Prof Dimitrios Buhalis on ‘overtourism’ and the ‘democratisation of tourism’

There’s always a ten­sion between rights and respons­ib­il­it­ies; the prom­ise of free­dom for one­self and the poten­tial to infringe upon others. 

This is play­ing out in debates about travel & tour­ism, and about what ‘pro­gress’ looks like. 

For Dimitri­os Buhal­is, prag­mat­ic prob­lem-solv­ing is key to achiev­ing win-win out­comes … for the bil­lions who won’t be denied their dreams.

Saverio F Ber­to­lu­cci inter­viewed Prof Buhal­is for a Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­view. For this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Jim Butcher reflects. [The full tran­script is on Substack.]

Who is Professor Dimitrios Buhalis?

Pro­fess­or Dimitri­os Buhal­is is one of the best known and respec­ted experts on glob­al tour­ism. A long stand­ing pro­fess­or at Bournemouth Uni­ver­sity in the UK, he is a stra­tegic man­age­ment and mar­ket­ing expert spe­cial­ising in inform­a­tion and com­mu­nic­a­tion tech­no­logy applic­a­tions in the tour­ism, travel, hos­pit­al­ity, and leis­ure indus­tries. He has writ­ten and co-edited more than 25 books and 300 sci­entif­ic articles. 

The ‘democratisation of tourism’

Dimitri­os Buhal­is is a fan of the demo­crat­isa­tion of tour­ism. This is a term that seems to have become less pop­u­lar today com­pared to a few dec­ades ago, when it was gen­er­ally taken as mean­ing the pro­gress involved in more people being able to travel for leisure. 

The pro­gress nar­rat­ive seems to have been some­what over­taken by a sense that tour­ism, and soci­ety in gen­er­al, is push­ing against, or has sur­passed, nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al limits.

That lat­ter view is reflec­ted in the ubi­quity of ‘over­tour­ism’. Since the inven­tion of the word – set out in Prof Buhalis’s inter­view – numer­ous books, papers, con­fer­ences, NGOs, and glob­al bod­ies have adop­ted it as good coin.

‘There’s no such thing as overtourism!’

But Dimitri­os Buhal­is is unequivocal: 

“[T]here is no such thing as overtourism!” 

… or at least as it’s often dis­cussed. To be pre­cise, over­tour­ism is less of “an incon­test­able truth” and more a label applied to many dif­fer­ent capa­city-related issues that attend the demo­crat­isa­tion of tourism. 

Prof Buhal­is is clear that these issues can be pretty severe and import­ant for the com­munit­ies host­ing tour­ism. But he makes two fur­ther points, equally important:

First, the emphas­is on those who lose out from ‘over­tour­ism’ neg­lects the fact that there are win­ners too with­in loc­al com­munit­ies. Gentri­fic­a­tion in itself may cre­ate prob­lems to be addressed, but it can be accom­pan­ied by improve­ments that bene­fit com­munit­ies as a whole. 

Second, there are pro­spect­ive solu­tions to prob­lems in the realm of policy and plan­ning. Buhal­is believes in “the import­ance of com­pre­hens­ive plan­ning, sus­tain­able man­age­ment prac­tices, and innov­at­ive mar­ket­ing ini­ti­at­ives to ensure a more har­mo­ni­ous and enjoy­able exper­i­ence for all involved parties”. 

There are, pro­spect­ively, ‘win-win’ scenarios.

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” posts tagged ‘Car­ry­ing capa­city, mass tour­ism, and over­tour­ism’

Win-win for the billions

So, unlike some of his peers, Dimitri­os Buhal­is is not pre­pared to throw the baby out with the bathwa­ter. Prob­lems exist, and we should try to address them ration­ally. But the demo­crat­isa­tion of tour­ism still stands as pro­gress for the increas­ing num­bers able to bene­fit from it.

It’s a really import­ant com­mon-sense point to con­sider. Only a frac­tion of the world’s pop­u­la­tion are inter­na­tion­al tour­ists. The major­ity dream of travel, in the way that many cit­izens of rich­er coun­tries did even a few gen­er­a­tions ago. Poorer soci­et­ies are grow­ing eco­nom­ic­ally. Demo­crat­isa­tion continues. 

Real­ists like Prof Buhal­is ori­ent them­selves to the solv­ing of prac­tic­al prob­lems. More power to him. It’s import­ant to solve them, too, because tour­ism is no longer a lux­ury for the few, but a staple of the lives of many. 

What we con­sider a lux­ury and what we think of as a neces­sity is his­tor­ic­ally con­tin­gent. Innov­a­tions such as low-cost car­ri­ers and AirB­nB have increased pos­sib­il­it­ies and raised the expect­a­tions of many.

And travel is part of the social fab­ric now. In a telling pas­sage Buhal­is states:

“It is really very import­ant to under­stand how crit­ic­al it is for indi­vidu­als to travel and to engage with oth­er soci­et­ies. It facil­it­ates import­ant aspects of social life for indi­vidu­als, friends and fam­il­ies […] I feel we’ve taken travel for gran­ted and become rather blasé about the bene­fits of leis­ure travel.”

Again, an import­ant point in my view. 

A labour of love

On our blog Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions we’ve fea­tured heart­felt art­icles show­ing how the clos­ure of travel dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic dimin­ished fam­ily bonds, soci­ab­il­ity and con­vi­vi­al­ity; a life lived to the full. 

That ‘hol­i­days make memor­ies’ is a cliche, but true non­ethe­less. Bonds are formed across the gen­er­a­tions when we travel togeth­er to see rel­at­ives; and across space when we make new acquaint­ances in dis­tant places. 

Dimitri­os Buhal­is is a prag­mat­ist and an optim­ist. He’s across the big issues too. 

On the ques­tion of research, he says it “should lead to address­ing major soci­et­al chal­lenges, and tour­ism can be a key instrument”. 

You get the impres­sion that for him, doing so is a labour of love.

Don’t miss all the oth­er great “Good Tour­ism” Insight Interviews

Con­tents ^

What do you think? 

Share your own thoughts in a com­ment below. (SIGN IN or REGISTER first. After sign­ing in you will need to refresh this page to see the com­ments section.)

Or write a “GT” Insight or “GT” Insight Bite of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” pub­lishes. “GT” is where free thought travels.

If you think the tour­ism media land­scape is bet­ter with “GT” in it, then please …

About the author

Jim Butcher is a lec­turer and writer who has writ­ten a num­ber of books on the soci­ology and polit­ics of tour­ism. Dr Butcher blogs at Polit­ics of Tour­ism, tweets at @jimbutcher2, and is the founder of Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions.

About the Tourism’s Horizon Interviews

“Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions, in col­lab­or­a­tion with “GT”, has sought the can­did views of well-known and respec­ted experts on tourism’s past, present, and future. 

The Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­views involves Jim Butcher, Vil­helmi­ina Vain­ikka, Peter Smith, Saverio Francesco Ber­to­lu­cci, Dav­id Jar­ratt, and Sudip­ta Sarkar as inter­view­ers. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog will pub­lish their high­lights and com­ment­ary as “GT” Insights. 

Read the full tran­scripts of each inter­view on Tourism’s Horizon’s substack.

Featured image (top of post)

Pro­fess­or Dimitri­os Buhal­is. Image source.

‘Dimitri­os Buhal­is is unequi­voc­al: “[T]here is no such thing as over­tour­ism!” … or at least as it’s often discussed.’ 

Con­tents ^