The ‘sharing economy’ who shares what with whom?

Mass tourists living like locals means that locals can’t live local

In many destinations, mass tourism powered by OTAs and cruise companies is not contributing to the local economy and is dramatically reducing the cultural, social, environmental and economic lives of the local communities.

Firstly, in themselves, vast numbers of tourists wandering streets clog up the works and simply get in the way of local residents going about their business and enjoying their home town.

Secondly rental accommodation taken off the local market for short-term high price tourist rentals means that there not only is less for local families, but it’s more expensive. Hence the demonstrations in Barcelona.

Thirdly, this may all be acceptable if, as a result, local people got extra quality employment from tourism, but they don’t. Moreover tourist brands are dramatically tarnished by mass tourism, leading to fewer quality, high-spending, sympathetic visitors and less revenue for local traders.

And three questions need to be asked –

Why have most destination organizations and local politicians so far not get the message that their brands are being demeaned, and their stakeholders (voters) are getting annoyed and angry without commensurate benefits?

What can be done about it? And, why has it happened?

The final question is easy to answer. The global tourism industry has become hooked on numbers (easy) not benefits (difficult).

The numbers game, treating people like datasets rather than humans has led to the money-producing algorithms that are now beginning to drive the tourism industry.

Of course, it’s profitable – Priceline, Tripadvisor and Airbnb and Uber have together become worth well over $100bn to their tech shareholders without investment in anything other than massive marketing payments to Google, their own elite staff and ever more powerful hardware and data storage silos. None of them have any real skin in the game – no physical investments in destinations, in other words.

Add to this boiling-over pot the massive global cruise companies. Now just a couple of big cash-cows – Carnival (over a hundred ships) and RCCL (mega cruisers with over 17% of the market)  dominate the marketplace transporting millions of all-inclusive passengers from port to port contributing even less to local economies.

This has contributed to dramatic tourism growth and over a billion international tourists a year and perhaps around 5 billion domestic ones.

So destinations and global organizations can crow about increased numbers and increased resilience, but, in reality, on the ground both visitors and hosts get very unfulfilling experiences.

What can be done about it?

Let us never forget that destinations are the real brands in tourism – they are what visitors actually want to experience. It is in destinations, who have everything at stake, where the social, environmental, cultural and economic impacts are felt, where the real (and now dormant) power lies.

Why don’t destinations claim their power? Destinations really need to take the upper hand – like in Spain – both in the Balearics and in Barcelona, where politicians are beginning to call the bluff of the big global mass-tourism industry.

Everybody needs to recognize that numbers growth needs to be sustainable. Three cheers for the first destination that delivers and implements a carrying capacity and/or a really honest holistic tourism impact analysis.

And partnerships with the global travel industry need to be forged with destinations taking the leading role.

Cruise companies, OTAs and tour operators need to come to the destinations’ tables to forge good, sustainable partnerships to the benefit of both visitors, destination communities and profitability for everyone.

Far-seeing tour operators are already on this page – why after all have TUI sold Hotelbeds to concentrate on delivering a vertically-integrated model where clients can be relatively sure of a high quality experience? Why have they supported sustainable initiatives in destinations for so many years?

OK the OTAs are really visible, you can’t read the news now without a mention of Airbnb or Google,trip or Uber or Tripadvisor.

But what about the hidden marketplace? The old-style special interest tour operators, the high-value tour operators or the booming concierge-style travel agents or the massively-growing (estimated 500,000 plus!) home based travel agents – all who deal with real people not datasets?

Maybe destinations should also be forging beneficial co-operative relationships with the fragmented marketplace that can’t blackmail their tourism providers?

So, a good outcome is not impossible.

What is the alternative for the global travel industry ? Overcrowded, tacky destinations with few benefits to anybody and lots of missed opportunities for really fulfilling experiences, cultural exchanges and, maybe more chances of peace.

Or virtual tourism behind a mask?

Valere Tjolle

@ValereTjolle [email protected]