Overtourism and Tourism Education

A Strategy for Sustainable Tourism Futures

Hugues Séraphin, Anca C. Yallop

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000226171
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Since 2017, the term 'overtourism' has become the buzzword for destinations suffering the strain of tourism. It is a critical issue for the 21st century and beyond, and to date has only been examined from a tourism industry perspective. This book takes a different stand by investigating overtourism from a tourism education perspective.

The recent global COVID-19 pandemic was expected to halt travel and, arguably, overtourism. However, industry experts and researchers share the opinion that instead of declining, overtourism is simply experiencing a shift, with a swarm of 'second home' and domestic travel that is likely to engulf many tourism destinations. Against this backdrop, the issue of overtourism remains relevant and studies on ways to cultivate responsible consumer mindsets to deal with overtourism and other sustainability issues in the tourism industry are called for. This book focuses on education as a transformative and strategic tool to tackle overtourism and related negative impacts. It presents original research on the topics of overtourism, education, and sustainability, and puts forward a range of practical and transformative tourism education strategies to mitigate overtourism and to promote the sustainable development of destinations.

This book will be of great interest to upper-level students, researchers, and academics in tourism, development studies, cultural studies, and sustainability, as well as professionals in the field of tourism management.

Part I
Conceptual framework

1 Overtourism, education, and the tourism area life cycle model

Richard W. Butler

Introduction

This chapter examines the potential application of education to the problem of overtourism in the context of a single model, the tourism area life cycle (TALC) (Butler, 1980). That focus raises at least two questions: why should the TALC model be singled out for attention and discussion as distinct from other models, and in the context of education relating to this model, who or what should be educated if the problems stemming from overtourism are to be mitigated?

This chapter progresses by discussing briefly the history and nature of the TALC model and its relationship to overtourism, and then examines the issue of education relating to that model and its application. This is followed by a brief review of the issues of overtourism and overdevelopment in specific destinations in comparison with the TALC model. The final section of the chapter reviews potential lessons and implications that could be learned from the model in attempting to mitigate the negative results of overtourism.

The tourism area life cycle model

This writer is assuming that the TALC model was singled out because it specifically deals with the issue of overdevelopment (and perhaps by implication, overtourism) and the potential negative effects on tourist destinations if appropriate management actions are not taken. Hall (2006, p. XV) noted that ‘The TALC is one of the most cited and contentious areas of tourist knowledge (and) has gone on to become one of the best known theories of destination growth and change within the field of tourism studies’. It is also the most frequently cited paper in the context of destination development and therefore something which many students of tourism have been informed about (Wang et al., 2016). The model itself does not deal specifically with the term overtourism (which did not appear in the literature until almost four decades after the original model), although it does discuss the potential for, and implications of, overdevelopment of tourist destinations. The model was first introduced in its original form in 1980 and has been referenced and used in academic study since shortly after that date. As a great deal has been written on the model, including its origins and related literature, and its applications (see for example the contributors in Butler, 2006a, b), a short summary of the model should suffice here.

Stages of development

The model is descriptive rather than analytic in focus, and lists a series of stages through which, it is argued, most tourist destinations progress as they develop through time. These stages are exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation, followed by either or both of decline and rejuvenation. The TALC model is based on the well-known business model the Product Life Cycle, and it is argued that destinations/resorts can be thought of as products, in that they are produced, developed, marketed, promoted, modified, and exploited in much the same way as other products such as cars and computers. Like these latter products, tourist destinations are dynamic, sometimes in a positive sense and sometimes, particular in the later stages of their life cycle, in a negative sense. The TALC model did not claim that any or all destinations would inevitably progress through all of the earlier stages, although it did suggest that if there was not appropriate modification and management of a destination and its resources, it would be likely to follow the pattern illustrated by the model and progress through overdevelopment to decline. The absence of the element of inevitability in the TALC was, in contrast to that element in other models, relating to resident attitudes to tourism (Doxey, 1975) and to the changing nature of the market being attracted (Plog, 1973).

Key elements of the model

The major points of the TALC are that destinations are dynamic, and that there are identifiable stages of development through which most progress; that without appropriate management, there would likely be overdevelopment of destinations relative to their carrying capacity (considered in terms of natural resources, infrastructure, cultural features, and societal attitudes to tourism); and that there would then be a subsequent decline in the attractiveness of destinations to the overall tourism market as their attributes and facilities became dated and unappealing to changing markets. The likely result of such changes in destinations would be an overall decline in the numbers of visitors and resulting expenditure, and the possibility of an irreversible negative downward spiral process of declining yields, declining investments, and declining visitor numbers (Coelho and Butler, 2012), leading in some cases to an exit stage (Baum, 1998). The origins of the TALC (Butler, 2006) lay in the mostly European examples of destinations that were established and boomed in the railway era and had begun to decline as newer destinations became accessible, primarily as a result of vastly improved and lower costing transportation, particularly air transport (Butler, 2014). Similar patterns could be observed in the north eastern USA (Stansfield, 1978), Canada (Wolfe, 1952), and Australia (Butler and McDonnell, 2011). It is appropriate to evaluate the model now some four decades on to ascertain if its relevance still exists, as different forms of destinations, reflecting different patterns of transportation and political development may make the generalisations of the original model less applicable. That task has been examined by a considerable number of other authors and while some argue for its continued relevance, others make valid criticisms about specific elements of the model and have put forward variations and alternatives (again as discussed by contributors in Butler, 2006a, b).

The TALC model and overtourism

The relationship between the TALC model and overtourism is neither a simple nor a direct one, and, as noted elsewhere (Butler, 2019), part of the problem is that what is called overtourism may well be what has previously been described as overdevelopment, i.e. a destination has continued to develop and grow in terms of accessibility, infrastructure, and visitor numbers beyond the level that neither local residents nor visitors find acceptable or attractive. In such cases it may be that physical development has outstripped the perceptual limits of the destination, so it simply is, or appears to be, too busy to many potential visitors and local residents, or, the development of infrastructure may have caused major changes in the appearance and ambience of the destination such that it no longer resembles its earlier form and has lost some of its appeal to the market. This is not to suggest that there should be no development or change in destinations. To do so would most likely condemn such destinations to become ever more out of date with the changing market and tastes of potential visitors (Plog, 1973). There is dynamism in both the supply and the demand sides of tourism and responsible resort operators need to ensure that their destination remains attractive to existing and potential customers, but that does not mean that resorts should automatically respond to every slight shift in market preferences, nor should resorts change a successful operation simply in order to appear ‘modern’. It is possible to retain traditional appearance and level of customer service, and most importantly, perhaps, quality of experience, in older destinations and still be financially successful and in line with resident preferences, as destinations such as St Moritz and some Mediterranean destinations demonstrate.

It is also important to be aware that overtourism can occur at any point in a destination’s life cycle and not only in its later stages. Overtourism occurs when a destination has excessive numbers of tourists compared to its carrying capacity, however that may be measured. This could be in terms of visitor attitudes (as Doxey (1975) forecast), in terms of physical space (manifesting itself in crowding and congestion), in terms of infrastructure (including transportation to and within the destination), and in terms of the natural environment (witnessed in pollution, scarcity of resources such as water, and loss of biodiversity). If visitation exceeds capacity in the early stages of development, overtourism could then take place even though tourist numbers might be less than experienced later in the destination’s life cycle, when its capacity has been increased through development. It is key to appreciate, however, that not all elements can be increased in terms of their carrying capacity, most beaches are finite in dimensions, water resources are often limited by natural processes, and biodiversity may be incompatible with intensive use. It is necessary therefore not only to take into account tourist numbers and stage of development, and the carrying capacity of a destination but also to appreciate that all of these factors are dynamic and change throughout a destination’s life cycle.

Education on tourism destination life cycles: for whom and why?

The second question relates as to whom education (about the TALC model and other aspects of tourism development, including the sustainable development of tourism) might or should be extended. The charge is often laid that tourists need to be better educated about what they should enjoy, to where they should travel, and particularly how they should behave, but in reality, the situation is much more complicated than simply better educated tourists. There is little doubt that many tourists are poorly educated in some, perhaps even many, aspects of tourism, including the culture and mores of some of their destinations, and certainly the issue of appropriate behaviour when away from home, but tourists being better educated would, at best, only solve a part of the problem of overtourism as it is generally framed. It needs to be understood that all players and stakeholders in tourism, in both the demand and supply sectors, would benefit from being better educated, or at least being better informed, about the issues and implications of overdevelopment, and in the context of the TALC model, in terms of inappropriate development and implications of development on local natural and cultural environments in destinations. However, such education and information are not easily delivered and may be even harder to implement for the reasons noted below. In terms of the education sector itself, the teaching of tourism now begins in the school curriculum in some countries, and the teaching of tourism at universities and colleges has expanded massively at the global level. There is a full range of modules, courses, and degree programmes offered at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in many countries, both developed and undeveloped. The principles of sustainable development in the context of tourism are included in many of these programmes and the TALC model is universally cited in those dealing with tourism destination development.

Education of tourists

There are many calls that tourists should be educated in order to prevent what may be considered ‘inappropriate’ behaviour, frequently related to hedonistic displays such as drunkenness (Iamsterdam, 2018) but such education would not necessarily prevent crowding or overdevelopment per se. Such calls are often put in the context of what the writers feel is undesirable ‘mass tourism’ (Hanley and Walton, 2010). In reality, many such views are insulting to the type of tourism that very large numbers of tourists throughout the world regard as both normal and attractive, in part at least because of economics. Such tourism is generally more moderately priced and thus within the financial capability of large numbers of people, than the more academically acceptable forms of tourism such as sustainable tourism, ecotourism, or cultural tourism. Few destinations now like to promote themselves as mass tourist destinations because of critical attitudes, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• COVID-19 and the mutation of overtourism: the case of France
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I Conceptual framework
• Part II Practical strategies and impacts
• Part III Transformative strategies
• Conclusion
• Index