Why overtourism could ruin your next vacation | Suresh Subudhi

**Modupe Akinola** (0:00)
One of my great passions in life is travel. I've traveled for fun, I've traveled for work, I've traveled with friends, I've traveled under the sea, I've traveled across the savannas, I've traveled with my students, my parents, my nephew, my nieces. It's something special I share with the people I love, like, hey, let's see a new part of the world together. Let's meet new people and learn about their histories and experience different cultures and different ways of life. That curiosity has always been a central part of who I am. But as I've grown and changed, so has the tourism industry.
Social media and overtourism have made even some of the most magical places feel like a jam-packed selfie line. Cities like Barcelona have begun to push back on the giant crowd of tourists visiting each year, going so far as to appoint a new commissioner for sustainable tourism. But what role can we, the travelers, play in protecting the places we love to visit and want to preserve?
I'm Modupe Akinola. This is TED Business, a podcast from TED. Our speaker today, travel industry expert, Suresh Subudhi, wants us to reflect on our travel habits. Because the truth is, we're loving these places to death.
Not only is increased tourism making it unpleasant for fellow travelers, it's actually driving up costs for local residents to the point where these places are becoming unlivable. But the good news is people who love to travel can grow along with the industry and figure out new ways to inhabit old places. Suresh tells us it's the difference between being a tourist and being a joyful guest. Then after the talk, I'll ask you how you can be a joyful guest in your own life. But first, a quick break.

**Suresh Subudhi** (2:15)
Last July, I was in Rome. I walked from my hotel to the Trevi Fountain on the cobbled streets lined with beautiful cafes, bustling with residents and travelers, drinking their espressos and cheering and greeting each other. Small souvenir shops selling beautiful replicas of the collosum, the sistine chapel ceiling paintings. What an atmosphere. I soaked it all in, reached the Trevi Fountain, grabbed my favorite pistachio gelato and looked at the marvelous views. A perfect Roman holiday. Suddenly my alarm rang, and I woke up from my dream.
I was in Rome. I did walk from my hotel to the Trevi Fountain.
But I felt rushed.
The cafes were crowded. People had to even queue outside. The shopkeepers had no time to entertain visitors. I reached the Trevi Fountain and forget grabbing my favorite pistachio gelato or finding a bench to sit.
I couldn't get to the steps. Thousands and thousands of people all around. Have you felt the same way when you reach your dream destination? You feel as if it has been overrun? You feel as if it has become a selfie queue? I had the same feeling. And this is not an isolated incident. I had the same exact experience in Tokyo when I went there during the cherry blossom season. Tourists crowd every park in the city to get the glimpse of the famous sakura.
I asked a resident, how does he feel seeing so many tourists all around? He told me that he doesn't bring his family anymore for a picnic under the sakura. That response broke my heart. We are loving our favorite destinations to death. We are overrunning them.
And residents are pushing back because it's impacting their livability. Their cost of living is increasing. Congestion on the road, rental prices, food prices, they're pushing back. And they're pushing back like in Barcelona, with the graffiti asking tourists to go home. In Barcelona, in Italy, in Portugal, residents are pushing back. I have been researching the travel industry for the last 20 years, and my two research subjects, the residents and the traveler, are on a collision course like never before. We have a travel crisis. The travel industry employs about 300 million people globally, and it's going to be a 15 trillion dollar industry by 2040 Too large, too many livelihoods at stake for us to ignore this crisis. But let me pause and ask you a question. Why do we travel? We travel for joy. Joy by experiencing the diversity this world has to offer. Joy by experiencing different lives. Joy through a shared connection. My daughter, son and wife are here, and I want them to experience the same joy I experienced in my Roman dream. I want all of you to experience the same joy. We need to bring joy back in travel. But it's a complex problem. We have millions of tourists getting inspired by social media and planning the travel destinations and planning the travel itineraries. We have the travel industry, which is looking for short-term profits, and we have cities who don't know how to manage the tourism flow. There is a path forward though. With the use of technology like AI and simple behavior changes, we could bring joy back in travel. Now imagine if we were to make the entire travel industry's objective, the airlines, the hotel, the travel tour operators, to bring joy to both residents as well as the travelers, and they have everything at their disposal, from technology to people to skilling, they will rise to the occasion. They will do three things. One, help manage crowd, help discover authentic experiences, and help drive a really, really respectful connection between the resident and the traveler. In your last trip, did you feel like rushed? Did you feel like you were going through a checklist, moving from one place to another place? Did it feel like a chore? Or did you feel joy?