Is tourism to be our next taboo?

Manchán Mangan, naturalised Westmeath man and national treasure, has given up travelling by plane. This, from a man who has made his name recording his adventures all over the world, is indeed a consequential sacrifice to make. Manchán has decided to take a stand against the negative impact that air travel, and especially unnecessary flights, is having on climate change.

Thirty million passengers land at Dublin Airport every year; who include seven million tourists. Vested interests are lobbying to have these numbers increased. There used to be a compulsory two-minute minimum gap between flights taking off at London’s Heathrow Airport, but it got tighter and tighter until now the next plane takes off as soon as daylight can be seen underneath the wheels of the previous departure. Planes just cannot be got into the sky quickly enough any more.

There are around 10,000 airplanes in the sky at any one time, carrying well in access of a million passengers. Let us throw in the spanner without dallying; how many of those million trips are of the necessary variety?

In order to avoid being placed in the dock of hypocrisy, I need to give witness to the tourist truism that I have always loved travel and visiting new places. I was born with ‘ants in my pants’.

But the ceist has to be asked of all of us at this stage, are we prepared to continue damaging the planet for the sake of social travel and ‘touristing’? How much are we contributing to an environmental disaster? A million passengers on 10,000 planes every two minutes, and yet the talk among the chattering classes centres on a cow breaking wind out in a green field? The cow cannot change, because God made the cow that way – a long time ago.

Meanwhile, back on the ground, the effects of overcrowding tourist spots are becoming painfully obvious. Environments are being damaged while the infrastructure of regions is being strained. There is pollution and soil erosion, natural habitats are being damaged and pressure on endangered species of plants and living creatures increases. There is a litter stain at beauty spots and often a problem created by the increase in water consumption and unsustainable pressure on sewage systems.

It is the expensive price being paid for the cheap holiday.

Major tourist locations like The Burren in County Clare are beginning to say; ‘enough is enough’. The Italian city of Venice put the brakes on excessive tourism last year by introducing a tourist tax for day trippers – that’s another thing; often that type of tourism leaves no money where it deserves to be left. Venice has also banned tourist groups of more than 25 people. As tourism continues to grow, we are likely to see more limits on visitors to fragile areas.

We are constantly told of the financial benefits of tourism – and of course that is correct. ‘Look at all the jobs it creates,’ we are told. But on that score, the arguments can also be made that tourism encourages dependence on tourism. Increased jobs are seasonal in nature, thus causing unemployment in the off season.

Spain depends massively on tourism to boost its economy. Here again, I must declare a personal interest. We have family there and a holiday home, so we flit back and forth regularly on those cheap flights. But even in that lovely country, so dependent on tourism, there is a growing groundswell of opinion opposing over-tourism. The strength of the pushback is higher than you might have imagined. A recent survey shows that as many as 32% of Spaniards believe that their local areas receive too many international visitors. That figure is an astonishingly high of 48% in Catalonia, where Barcelona is the capital.

A similar poll in France found that 18% of the people there believe that their country has too many foreign visitors; !6% in Italy and 13% polled in Germany feel the same way. What may surprise you most of all is that 7% of the British people would like to see fewer people from other countries visiting their shores.

We have no figures for Ireland… but if you let our editor know your feelings on the subject, those figures will be published. (No… no, Lads; me staying in Spain in not an acceptable answer!)

So, based on all of the above, is tourism set to becoming the next ‘no, no’, antisocial, unpatriotic, and anti-global taboo?

The spirit of adventure and wanderlust will always be present in the human heart. But maybe we should take our time a bit more; sail, rail, cycle and walk; taking time to ‘stop and stare’; avoid the tourist traps and enjoy the pleasure of the planet – before that crowd up in the sky get to destroy it!

Don’t Forget

A lie doesn’t become truth,

Wrong doesn’t become right;

And evil doesn’t become good

… just because it’s accepted. (unknown)