COTRI Director Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt discusses overtourism in Germany’s Wirtschaftswoche magazine

COTRI Director Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt has been quoted on the topic of overtourism published in Germany’s Wirtschaftswoche business magazine.

The German-language article ‘Wut statt Welcome’ (‘Fury instead of welcome’) (Paywall) – written by Rüdiger Kiani-Kress and Volker ter Haseborg – along with specialised sub-section ‘Drei Gründe für den Übertourismus’ (‘Three Reasons for overtourism’) discuss the deepening issues surrounding overtourism, while drawing particular emphasis on the effects that the growth of Chinese outbound tourism is having on the topic.

While previous discussions related ‘satisfaction’ in the field of tourism had been centred on travellers, rather than hosts – who the industry expected to simply be satisfied that money was coming into their local community – the article underlines an ongoing shift, which is now seeing the interests of hosts taken into account as their neighbourhoods continue to be transformed by poor management of excessive visitor numbers.

As Prof. Arlt outlined in a programme recorded with German broadcaster ZDF earlier this year (German; Prof Arlt’s interview can be found at ’41:20′), it is now becoming more clearly understood that the interests of locals in areas exposed to overtourism need to be taken into account. It is especially crucial that this happens before there is a backlash against visitors by locals, ultimately destroying the destination’s ‘welcoming’ image, thereby driving tourists away entirely and damaging the local economy.

This is particularly important within the context of Chinese outbound travellers who, on account of their visibility, are often ‘blamed’ for the detrimental effects of overtourism, yet are more likely than visitors from other countries to simply choose alternative destinations instead.

For further information, Prof. Arlt’s presentation: ‘Overtourism: and how Chinese Outbound Tourism can become not only part of the problem but also part of the solution’, delivered at the University of Greenwich on February 9^th, 2018, is available at the following link.

Image: Museum by John Donges Source: Flickr Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)