel like the high number of tourists visiting their communities are a hindrance to their day-to-day life
- only a small percentage (about 5%) of the tourism-generated income actually goes to the host countries
The real problem with tourists is that they mess my photos!
Guilty!
I pledge guilty!
I am one of those guys flocking at Machu Picchu, lining up at the feet of the Eiffel Tour, treading the Great Wall of China and causing bike traffic at 5 am on the way from Siem Reap to Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat – Cambodia 
The place looks empty – in reality I managed to take this picture between one horde of tourists and another
Is there a solution?
I think there is. There has to be one! But we need to change the way we do tourism.
In my next post I will come up with a few practical ways we can help improve tourism and make it more sustainable (sorry, I’m not a fan of long articles). In the meanwhile, I would love to know what you guys think about this issue and if there is anything we can do to change things.
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