#Microblog Monday 434: A No-Go List
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Fodor’s puts out a No-Go list of places not to travel to every year. If that sounds counterintuitive to a travel site, the point is to steer people away from areas that are over-traveled to give them a rest. They explain the three categories: “Natural attractions that could use a break in order to heal and rejuvenate; cultural hotspots that are plagued with overcrowding and resource depletion; and locations around the world immediately and dramatically impacted by water crises.”
Of course, a lot of heavily touristed areas rely on tourists. So not a perfect solution, but it’s an important question to ask yourself before you book tickets: How will my visit impact the place?
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3 comments
I love the idea of a No-Go list. Thanks for posting this. Thailand is on the list, but I’m not one of the cheap, mass market travellers there, and its like visiting my second home, so I never feel guilty going there. The only other place on the 2023 list that I really want to visit is Antarctica, but I’ve always been torn about the impact of tourism there. I would dearly love to see it, but a) the cost is horrendous, b) ethically I’m torn, c) I’m a bit scared of all that open ocean travel to get there. So I’m probably not going.
We’ve been to Venice (on the list) twice, but always as an overnight visitor (and more than one night), and mostly off-peak season too. At night, it’s a completely different, quiet, peaceful, amazing place.
I have the same ethical issue with airbnbs. They can clean out a city of its residents (eg Barcelona), they cause housing crises (eg Queenstown, NZ) which means businesses can’t get staff to service all the tourists staying in the airbnbs, and therefore you lose the authenticity or quality of experience.
Interesting… Responsible travel information. I don’t like cruises for many reasons, but I also don’t think they’re particularly ethical/environmentally sound.
You didn’t link to this year’s list, but I found it by Googling. There are a couple of those places I’d like to visit, but yeah, you do wonder sometimes whether you’re hurting or helping the local economy. (I tend not to like really crowded places at the best of times anyway!)
I know here in Canada, Banff National Park is horribly overrun with tourists and there’s a lot of concern about the impact on the environment. I have been there three times — 1968, 1975 and 2001, all in the peak summer period — and each time it was more and more crowded and commercialized. I shudder to think what it must be like today…! A friend went camping there last fall and I said that MAYBE she might escape some of the worst crowds at that time of the year. She messaged me after they got back and said if that was “slower season” she’d hate to see the peak. 🙁