We are residing in a Golden era of Travel. Among the terrific advantages of living in our time is that the availability of travel has actually grown by leaps and bounds.
In 1950 just 1 percent of Americans traveled abroad. Transatlantic jet travel didn’t appear up until 1959, and till the mid-1960s the majority of people who took a trip to Europe took a cruise ship that took 4 or five days to cross the Atlantic. Travel has become a lot easier, and today 76 percent of Americans have actually traveled abroad.
How lucky we are to reside in this duration, when there is a head-spinning variety of fantastic travel opportunities that are simple and cost effective to a broad sector of the population. But, just like any good idea, there are drawbacks to the modern miracle of global travel. The worst of those is overtourism.
In today’s world, the most popular tourist attractions are at times so overcrowded that it detracts from the experience for everyone, the visitors themselves, local residents, and even the local vendors, who in theory make more money the more consumers they have. But sometimes even for them, the overcrowding is too much.
We are now beyond the time when you can just blindly walk up to a popular attraction and make certain you’re going to have an excellent experience. Overcrowding is a component that should be thought about by everyone associated with travel planning. The phenomenon of overtourism is with us now, however it is possible to navigate around it.
< img width="896" height="720" src="https://blog.tauck.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Colin199_mod.jpg" alt =""/ > There are two options for expanding travelers. One is to spread them out spatially by introducing them to new locations beyond the well-trodden tourist path.
Some city governments in major tourist cities such as Venice, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Dubrovnik have actually taken actions to attempt to redistribute tourists to reduce the pressure of a lot of travelers in one place at one time.
Location marketing companies are dealing with tour operators to promote lesser-known destinations in their areas, to take tourists beyond the standard, most popular tourist attractions. It not only assists them avoid crowds, but also assists them to expand their horizons, checking out much deeper into the nation beyond the top tourist attractions. It is part of a cooperative effort among those in the tourism neighborhood to handle the progressing expansion of travelers’ horizons.
The second method to rearrange tourist traffic is to spread it around the calendar. That brings us to off-season travel. By steering clear of the peak of the bell curve, you can avoid arriving when the largest varieties of tourists are showing up with you.
The efforts are making a distinction, however clever travelers also require to take overtourism into consideration in their trip planning. It’s possible to make the ups and downs of tourist traffic operate in your favor.
Overcrowding is only one of the reasons to travel off season, perhaps not even the most essential. It likewise implies much better costs and more availability of everything, consisting of lodging, transportation, restaurant bookings and admission to all the popular attractions. Most of those businesses are still there in the off season, however they aren’t crowded, and they have some breathing room to pay more attention to you. They actually value your company.
At peak season, you are likely to have to stand in long lines to get into the most popular tourist attractions. What a relief to take a trip during off-peak times and discover that problem has disappeared.
I looked into it just recently and found that the summertime travel season is a custom that dates to the 19th century. Contrary to what I had actually formerly thought, it didn’t come out of farm country. It originated in urban locations like New York, where summer seasons were so brutally hot before cooling that virtually anybody who might got out of the city. In any case, whatever it’s based on, it’s an excellent custom to break. There are great reasons to break it.
I am speaking as one who takes pleasure in crowds. Being around individuals is among the best enjoyments of traveling. I like my times of peaceful privacy as well, but big groups of individuals can be thrilling. People-watching is one of my preferred activities anywhere I go. It’s not that I’m antisocial. However there is a point at which crowding is simply excessive.
People normally find out of overtourism by mishap initially. When I managed to satisfy a long-held wish to see the Lost City of Machu Picchu, I was lucky to be able to remain at the Sanctuary Hotel on the mountaintop at the edge of the ancient citadel. My hotel space had a view of the site, a tight close-up of the view you see in the standard images of Machu Picchu.
However it was disconcerting to see in the foreground something that never ever appears in the photos, a crowd of people and suppliers collected at the gate to the site. Thankfully, once we entered into the grounds, there was a great deal of space to spread out.
Due to the fact that my group was staying in the hotel next to the website, we were able to explore the site at sunrise, before the crowds had gathered. What a contrast! It was quietly magnificent and mystical, unforgettably astonishing. At sunrise it was more of the serene scene you would picture it from photos.
I need to add here that as spellbinding as the photos of Machu Picchu are, they do not provide one one-thousandth of the experience of seeing it in truth, of having the ability to walk the premises and see it from numerous angles. The vastness of the city, the ruins of its architecture, the heady elevation, the rows of mountains cascading out to the horizon, all of this and far more are far beyond capture by any video camera. So, deservedly, Machu Picchu is one of the places that gets numerous visitors that it’s producing issues that have to be managed.
So overtourism is genuine, and should be thought about. It is essential to have a skilled travel representative who can help navigate the ever-shifting technicalities of the fantastic tourist websites, and offer you an update on when sites are overcrowded and how to prevent the crowds. It varies by destination and season.
There are lots of locations where off-season travel is particularly appropriate. Florence, the home of the Renaissance, is incomparable and must be on everybody’s aspirational travel list. Obviously, Italy in the summer is beautiful. But people don’t take a trip to Florence to being in the sun. More often they want to take advantage of what makes Florence special, which’s art. Most of which is seen inside your home. If it’s not a stunning day outside, it does not matter much in a museum.
The majority of the world’s preferred locations are just as enjoyable and lovely after the summer peak season is over. And they can be just as much fun as the calendar rolls into winter. Some enjoyments are exclusive to the winter season off-season. For example, the Christmas markets in Germany have actually become one of the most popular travel experiences, and they are strictly in December, far beyond the crowding of the summertime peak season.
I fell into off-season travel unintentionally, however it was a pleasant surprise. When I initially went to London I was working at an outside kiosk in New York City that was driven by tourism. Summer season traveler season was our time to make hay, so there was no chance I might take a trip during the summertime. So when I first came across London it was late fall. I expected the characteristic London fog and drizzle, however it was nothing like that. It was bright and warm and stimulating, together with the excitement of lastly seeing London and all the things I knew from photographs and movies. The weather condition had to do with as ideal as it could be.
I have actually constantly tended to be a bit out of season, and there are numerous advantages to avoiding the rush. If you have not tried it, I heartily advise it.
Your simple reporter,
A. Colin Treadwell