Tourism Officials Must Learn That Less Is More

 

How much tourism is too much? There seem to be at least two different approaches. One is to invite tourists to your country to enjoy and respect what is on offer without changing your own traditions/values or risk damaging the environment  just to attract the mobs. The other approach is to attract the masses at any cost, regardless of the damage to those traditions and the very environment that makes your location attractive and unique in the first place.

Some popular destinations like Amsterdam and Venice are finally taking steps to limit the ravages of mass tourism. Amsterdam officials have gone so far as to ask tourists not to come there. Venice is levying heavy fines for bad tourist behaviour like littering, disrespecting monuments or – like two idiotic Australian tourists – taking power surfboards down the Grand Canal. Venice has fought a long battle to save its precious canals and ancient, fragile building foundations from the damage caused by enormous cruise ships that blot out the sun and dump thousands of tourists onto its narrow, twisting streets. Some of the beautiful, equally fragile Norwegian fiords have also been plagued with these cruise ships that can barely fit into narrow harbours. Fortunately the country is beginning to learn the value of just saying ‘No’ and is taking steps to limit that damage.

Tourism? Or Vandals sacking Rome -- again?

Other countries like Greece seem to have taken the attitude that there is no such thing as too many tourists munching over-priced souvlakis and cheese pies while slurping beers as they wander around some of the most precious monuments in the world. What should be moments of reflection in front of some of these monuments has turned into a cacophony of flip-flops slapping on the ancient marble, loud yells to have friends join them for yet another selfie in front of a statue, moans about the heat (didn’t anyone tell them about Athens in July), or comments about the lack of a loo in the Parthenon.

Athenian hotels now try to outdo themselves with roof-top bars blaring music (?) until dawn and making life unbearable not just for guests unfortunate enough to have rooms in the hotel but also for the hapless residents of the neighborhood who actually have to get up at a decent hour and go to work. But somehow those tax-paying residents don’t seem to count for much in the eyes of city officials. Perhaps the city will start offering them grants to leave the city in the summer and head to some remote part of the country. God forbid they should start telling tourists how to behave!

Yes, Greece has had a very difficult economy for the last several years and many people believe that mass tourism is the best solution for their difficulties. But these people fail to realize that this sort of tourism is rapidly destroying the very thing that makes places like Greece, with its beautiful sea, idyllic islands, and much-overlooked mountains so special.  

Take Mykonos -- essentially a rocky, barren island with very little water. When I first went there many years ago it was known as being sort of bohemian, attracting a lot of artists with modest talents and less money. Now it has been transformed into the party island of Greece, jammed with wannabe Eurotrash and over-priced bars that don’t open until midnight and produce ear-shattering noise that doesn’t stop until dawn. Inevitably the drug culture is never far behind. The harbour is filled with monster cruise ships waiting to disgorge unsuspecting passengers onto the overburdened island to wander around the narrow streets and buy authentic Made-in-China Greek trinkets and souvenirs. Smart passengers stay on board and order another gin-and-tonic in the comfort of an air conditioned bar. Maybe it’s not a bad idea to create an isolated spot like Mykonos – rather like the plague islands outside ancient Venice – and avoid infecting the rest of this beautiful country.

Not sure this what Odysseus had in mind

All these thoughts came to mind when my wife and I took a break from Greece and spent a delightful week in the Alsace region of France. The natural beauty – with hundreds (maybe thousands) of vineyards stretching from the lush green valley up to the foothills of the Vosges mountains – is stunning. These vines produce several delicious wines such as Riesling  and Gewürztraminer. Picturesque villages with rich history dot the area. Yes, the area is filled with tourists in August but because of the infrastructure and general attitude toward tourism in general it was not unbearable.

Beautiful Alsace

 The superb public transport system means you don’t really need a car. My wife likes nothing better than scouring local bus schedules and she quickly found frequent, inexpensive buses from Colmar to the beautiful surrounding villages. The city of Colmar also offers a free small bus service within the city limits. Restaurants and bars were full, but unlike Greece, they were not allowed to infringe on the local lifestyle. They closed at reasonable times (midnight or at the latest 1:30 am) and the noise was moderate. The overall attitude seemed to be ‘Come and enjoy what we have but don’t expect us to destroy our lifestyle or environment just to cater to bad behaviour. Take us as we are or don’t come.’ 

One wishes that Greek tourism officials would learn the lesson that less is often more. Do they really appreciate the beautiful and fragile ecosystem of their own country? Or do they think that chasing the last Euro from mass tourism is worth the destruction? Can they can develop the courage and, yes, the self-respect to discourage the worst of mass tourism that only drives away those people who really want to enjoy the culture and natural beauty of Greece? Overall tourist numbers may decline but the quality of the tourist experience – as well as the spending – will sharply increase without damaging the social or environmental fabric of the country.

 

The Real Betrayal of Turkey

 

Among the many ways that Tayyip Erdoğan has damaged Turkey – economic collapse, corruption, perversion of the judicial system, international isolation  – perhaps the worst is the destruction of Turkey’s once promising reputation as an up-and-coming, serious country.

Now the mere mention of Turkey’s name is greeted like a loud belch in church – with withering silence and not-so-quiet questions about ‘who let him in the door.’ Turks leading successful lives abroad used to be proud of the rapid strides their homeland had made. Now they wince in embarrassment when someone recounts Erdoğan’s latest folly.

In short, he has obscured the real Turkey – a country endowed with millions of hard working and smart people, beautiful landscapes, fascinating multi-cultural, rich history stretching back to the dawn of civilization, a dynamic cultural environment, and an economy – with rational management – that can become the strongest between Germany and India. Worst of all, perhaps, are the damaged dreams of the young generation.

The young generation feels betrayed

Now, unfortunately, all this potential is obscured under the dark cloud of Erdoğan’s bizarre vision of a country beset on all sides with foreign and domestic enemies whose only perceived goal is to throw Turkey off its pre-ordained, glorious upward path paved with ever deeper layers of his beloved concrete.  That is the perverted vision that dominates news about Turkey.

Seldom has a country’s leader travelled the world as much as he has and learned so little. He has the same huge chip on his shoulder that he did growing up in one of Istanbul’s toughest neighbourhoods. Instead of profiting from the thousands of extremely well educated, well-travelled, multi-lingual business people, academics, scientists, cultural leaders and others Erdoğan regards them as enemies. Turkey used to have a very skilled, successful diplomatic service that was the envy of many countries. Now the only qualification for senior diplomatic rank seems to be loud praise for the Reis – the boss. He has notoriously thin skin and blows up at any story that doesn’t lavish the type of praise that would make even Caligula blush. No one is quite sure who, if anyone, he listens to. His circle of ‘advisers’ seems to be limited to family and utter sycophants desperately hanging on to the only job they can get.

Turkey's leading business group now a target of the president's ire

All this would be somewhat comical if it didn’t have serious ramifications. Take international relations for a start. Erdoğan’s Turkey has become toxic. It is completely isolated with no allies. A once-proud country is now the butt of jokes circulating widely on social media. As far as the economy is concerned, no serious investor wants to touch it. I am aware of several projects that have been put on hold because of the dense fog of uncertainty surrounding the country. As the Turkish Lira collapsed the government came up a half-baked scheme trying to entice people holding foreign currency bank accounts to convert them to the local currency. Despite massive publicity and twisting the arms of state run banks less than 2% of all bank deposits have been converted. Now the government wants to make exporters convert 25% of their hard-currency profits into Turkish Lira. Brilliant. How are they supposed to pay for all the imported raw material and intermediate goods that go into Turkish exports? Whoops! Forgot about that one.

According to recent polls Erdoğan’s popularity is sinking fast. With the opposition finally uniting he has a good chance to lose the next election scheduled for 2023. Faced with diminishing projects for staying in power through normal elections he is lashing out in desperation. His latest move is to threaten the young, dynamic mayor of Istanbul with harbouring ‘terrorists’ – i.e. anyone who disagrees with Erdoğan – and thereby fabricate an excuse to remove him from office. The real problem with the mayor – Ekrem Imamoğlu – is that he is from the major opposition party and defeated Erdoğan’s hand-picked candidate by 800,000 votes in the last election. Such a move would most likely backfire and hurt Erdoğan even more. But, unfortunately, the country seems to have moved beyond rational calculation. As Erdoğan schemes and fights for survival it is almost impossible to predict the immediate future with any degree of certainty.

In short, Erdoğan is trying to convert a rich, dynamic, incredibly complex country into a pale, narrow, ever-fearful, ever-angry, caricature. Ultimately he will fail. But at what tragic, avoidable cost?