Inspiration

What we’ve learnt as part of our overtourism campaign

Sawday's Expert

5 min read

For a travel company, overtourism is a difficult issue to approach, but we know we have a reponsibility to do so. We began with a policy of capping the number of places we work with in areas that suffer from overtourism, but this was only ever a first step. We knew that we would need to keep learning, reviewing and developing our approach to an issue that is multifaceted and complex. Here is a little about what we’ve done so far, what we’ve discovered as we went along and what we’re planning for the future.

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What we did

The destination capping policy put a limit on the number of places we would have in our collection in some of the most visited areas of the UK. It was felt that this would have an immediate impact, which we could then supplement with longer term research and a commitment to encouraging public transport usage among our guests.

What we’ve learnt

Overtourism is not one thing

In some places, overtourism means traffic jams, pollution and anti-social behaviour, while in others it manifests itself in path erosion or wildly fluctuating seasonal populations that periodically turn communities into ghost towns. It was instantly clear that one approach would not be applicable to all cases.

Consider the long and short of it

All of our planning and thinking around overtourism had focused on visitors who stay in a place for at least one night, but research quickly showed that day trippers present a different set of problems which also need to be considered.

We must look to present and future

Once overtourism has become a problem for a place, it’s very hard to get rid of. While we must look at ways to manage existing destinations, it’s also important to help places growing in popularity resist its onslaught.

We need more research

There is a lack of concrete data on overtourism in the UK, which has made it more difficult for people at every level to approach the issue. An ongoing study at Cumbria University is gathering both quantitative and qualitative data and they’ve asked us if we want to be involved in the qualitative stage. We’re obviously keen to participate however we can.

There are people we can help

Many local schemes and groups are looking for ways to tackle overtourism in their areas. We will consult with them and find ways to support them, learning more about individual cases and overtourism as we do so and making our overall impact more focused.

The government’s involvement is intermittent and disputed

One of the key issues for many rural communities when it comes to overtourism is a lack of decent infrastructure. While some councils are adding barriers like parking restrictions or charges that deter car usage, few are offering positive solutions like rail or bus services.

For example, new Scottish Short Term Let Licensing Legislation has been enacted which is vigorously disputed on all sides. The debate itself shows a lack of a focused, destination-specific and consultative approach that might have more chance of success and there is very little supporting data for the measure.

We need large-scale change

Overtourism’s roots and causes reach into the territory of many different government agencies, leading to no single department or group with oversight, and no holistic approach. Visit Britain’s 5-year strategy makes no mention of overtourism, sustainable tourism or any similar term, although there are references to “visitor dispersal” and “addressing product gaps”. The issue needs to be central to future strategies.

We have demonstrated, with our marketing and platform, the possibility of encouraging travel to traditionally less popular areas and while this might only shift the burden, those areas could approach travel differently and avoid overtourism if they had the right data and support.

What we’re doing next

Consulting with more people

We’re holding focus groups this year with people from affected communities and local tourism boards.

Reviewing our policy

We will review and develop our overtourism cap, in consultation with members of the Travel by B Corp community, examining its effectiveness and ways in which it could be amended and extended.

Looking to the future

While directing our guests to new destinations is one way of ameliorating overtourism in some areas, we have a duty, alongside our business owners and tourist boards, to consider the impact of tourism in those places. A report on the ‘Invisible Burden of Tourism’ from the Travel Foundation, shows the importance of guarding against overtourism.

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Tessa Holmes

Sawday's Expert

Tessa is our social and environmental inspiration and watchdog. She's in charge of finding ways for us to extend our positive impact as far as we can, whether that's encouraging our owners to install EV charge points, upgrading our site's accessibility or raising the flag for worthy causes like Save The Oaks. Just to make sure she completely embodies the company's purpose, she lives in a yurt in Devon, helping out with the running of a social enterprise.

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