COVID-19 empties tourist traps in Europe: Crisis or opportunity?
| Basel, Switzerland; and Rome
In Venice, empty gondolas rock at their moorings on the Grand Canal; in Barcelona, desolate shopping streets lie silent.
The coronavirus has taken a devastating toll on European tourist destinations. But some of them, which once groaned uncomfortably under the weight of visitors, are taking the pandemic as a chance to reinvent themselves, to break their profitable but destructive habit of mass tourism.
鈥淐oronavirus has changed the world,鈥� says Paola Mar, in charge of tourism planning and management at the Venice city council. 鈥淚t is an opportunity for us, an accelerator of change.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
Some tourist destinations are too popular for their own good, suffocated by crowds. They are using this summer鈥檚 coronavirus-induced calm to imagine a more sustainable tourist industry.
The Italian city of Venice normally hosts an average of 55,000 tourists (more than the city鈥檚 population) each day, many of them day-trippers from cruise ships. The countrywide lockdown imposed on March 9 brought visitor numbers down to zero.
Tourists are now making a timid return, but officials say they do not want the crowds to swell to their previous size. Venice hopes to attract fewer tourists who would stay longer, says Ms. Mar. In the works is an 鈥渁ccess tax鈥� to discourage day-trippers, which would run to $12 in the high season.
At the same time, efforts are underway to encourage Venetians to stay in Venice, rather than flee to cheaper housing on the mainland. That means jobs, says Carolyn Smith,聽a researcher with the nonprofit We Are Here Venice, who would like to see the city become a hub for high-tech startups and a home for traditional crafts such as boat-building.
鈥淧eople need to work, so we need viable economic alternatives鈥� to mass tourism, says Ms. Smith, who lives in Venice and co-wrote a recent report on the city鈥檚 post-COVID-19 future.聽鈥淚 have friends here who have degrees, but there are no jobs so they earn a living taking tourists to their Airbnb apartments.鈥�
The city 鈥渉as become a by-word for the worst excesses of tourism,鈥� the report says, so there is 鈥渋ntense scrutiny as to how Venice will respond to the global drop in tourism.鈥�
It could start by regulating Airbnb, suggests Ms. Smith, following the example of Barcelona and Berlin, both of which have restricted the number of Airbnb apartments.
Maurizio Ugolini, who manages seven Airbnb apartments in the city,聽says such ideas are great in normal times but the focus now should be on recovery. Many families count on rental property for income so it would be unfair to suddenly limit the number of nights they can rent or to strip them of their permits, he argues. 鈥淰enice needs the type of tourism that sleeps in Venice 鈥� that buys groceries, that integrates with the locals, that lives the city like a Venetian even for just a few days,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hat we do not need are those huge crowds coming for the day and making even walking through the streets impossible.鈥�
But the $3.5 billion that tourism injected into the Venetian economy last year was of huge benefit to a sinking city in continuous need of money for maintenance, he points out.
Italy鈥檚 National Tourism Agency warns the sector will not recover before 2023, so there is time to rethink the next phase.聽鈥淲e are not going to solve the problems overnight, but we can use this critical window of opportunity,鈥� says Ms. Smith.聽鈥淧eople are talking about the problem and things are moving forward.鈥�
鈥淪pace for reflection鈥�
Similar soul-searching is underway in Barcelona. Shops along Passeig de Gr脿cia,聽which by some estimates account for almost a third of all tourist purchases in Spain, are shuttered or open only briefly.聽The usually overpacked beachfront has room, if anyone wanted to take it.
鈥淲e never imagined that we鈥檇 reach this level of paralysis,鈥� says Patrick Torrent, executive director at the Catalan Tourist Board. But 鈥渢his situation has made it possible to generate space for reflection on the tourism model that we want,鈥� he adds.
He expects that sustainable tourism, respectful not only of the environment but also of Barcelona鈥檚 society and culture, will gain ground in his city. Sustainability, he points out, is a central tenet of European recovery plans, from the European Commission鈥檚 pledge to 鈥渟trengthen the green transformation鈥� of EU tourism, to the Spanish government鈥檚 recovery package for the sector and the Catalan regional government鈥檚 own road maps for the future.聽
鈥淭he sector is aware that there will never be a better time to change models,鈥� he says.
Others are less optimistic, worrying that rescue packages will simply finance a return to business as usual in a city where tourism accounts for 12% of gross domestic product and聽roughly 9% of jobs 鈥� more in historic neighborhoods boasting the architectural legacy of Spanish architect Antoni Gaud铆 or beachfront developments like the Vila Ol铆mpica.
Claudio Milano, a social anthropologist at the Ostelea Tourism Management School, is skeptical. Part of the problem, he says, is that cities like Barcelona emerged from the 2008 crisis by focusing their economy on tourism services linked to the rise of the gig economy, such as Airbnb and Uber, rather than on local residents鈥� needs.
Dr. Milano is worried that many in the tourism industry are 鈥渢alking about reactivation along the same lines and the same paradigms that we had pre-COVID: increase arrivals and maximize profits. These are the same indicators that led us to worry about over-tourism,鈥澛爃e warns.
Social activists in Barcelona have long advocated 鈥渄egrowth.鈥� Mass tourism, they complain, has pushed up house prices and forced families out as investors buy to rent, replaced neighborhood stores with shabby souvenir shops, made restaurants unaffordable to locals, clogged public transport, and brought noise levels incompatible with a good night鈥檚 sleep.
鈥淎ll these factors make daily life so complicated for people that even if they can afford the rent, they give up,鈥� says Daniel Pardo of the Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement Tur铆stic (ABDT).聽鈥淣o one wants their life to be a war.鈥�
The ABDT, the Neighborhood Assembly for Decreased Tourism, is part of a European network pushing for the creation of sustainable cities. Now it is focusing its research on how to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with policies that contribute to diversifying the economy while not overlooking long-running issues such as climate change.聽聽
Mr. Pardo聽takes no pleasure in the pendulum swing from overtourism to no tourism.聽鈥淭his is not degrowth,鈥� he stresses. 鈥淭his is a massive socioeconomic crisis. It鈥檚 a drama. What we wanted was a planned process of social and economic transformation.鈥澛�
The pandemic has highlighted the dangers of Barcelona鈥檚 economic dependency on foreign international tourism. In the short term, experts believe, the city could make up some of its losses by boosting domestic tourism,聽but what is required in the long term is economic diversification.
Ernest Ca帽ada, who studies mass tourism in Catalonia, says it won鈥檛 be simple, but the region could start by fostering reindustrialization, encouraging agricultural activity and boosting the care sector and high-tech.
鈥淲e are in a聽moment of conflict over what is going to happen,鈥� says Mr. Ca帽ada. 鈥淭here are forces pushing for a simple reactivation of the tourism sector and forces that bet on transformation. In the middle of all that there is a lot of suffering.鈥�
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