If you recently visited Barcelona, Mallorca or Venice, you’re a bad tourist who should have stayed home. At least that’s what the anti-tourism protests this summer in certain parts of Europe would have you believe.
In his mind, overtourism is actually four separate problems. There’s the classic overcrowding of popular sites. Visitors disrespecting cultural norms—say, swinging selfie sticks or baring their shoulders in an Orthodox church—is another. Then you have the partiers who get indecent or destroy public property. Last is the most insidious prong of overtourism: when locals do not sufficiently benefit from tourism in their communities, due to unequal distribution of profits.
Of course, nothing prevents travelers from Googling their trips. But the study may convince tourist boards and travel agents that there’s good reason to stray from mainstream recommendations. “Whatever source reaches people with the least friction and makes the experience sound the most fun wins,” Mitas says.
The idea started in Jordan, which wanted to see tourism spread beyond Petra, its famed Unesco World Heritage Site; since then, companies such as Insight Vacations, Intrepid Travel and G Adventures have bolstered their itineraries with ceramics, cooking and weaving workshops—all driving business to rural co-ops in small communities such as Bani Hamida, 90 minutes south of Amman.