Book chapter: "A short essay on “overtourism” (Duignan)

Before 2020, well-established tourist cities and the people and communities situated on local well-trodden “beaten tracks” have been grappling with the negative economic, social and ecological fall-out of hosting large swathes of tourists – what pundits and scholars alike dub “overtourism”. Then COVID happened. Travelling across borders virtually stopped. Commentators described how the amount of people movement pre-pandemic would not recover post-pandemic. They are being proven wrong. Pent up demand means we are witnessing a bounce back, slowly but surely, and those responsible for managing tourism and flows of visitors to and across destinations must be vigilant to the challenges associated with overtourism. COVID provided us a period of time to rethink current approaches to managing tourist and respective behaviors. Whether or not we have remains to be seen.