The negative impacts of overtourism on tourism destination from environmental and socio-cultural perspectives
Taiminen, Saara (2018)
Taiminen, Saara
Yrkeshögskolan Arcada
2018
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018121721974
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018121721974
Tiivistelmä
This thesis focused on the negative impacts of overtourism in European destinations, mainly in the Mediterranean region. The number of international tourist arrivals is increasing eliciting more destinations experiencing the negative impacts of tourism. The aim of this study was to find answers for the research questions concerning the environmental impacts of overtourism and its social-cultural consequences for the locals in tourism destinations. The study was conducted by using desktop research method as it was thought to generate the best results for the chosen research questions. The data used for the thesis was secondary data. The analyzed data was collected from online sources, academic books, related articles, documentaries and statistics. Based on the findings it was confirmed that overtourism is causing environmental and socio-cultural impacts on various tourism destinations. These impacts were discovered to be similar in nature despite the different locations. Overtourism was found to increase the water consumption, litter and waste amounts and air pollution. In popular tourist destinations overtourism has caused difficulties for the locals as the prices have risen and short-term rentals have caused housing shortages. Seasonality was found to be an amplifying factor for time and spatial concentration of popular traveling destinations in the studied countries. These trends have been concluded to be predictable and steadily increasing. Some measures have been taken to discourage the problems that have been risen, nevertheless significant effort should be implemented to stagnate or reverse the impacts.