Appeal: “Enough, we don’t need so many more tourists!” – Spreading again in Europe. France, the country most visited by tourists, has announced its intention to limit the number of tourists coming to Gaul. The reason is simple: tourists cause damage, create a high load on the infrastructure and countless crowds in the most visited areas, and also destroy “biodiversity”. At the same time, they allegedly do not bring the expected benefit, particularly financial.
As quoted by the French press, the Ministry of Tourism stated that 80% of the annual tourist activity is concentrated on 20% of the country’s territory. In this regard, the agency has prepared a strategy to persuade foreign visitors to explore the historical, cultural, and natural wealth of the country in lesser-known regions of France.
At the same time, Tourism Minister Olivia Gregoire emphasized that the purpose of the strategy is to manage the flow of visitors in the height of the season, and it is primarily aimed at protecting the environment, improving the quality of life of the local population, and only then at having a good time for visitors. According to the prepared strategy, social media will be used to encourage people to seek out unusual places and travel outside the summer months, as well as to explain the risks of over-tourism.
Moreover, this decision of the government was influenced by the pressure on the historical and cultural places of France, that foreign tourists want to visit and see. France needs to deal with the “congestion of people”, the ministry assures. Including in some places, the plan includes limiting the number of visitors to tourist attractions and districts. These include the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey in Normandy, the Isle of Brea, the Bay of Sugiton, and the National Rock Park in Marseille, among other attractions. The management of some of them explicitly states that they will keep the limited online reservation system in place during the pandemic and will not allow casual visitors.
Too many visitors bring only destruction and no benefit, the local authorities assure. For example, in the city of Etretat, which suffers from “film tourists”, in the north of Normandy, where some scenes of the detective drama “Lupin”, which is broadcast on Netflix, were filmed. Only 1,200 people live in the city, meanwhile, more than 10,000 tourists come there during the summer months. The result is clear: according to Shai Mallet, co-chairman of the city’s Hotel Association, the heavy traffic of tourists has destroyed the city’s famous seashores and historic cliffs. At the same time, tourists do not bring anything to the economy of the region – at best they buy water and ice cream, but almost none of them stay in the town, do not live in hotels, do not eat in restaurants – and these crowds scare away “long-term” tourists. In addition, ecologists oppose tourists, assuring that up to 30% of ecological biodiversity has been lost in tourist destinations.
It must be said that Paris has the same problems – only scaled up. Suffice it to say that the city expects 37 million tourists.