How tour operators are tackling over-tourism
© Bailey Zindel, Unsplash
Operators of all sorts – from industry innovators to smaller enterprises – have introduced a range of strategic approaches to address the issues of overtourism, whether it’s tweaking tour dates or adjusting itineraries to minimise the impact on popular places.
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1. Promoting off-season travel
With the launch of their off-season Escapes, Globus is ramping up efforts to incentivise travellers to book trips during less popular times of the year. These tours journey through some of the most iconic cities on the planet – from Vienna to Prague and Marrakesh – during less crowded, off-peak periods.
Intrepid Travel is following suit as well: the company has put an emphasis on promoting trips to Europe between the off-season months of October and March, which helps to balance and better distribute the flow of traveller traffic.
2. New trips in off-the-grid destinations
In addition to encouraging visitors to avoid high season travel, tour operators are launching trips in untouched regions and countries that are new to tourism.
Featuring a whole host of epic adventures in destinations like Kazakhstan, Djibouti, and Armenia, Intrepid Travel’s range of Expedition Trips are specially designed to take you way, way beyond the jam-packed tourist trail.
After launching their Undiscovered Tours in recent years, Globus continues to encourage people to forgo over-travelled hotspots in favour of little-known destinations. Their Undiscovered Greek Island Adventure, for example, skips over Santorini and swings through Paros and Naxos instead.
3. Going beyond the tourist trail in popular places
Even in a much-loved country like Italy, G Adventures offers several tours that take small groups of travellers to out-of-the-way areas that hardly any tourists see.
Their Local Living – Coastal Tuscany tour starts and ends in Rome, but the majority of the trip is based in Capalbio, a small medieval village located roughly 150 kilometres south of Florence.
In order to help curb the crowds at Peru’s most famous attraction – where visitor numbers have skyrocketed over the past few years – Exodus Travels invites visitors to follow the Moonstone Trek, an alternative and isolated route that bypasses the congested Inca Trail.
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