Mass Tourism: The Tragedy of Commons Explored

INTRO

The Tragedy of the Commons is an issue that is not only related to the environment, but also to tourism. That matter is defined, by the means of tourism, when a certain place or area at a specific country is visited, over-drained, or abused; this happens mostly because of mass tourism. An alternative definition could be acquiring areas that are for the public that aren’t controlled or protected by the government or any organization. For example, with Barbra Streisand’s buying a coastal area in front of her house in Malibu; with that occurring, it doesn’t allow people to trespass into that area of the beach. Another example could be the case with Italy’s Venice; the city is engulfed with tourists from around the world on a consistent basis;

In Venice, because of tourists’ suitcase noises, the government want to implement fines (about 200 Euros). As a result, this leads to the question: do you fine that many number of tourists? How does implementing such fine help locals make a living from tourists? Another issue with Venice is day trippers, daily tourists debark cruise ships and wander through the city thus increasing the ratio of tourist to resident on a daily basis. On that sense, should day trippers be charged with taxes since they are one of the stakeholders for mass tourism? Aren’t they also contributors to what other tourists are doing in five days but for just one day? The UNWTO code of ethics sets the standards to achieve a safe and sound touristic environment for everyone; the stakeholders that include tourists, government officials, tour guides, cruise ship industries and their owners, etc. According to the UNWTO (date) code of ethics, article 8

First, most people visualize the romantic vision when they hear the city “Venice”; that is true to the majority, but what is clear is the fact that mass tourism has occurred and it is pushing locals away. Logically, there would be an extremely high influx of money coming in because of mass tourism, but this is occurring on the expense of the departure of locals and the closure of their businesses.

On the contrary, the case of Bordeaux was a rethink on what should be done to make a revival to the city. Former Prime Minister of France Alain Juppé decided on taking a bottom-up approach by refurbishing the city along with exposing its main characteristics back to the market again; that is the wine industry. Few years later, after his resignation for political reasons, some parties doubted his projects that now are a major success as the tourism is flooding in multiple visitors, most of them are interested in the wine experience.

Venice’s tourism encountered environmental issues due to cruise ships. The atmosphere contamination from only one of the parked giant boats is what might as well be called 12,000 immobile cars but having their engines running. This fact contradicts with the idea that the city bans automobile activity from within. (Becker,