When tourists take over: How travel can erase local culture

Committee EMPL started their Saturday with a workshop which helped them with speeching. Learning about speech structures, voice projections and stance while speaking. After they got to know everything they needed to deliver the perfect speech, the committee started with the committee meetings with the help of a Schiller University guest consultant. He helped the committee members with their questions and concerns about mass tourism, but one topic stood out where the committee discussed about a lot: Cultural loss. 

What exactly do we mean by the term cultural loss?

Think of a city with ancient buildings and shops, but also local people who lived in the city for a very long time. When these things leave the city unwillingly, you lose a part of the culture of the city. Which results in cultural loss.

But what does affect a city and result in cultural loss?

In the resolution, the committee tries to tackle the problem of Short-term rentals, such as offered through sites like Airbnb and Booking. Instead of staying in hotels, many tourists now rent apartments for days or weeks. While this is convenient for the travelers, it creates a challenge for local people to seek housing.

As property owners start to realize that they can make more money renting their apartments to tourists, who are willing to pay higher prices, they stop renting out to local families. Some cities are almost filled with these Short-term rentals, which affects complete neighborhoods that once had local families and businesses, now turned into holiday rental paradises.

Tourists don’t know the city as well as locals, so they seek for trendy and popular places to eat food or buy clothes. In contrast to the local population who know local shops and restaurants. Because the share of tourists in the population increases, traditional family run business will less likely make profit and change into tourist-focused shops. This slowly erases the unique character of the place.

Imagine living in an apartment building where every few days, new, loud guests arrive for their holiday. Constant noise pollution, parties and suitcase-wheeling strangers can disturb local residents. Over time, the residents may choose to move away because of this, which results in a further loss of the community.

Many cities have their own customs, festivals and ways of life. But when tourism takes over the city, these traditions can become more some sort of “performances” rather than authentic experiences. Locals might change their customs to tourist’ expectations, which can water down the real meaning behind them.

Travel is a wonderful way to learn more about the world, but it should be done with care. By understanding how short-term rentals and overtourism can harm local communities, we can make better choices. That way, we can help to protect the cultures and places we love to visit, for both locals and future travelers