Every story has 2 sides and I am sure some people won’t like this. I have found that those that don’t like it are usually disrespectful tourist who care more about getting that perfect Instagram shot and poor governments looking to make big money off tourists. The later is harder to argue with as putting food in the mouth of 3rd world citizens is quite important, however the first group is much easier to control. Teaching travelers to respect the leave no trace philosophy isn’t always going to be enough though. In some cases you just need to stop tourism all together for awhile and then regulate it more when reopening the destination. More and more we are seeing countries step up and try to put an end to Instagram tourism. Below are a few current examples of this:

  1. Vienna has launched a new campaign called “ Unhashtag Vienna”, encouraging people to put their smart phones away and instead “See the city behind your pictures”. I have actually seen people walk up to the Eiffel tower, snap a selfie and walk away without ever turning around and just taking in the sight.
  2. Grand Canyon National Park has the Leave no trace campaign asking people to stop geotagging certain locations in the park to try to help slow down the amount of traffic.
  3. Thailand has been forced to close down several islands all together in the hopes of restoring the ecosystem.
  4. Komodo Island in Indonesia is now being forced to do the same in hopes of restoring the dragon population before they go extinct. Indonesia has seen Bali become overcrowded and polluted but the government does not want to put regulations on one of it’s biggest industries so no it’s using social media to promote more of it’s other islands in the hope of spreading out it’s tourists. 5 years ago no one every heard of the T-rex island and now it’s one of the most famous Instagram spots in Asia. There is currently a garbage emergency in Bali. Tourists are encouraged to join clean up crews and go on tours picking up trash from beaches.
  5. Pig Beach in the Bahamas is another sad story.  These pigs have become Instagram celebrities but according to National Geographic, tourist tossing the pigs food causes them to ingest sand that in time kills the pigs. Over half the pigs have been killed this way. Unfortunately you can still visit them as the country can’t afford to ban tourist but Please, Please, Please, stop feeding them and just be happy with your picture.
  6. A recent study out of Australia shows that Croatia is suffering from over tourism more then any other country, especially the city of Dubrovnik. Having been featured in Game of Thrones for it’s old city walls and picturesque views has caused fans from all over to flock there. Add in 1,000’s of cruise ship passengers disembarking daily and the city is overwhelmed. In an effort to slow the effects the city’s mayor has limited the number of cruise ships per day to two.
  7. Iceland’s hot springs and natural beauty has led to over 2,000,000 visitors in 2018. For a country with 350,000 residents this has caused all kinds of infrastructure problems that the government is currently trying to solve.
  8. The Galapagos Islands in Ecuador is so fragile that tourism is now severely limited and tourist must be accompanied by a licensed guide.
  9. Venice Italy is sinking into the sea and the government has taken many steps to slow tourism from fining tourist for sitting in public spaces to banning cruise ships. The over tourism has caused locals to flee the city for the mainland leaving Venice in a dire situation.
  10. Mount Everest has seen such a spike in tourism that the government is about to put strict new legislation in place. Not an easy feat considering the mountain is one of the biggest incomes the country has. This is one place the government doesn’t have much choice. Human traffic jams at the top of the mountain and an increased number of inexperienced climbers has already led to 11 deaths in 2019 so far.

These aren’t the only places effected, the Great Barrier Reef, Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Maorca Spain are just a few others worth mentioning. The Instagram Effect may help bring money to an otherwise poor area but be careful what you wish for or the perfect picture may be the only thing left to remember these amazing wonders.