Always think before you act. How is tourism killing the cultural and natural heeritage of cities.
We all love to travel. Recently, many millennials and GenZ created a new trend of visiting “exotic” or “undiscovered” by mainstream tourism places. Over the years this trend gained popularity and massive groups of tourists started invading isolated corners of the world, slowly destroying everything on their way. In this article I look into a few specific locations that had to impose laws, in order to preserve the cultural or natural heritage of the city/island.
1. Croatia, Dubrovnik
Because of the huge number of tourists, UNESCO threatens to deprive the city of the status of a World Heritage site, so the authorities are beginning to take decisive action.
Due to multiple restrictions, you risk not getting to the most popular attractions. For example, only 4,000 people a day can see the fortresses of the 15th century. In August 2016, 10,388 people passed through the landmark in one day. Such popularity is due to the fact that some episodes of one of the most popular series "The Game of Thrones" were filmed here.
The mayor of the city also plans to reduce the number of cruise ships staying in the ancient port. Since 2016, more than 800,000 people landed on the local shore. Most of which haven’t stayed in the city for more than three hours.
2. Mount Everest, Nepal
The ever-growing numbers of people on the highest mountain of the world began to approach a dangerous figure for a long time. In 2015, mountain climbers with little experience were forbidden to do the climb. Later on, people with disabilities were required to have appropriate medical certificates. Even professional climbers without any health problems have to save up money, since the permit to climb is about 11,000$. This is due to the fact that increased security measures are necessary for the dangerous trail and that costs the authorities a fortune.
3. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Numerous tourists are endangering the local ecology. The government has attempted to limit the routes accessible guests by providing guides and narrowing down the permitted paths. However, tourists have continued to walk around the restricted areas of the islands, damaging the surrounding nature. In this regard, last year, new rules were invented to help save the Ecuadorian ecosystem.
Before entering the islands, you will need to show a return ticket, hotel reservations or an invitation, and issue a special control card. The government hopes that this will help manage the intense flow of tourists and moderate the “vandalism” of the islands’ nature.
4. Isle of Skye, Scotland
Over the past year, the largest island of Scotland has suffered greatly from the unexpected increase of tourists. The roads to the picturesque basins in the Glenn Brittl Valley, the landscapes of Elgol and the Old Man Rock from Storra were too small for such a quantity of transport, which led to massive traffic jams.
In addition, the locals complain of the noise and dirt left behind by uncultured tourists. So far, the administration has not imposed restrictions on entry, but the rights of the population are already being intensively protected by the police.
It is extremely upsetting that due to the disrespectful behaviour of tourists many historical places and natural sights are now considered endangered. We all must remember that we live in a fragile environment and need to work together to protect it. So when you travel, always try to be respectful of your surrounding environment and the cultural heritage of the country.
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