Overs & unders: Contrasting destination outcomes during COVID-19

Places that rely on travel & tour­ism are loc­ated all over the world, in nations at dif­fer­ent stages of eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and often vastly dif­fer­ent pop­u­la­tion sizes. When inter­na­tion­al travel shuts down it is no won­der then that they have dif­fer­ent exper­i­ences. Devel­op­ment spe­cial­ist Jada Lind­blom com­pares two des­tin­a­tions close to her heart in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. 

“GT” Insight Part­ner Second Look World­wide invited Dr Lind­blom to share her thoughts. 

Pri­or to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic many dis­cus­sions of tour­ism and sus­tain­ab­il­ity ten­ded to involve the top­ic of over­tour­ism. As inter­na­tion­al travel became access­ible to more people, and as des­tin­a­tions that used to be “off-the-beaten-path” became bet­ter known via Ins­tagram, You­Tube, and oth­er social media, over­tour­ism became a prob­lem for many more destinations. 

In the USA, the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has cre­ated a roller coast­er ride of vis­it­a­tion highs and lows for many places. While tour­ism in cit­ies gen­er­ally decreased, many rur­al and nature-based des­tin­a­tions exper­i­enced great­er-than-ever demand from cab­in-fevered vis­it­ors flock­ing to trails, beaches, pick-your-own farms, and oth­er out­door attractions.

For tour­ism-depend­ent des­tin­a­tions with no domest­ic mar­kets to fall back on, how­ever, COVID-19 has pro­duced noth­ing but a slip­pery slide.

New Hampshire, USA: Overtourism in places

As I write this in early June 2021 from my home in New Hamp­shire, our state is gear­ing up for what is expec­ted to be a very busy tour­ism sea­son full of oppor­tun­ity. People from across north­east­ern USA are eager to enjoy the sum­mer sun on the lakes and in the moun­tains, reunite with friends and fam­il­ies for gath­er­ings and events, and take advant­age of the state’s (cur­rently) less-restrict­ive mask­ing laws. 

Vacan­cies and avail­ab­il­ity are dif­fi­cult to find for camp­ground spots, boat rent­als, and hotel rooms. And for smal­ler towns that have typ­ic­ally not been the centre of tour­ism activ­ity but have ambi­tions to grow this side of their eco­nomy, vis­it­or spillover from nearby tour­ist regions may help put them on the map.

A very busy but also a very chal­len­ging sum­mer is in store for New Hamp­shire. While beach and trail­head park­ing lots are expec­ted to reg­u­larly over­flow, resorts and oth­er tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity busi­nesses report being woe­fully under­staffed due to inter­na­tion­al work­er visa restrictions. 

This pic­ture is very dif­fer­ent than what many oth­er des­tin­a­tions glob­ally are presently facing. While some com­munit­ies that exper­i­enced pre-pan­dem­ic over­tour­ism may be enjoy­ing the extra breath­ing room offered by few­er vis­it­ors, it is import­ant to remem­ber that many glob­al tour­ism des­tin­a­tions don’t have a large and pros­per­ous domest­ic mar­ket to rely upon when inter­na­tion­al bor­ders close.

Also see Car­ol Chaplin’s “GT” Insight
“Over­tour­ism to no tour­ism and back: What is the ‘new normal’?”

Over­tour­ism, thank­fully, is not the glob­al norm. Look­ing across des­tin­a­tions’ pre-pan­dem­ic situ­ations, there were plenty that still wel­comed vis­it­ors with open arms and viewed tour­ism as a path­way for eco­nom­ic growth and enhanced social oppor­tun­it­ies. Yes, many of these places are at risk of over­tour­ism. And many com­munit­ies have learned that vis­it­a­tion can spike overnight and that unsus­tain­able levels can be reached very quickly. Nev­er­the­less, it is encour­aging that they still see tour­ism as a force for good. Encour­aging too is that trav­el­lers are increas­ingly empowered to research poten­tial des­tin­a­tions, con­sider altern­at­ives to pop­u­lar spots, and dir­ect their atten­tion towards places that want to grow their tour­ism economies. 

Undertourism in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Just before the onset of the pan­dem­ic, I was lucky to spend the autumn of 2019 in beau­ti­ful Mostar, Bos­nia and Herzegov­ina, where I con­duc­ted dis­ser­ta­tion research on res­id­ent per­cep­tions of tour­ism. Mostar has his­tor­ic­ally been a cul­tur­al cross­roads. Its strik­ing scenery and fam­ous Stari Most (Old Bridge) have long attrac­ted tour­ists. How­ever, the city also has a dark side, hav­ing exper­i­enced dev­ast­at­ing destruc­tion dur­ing the war of the 1990s. Tour­ism — as well as social unity with­in the city’s pop­u­la­tion — have taken a long time to recov­er. What I saw was a city that had — at last! — re-estab­lished itself as an impress­ive des­tin­a­tion, with ample lodging and din­ing options, inter­est­ing attrac­tions, and per­haps most import­antly, friendly and wel­com­ing loc­al people.

My research find­ings revealed that the vast major­ity of res­id­ents were sup­port­ive of tour­ism and repor­ted feel­ing happy, proud, and sat­is­fied see­ing tour­ists com­ing to their city. Tour­ism not only cre­ated prom­ising eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies for the city and its res­id­ents, but also offered means for Bos­nia and Herzegov­ina to gain a new inter­na­tion­al repu­ta­tion sep­ar­ate from the last­ing stig­mas of war. 

Sev­er­al of the res­id­ents I inter­viewed told me that they wanted to par­ti­cip­ate in the research because they were happy to see a for­eign­er tak­ing interest in their city. They hoped that my research would help gen­er­ate more pos­it­ive word-of-mouth about Mostar as a des­tin­a­tion. I assured them that it would be easy for me to speak well of Mostar, as it is undoubtedly one of my favour­ite places. 

My sen­ti­ment was not without some con­cern about over­tour­ism. I was not alone in recog­nising Mostar’s charms. And I had wit­nessed the over­whelm­ing tour­ism boom in nearby Dubrovnik, Croa­tia, due in part to Game of Thrones’ pop­ular­ity.

For now at least, any con­cerns about over­tour­ism in Mostar are for­got­ten. Exactly a year after my vis­it — in the autumn of 2020 — the city was at the end of what would have been its nor­mal tour­ism sea­son. Troub­lingly, the sea­son simply did not hap­pen. And 2021 isn’t look­ing much bet­ter. Many res­id­ents of Mostar depend upon the income from just five or six months of tour­ism-based work to get them through the year. 

Also see Nirmal Shah’s “GT” Insight
“From over­tour­ism to no tour­ism: What now for conservation?”

As I’ve caught up with friends in Mostar, I’ve heard stor­ies of great frus­tra­tion. While COVID-19 trans­mis­sion con­cerns per­sist, many res­id­ents wish that gov­ern­ment policy would now loosen to become more accom­mod­at­ing toward inter­na­tion­al vis­it­a­tion. In a city that gen­er­ally appre­ci­ates tour­ism and prides itself upon being wel­com­ing and hos­pit­able, the lack of vis­it­ors is widely felt. 

One friend who works in tour­ism in Mostar recently told me: “I went in a store the oth­er day and the shop­keep­er star­ted to speak Eng­lish with me. She said, ‘I need to prac­tice so I don’t forget.’” 

People in Mostar have made great com­mit­ments towards build­ing their tour­ism eco­nomy and increas­ing their vis­it­or appeal. They fear los­ing momentum due to the pandemic.

Bos­nia and Herzegov­ina has a lot of the same nat­ur­al and rur­al fea­tures that have made New Hamp­shire so pop­u­lar dur­ing the pan­dem­ic: Lush moun­tain­sides and rocky peaks for hik­ing, water­falls for swim­ming, farms wel­com­ing vis­it­ors, quaint vil­lages with bakery cafes, and a small-but-mighty coast­line to enjoy fresh-caught sea­food dinners. 

The key dif­fer­ences are centred around loc­a­tion and access. Even with inter­na­tion­al travel still lim­ited, New Hamp­shire can rely on week­end vis­it­ors from USA’s north­east­ern cit­ies, includ­ing nearby Boston, Mas­sachu­setts. New York City is only 400 kilo­metres away from Manchester, New Hampshire.

By con­trast, Bos­nia & Herzegov­in­a’s cap­it­al and largest city is Sara­jevo, which is home to only half a mil­lion people. Mostar’s tour­ism sec­tor has typ­ic­ally depended upon vis­it­ors from a wide range of inter­na­tion­al ori­gins from as far as China, North Amer­ica, and Saudi Ara­bia. Trips from these places tend to involve advanced plan­ning and sig­ni­fic­ant sav­ings. They are not week­end road trips cas­u­ally embarked upon on a Fri­day after work, as New Hamp­shire is for Bostonians.

Time for travellers (and policymakers) to plan

If there is a sil­ver lin­ing for places like Bos­nia and Herzegov­ina, it is that the pan­dem­ic has giv­en trav­el­lers more time than ever to plan their trips. Aspir­a­tions are run­ning high for once-in-a-life­time vaca­tions and adven­ture travel. The per­ceived hurdles of vis­it­ing less-con­ven­tion­al loc­a­tions may not be so daunt­ing now, as trav­el­lers have had time to step back and do some research. 

As trav­el­lers ourselves, we have a chance to ask what it is we loved most about the region­al trips we took dur­ing the pan­dem­ic. Was it try­ing a new out­door sport or activ­ity? Was it vis­it­ing orch­ards or vine­yards and learn­ing about agri­cul­tur­al tra­di­tions? Was it spend­ing time with fam­ily mem­bers in atyp­ic­al set­tings? We also have an oppor­tun­ity to con­sider the des­tin­a­tions that may not have pre­vi­ously been on our radar, but which can offer these types of exper­i­ences, and more. 

Also see Mal­colm Roughead’s “GT” Insight
“Scot­tish tour­ism plans trans­form­a­tion­al path to post-COV­ID recovery”

In a world that was once seem­ingly over­taken by the phe­nomen­on of over­tour­ism, there are many places, like parts of my home state of New Hamp­shire, that con­tin­ue to struggle with it while inter­na­tion­al bor­ders remain closed. But there are oth­er places, like Mostar, that are excited to once again wel­come for­eign vis­it­ors to share their land­scapes, cul­tures, and heritage. 

For every big-name des­tin­a­tion you’ve already heard of, there’s likely a little town just down the road or an up-and-com­ing city just across the ocean with ample attrac­tions and photo-ready moments await­ing those who are will­ing to put in just a little more time research­ing their next destination.

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Overs and unders. The top image is of the Win­nipe­sau­kee River in Lac­onia, New Hamp­shire, USA. Since the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, parts of Jada Lind­blom’s home state have exper­i­enced over­tour­ism at times. (1778011 (CC0) via Pixabay.) The bot­tom image is of Stari Most and the Neretva River in Mostar, Bos­nia and Herzegov­ina. This was taken by Jada Lind­blom in the autumn of 2019, before the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic effect­ively shut down tour­ism in the town. (© Jada Lindblom).

About the author

Jada Lind­blom is a com­munity and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment field spe­cial­ist for the Uni­ver­sity of New Hamp­shire Cooper­at­ive Exten­sion and an adjunct instruct­or at New York University’s Jonath­an M. Tisch Cen­ter of Hos­pit­al­ity. An advoc­ate for sus­tain­able tour­ism in New Hamp­shire, Dr Lind­blom encour­ages vis­it­ors to explore her home state’s less­er-known gems and/or plan a trip dur­ing the off-peak season.

Thanks to “GT” Insight Part­ner Second Look World­wide for invit­ing Jada.