Aspen’s “Tag Responsibly” campaign is among the less widely noticed among myriad steps being taken worldwide to cope with a dramatic flood of tourism that is overwhelming natural areas, landmarks, and commercial districts.
The few lucky visitors who find their way to this hidden-away view are welcome to photograph and share it. But they’re also politely requested to not give away exactly where it is.
ASPEN, Colo. — Crystal-clear lakes fed by trickling waterfalls reflect the snow-covered peaks of mountains rising from green forests speckled with red and purple alpine wildflowers.
“It’s a way to let people get their social moment, wherever they happen to be; you can’t really go against that trend,” said Eliza Voss, vice president for destination marketing at the Aspen Chamber Resort Association. “But it’s taking out the exact location of places that are really not able to handle large volumes of people,” including trails already trampled by big crowds.
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In many destinations, overtourism is famously resulting in much more aggressive measures, such as entry fees and strictly enforced timed reservation systems for museums and other attractions whose doors were once wide open.
Others are still hoping softer touches will work, from this voluntary campaign in Aspen to apps and websites that steer visitors to places away from the throngs. Tourism operators are pushing customers to consider traveling off season, or to secondary destinations with fewer crowds.
Whatever the changes, they are permanently affecting the experience of travel in ways that people may not yet fully recognize, said Nitya Chambers, executive editor and head of content at the iconic travel information provider Lonely Planet.
“It is going to be different now and forever,” said Chambers, whose company has launched a new line of travel guides called “Offbeat,” taking readers to places that are still uncrowded. “You’re getting more off-the-beaten-path destinations among where people choose to go.”
For now, in spite of images of endless queues and wall-to-wall people everywhere from Vatican City to popular beaches and national parks — not to mention growing hostility from put-upon locals — tourists continue to cram into those places.
One reason travelers aren’t yet deterred by overcrowding may be a fear of missing out, said Megan Epler Wood, managing director of the Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program at Cornell University and author of “Sustainable Tourism on a Finite Planet.”
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“There will always be these destinations people want to go,” said Epler Wood, who previously led the International Sustainable Tourism Initiative at Harvard’s T.H. Chan Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, and who runs her own consulting firm that works with destinations. “They may have decided that they’re going to do this regardless. They may have children who they want to see the greatest monuments on earth. They themselves may want to see them.”
If they do choose to take their kids on long trips, vacation-constrained Americans are often limited to doing it when school is out, which coincides with peak summer travel season.
“It’s this perfect storm of, ‘I’ve waited all year, I want to go to this one place, and this is my only window,’
Responses big and small are changing travel
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