Why you should fight the urge to visit the most ‘overtouristed’ destinations on the planet

Symptoms of ‘overtourism’ generally include Too Many People and perhaps even a tourist tax. And it’s spreading

Forget “bleisure”, “baecation” and “jobbymoon” (howl) – the latest addition to the travel dictionary isn’t quite so lexically revolting.

Enter “overtourism”, the modern disease affecting countries, cities and regions across the world. Symptoms generally include Too Many People and perhaps even a tourist tax. And it’s spreading.

This was the week that some popular places in Japan reportedly shut their doors to large groups of tourists for fear of bad behaviour. (One Buddhist temple reported visitors splashing about in a sacred waterfall.)

Venice is set to charge visitors €10 (£8.60) on its busiest days. And Edinburgh is to be the first city in the UK to charge visitors an entry fee. The reasons for introducing such a tax are, outwardly, benign: to invest in better tourism infrastructure and to future-proof the city.

Travel has changed lives, fortunes, and mindsets. As has the internet. But rather than opening up new, unseen, harder-to-reach places to the world’s tourists, social media has done the opposite: funnelling the masses to “Instagrammable” spots on a global bucket list. No wonder there are too many tourists on the Rialto Bridge in Venice, which has been tagged on Instagram 103,000 times.

I disagree that we, as a travel desk, have a responsibility to these “overtouristed” places. It’s not my job to tell you not to go there. But it is our job to inform and educate you about what you should expect when and if you decide to go.

If you want to spend too much money on a lacklustre cocktail at the Bangkok rooftop bar that starred in that scene from The Hangover Part II, go ahead. But there are far better places in the Thai capital, and I’m happy to tell you all about them.

What we’d rather do is sing the praises of the “undertouristed” places, to nick the neologism coined by one of our writers earlier this year.

Europe’s second, third and fourth cities should be first on the list: Bulgaria’s Plovdiv, Spain’s Valencia, Germany’s Leipzig. Leave New York and LA for Pittsburgh and Atlanta. Ditch Beijing – as fascinating as it is – for Xi’an.

Or consider visiting, but basing yourself elsewhere. Rotterdam, the Netherlands’ spunky second city that I visited last week, wants people to stay over and commute the 40 minutes into Amsterdam instead. Rotterdam’s hotels are a third of the price and its cup floweth over with quirky markets and eye-popping architecture.

Maybe you do want to visit Venice, visit Kyoto, visit Edinburgh. They’re spectacular places, all with the capacity to surprise. We’ll just try to convince you of the alternatives too.

Yours,

Cathy Adams

Head of travel