Overtourism

Suitcases rattling through cobbled streets, self-styled influencers shooting content in front of anything Instagram- or TikTok-worthy and a snaking line of visitors lining up to get inside St. Mark’s Basilica.

This was what I saw one late morning at the world famous St. Mark’s Square in Venice during a recent family trip to this city.

The receptionist – a perky and long-haired woman with thick brows – at our no-frills but charming hotel tucked just a block away from the bustling square, said she is now just among the few Venetians left in the city, if not the only one.

She may be exaggerating but I get her point. The hordes of tourists now swarming famed cities like Venice – us included – have unwittingly driven away the locals through the years.

It’s no surprise that there is now a growing movement against overtourism in Europe. Protests have erupted across many popular cities from Barcelona to Lisbon and even in the Greek island of Santorini.

The growing movement against the surge in tourists, according to The New York Times, is “driven by quality-of-life issues, including high housing costs and environmental damage, that protest organizers say are a result of overtourism.”

The protesters are serious. For instance, according to the NYT article, on the Spanish island of Majorca, locals stopped a double-decker tourist bus, setting off flares and hanging a banner on its side.

“In Barcelona, the center of recent protests against overtourism in European cities, demonstrators carrying signs reading ‘Tourists go home’ and ‘Tourism is stealing from us’ marched down the city’s so-called Golden Mile, a street flanked by luxury boutiques and high-end hotels, spraying visitors with water outside a Louis Vuitton store.”

Overall, the locals are protesting the negative impact of tourism on real estate prices, saying that they can no longer afford to rent places in these tourist spots.

Protesters are also raising quality-of-life issues such as environmental damage and infrastructure problems.

On our first night in Venice, a Filipino waiter gave us the best advice: wake up early and visit the famed square, known locally as Piazza San Marco, around 7 a.m. when it is still beautifully empty as the hordes of tourists are still asleep.

I did just that and enjoyed a quiet morning stroll in what is known as the heart of Venice and which Napoleon called “the world’s most beautiful drawing room.”

By 10 a.m., however, the square had become busy and one can barely walk without bumping into a tourist, or perhaps a pickpocket.

Cautionary tale

This should serve as a cautionary tale for the Philippines. While we lag behind our neighbors in Southeast Asia in terms of attracting tourists, we should not be obsessed with numbers alone.

We must think long-term by embracing a sustainable tourism model. An anything-goes tourism program will, in the end, destroy our pristine islands and in the future, there may no longer be anything to visit in the Philippines.

Just look at Tagaytay City. I remember the Tagaytay of my childhood when my parents would drive me and my siblings there to enjoy the cooler weather. Back then, in the 80s, Tagaytay was quite a destination. The air was crisp and clear. You could view Taal Volcano from any point from the ridge.

Decades later, however, the ridge is lined with hotels owned by property giants. It’s almost like going to Makati or BGC. The character of the city, once charming and quaint, has been poured over like the heavy concrete of these condominiums and hotels. No wonder traffic in Tagaytay has become so bad that driving to that once popular abode no longer feels like a vacation.

Boracay, too, is no longer the paradise island it once was but an urban jungle with giant hotels – and casinos, too! Property giants including international hotels have seemingly divided the island among themselves, displacing the small, locally-run inns that are more reasonably priced. Credit goes to Rody Duterte for ordering the closure and rehabilitation of the island for six months in 2018 after calling it a cesspool.

The once not-so-crowded Siargao now has to grapple with a power shortage because of overpopulation and the sprouting of one resort after another.

Siquijor, too, is having problems coping with a surge in tourists and is also facing power shortage problems. There are many areas in the country that are also bursting at the seams with tourists.

The Philippines is a rare gem in Asia with beautiful islands, rugged mountains and idyllic towns with vestiges of the Spanish era.

But without proper urban planning – which would mean setting firm limits on who can buy and build – we risk waking up to a country whose once-pristine and untouched islands have been paved over, a beloved Pearl of the Orient crushed under the boots of careless tourists and greedy developers.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.