Table of contents for N. 118 in Topos

topos: Xavier Marcé, I ask straight out: In a recent interview, you said that your goal was not to reduce the number of tourists in Barcelona in the next few years. Rather, the quality of the hotels should be promoted, which in turn would raise the hotel prices. Is that correct? Should Barcelona be visited in particular by fewer but wealthier tourists in the future? XAVIER MARCÉ: In tourism, purely quantitative analyses are misleading. Barcelona has a certain legal tourist accommodation capacity and we must therefore ensure that it is occupied. But this must be achieved with visitors of the highest quality, with cultural expectations and with the utmost respect for the city and its residents. I prefer to reduce the number of tourists and increase the number of days…

Destination Venice The Italian peninsula has a long history as a travel destination. Documented travel practices related to religion, culture or leisure date back to at least Medieval times with Christian pilgrimages, followed by the educational journey, thermalism and the Grand Tour. From the 19th century onwards tourism emerged as a new phenomenon that only in part compares to the previous practices, since it originated from a new relationship with the world. The maturation and evolution of bourgeois society led to a radical transformation of travel, and not simply to a transition from the Grand Tour to organized tourism.1 Italy played a fundamental part in this process, actually being a leading destination for longer than it has been a modern state.2 Within Italy, and globally as well, Venice assumed –…

Tourism is a massive deal in Thailand. In 2019, right before Covid-19 struck the world, Thailand’s tourism sector contributed more than 17 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product, one of the highest figures in the world. Whatever your preferred style of vacation is, chances are you’ll find the right offer here – maybe with the exception of winter sports. Want to shop all day and spend all night celebrating? Bangkok is the place to be! Looking for tropical beaches with crystal clear water? Welcome to the island of Phuket! Prefer modest backpacking amongst a rich cultural heritage? You should definitely see Chiang Mai! Thailand’s rise as one of the world’s leading tourist hotspots, however, has humble beginnings. Back in the mid-60s US American GIs came here for their…

Almost no other city in Europe has experienced as much tourism hype in the last decade as Dubrovnik. This is partly due to the hit series “Game of Thrones” on the American TV channel HBO, for which the picturesque port city in southern Croatia served as the setting. All scenes set in the fictional town of “King’s Landing” were filmed there. The highlight is the two-kilometer-long, up to 25-meter-high city wall with almost 40 towers. Behind this unique ring of fortifications lies the beautiful old town with medieval buildings, narrow stone alleys and Baroque churches. The famous Pile Gate in the east has served as the main entrance to Dubrovnik for centuries and is still the most interesting entrance to the old town. During the high season, thousands of tourists…

Hawai’i is known for its beautiful nature, its welcoming Aloha spirit, and its many exciting activities. But even before COVID-19 struck, residents of the islands faced challenges such as overcrowding, higher cost of living and environmental damages, resulting in an increasingly negative attitude towards tourism. In summer 2021, the situation worsened. Requirements for fully vaccinated US travellers were lifted, resulting in unprecedented tourism demands. A difficult combination of water shortages, staff shortages, congested roads, COVID-19 checks and overcrowding of some beaches led to locals asking for less tourism. “We are asking for just a pause”, said Maui’s mayor Mike Victorino, appealing to airlines to decrease the number of incoming flights. As the second-largest island of Hawai’i, Maui is one of the areas most affected by increased travel demand. The island…

Iceland is truly volcanic in origin. The country emerged from volcanic eruptions at the bottom of the sea on the mid-Atlantic ridge less than 20 million years ago. A super-plume of molten rock then moved up above the sea surface and formed the island. In addition to volcanic craters, the Icelandic landscape offers phenomena such as ice caves, ice lakes, waterfalls, lava fields, glaciers, table mountains and hot springs. Europe’s most sparsely populated country, with two thirds of the population living in the capital Reykjavik, has a vast wilderness of mystery and folklore that leaves few untouched. The great eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 triggered an exponential increase in tourism, something that the majority of Icelanders themselves welcomed after the 2008 financial crisis. For a country whose main sources of…

topos: Signor Brugnaro, you were elected Mayor of Venice in 2015. Since then a lot has changed in society, in the city itself. What in your opinion are the biggest challenges facing Venice right now? LUIGI BRUGNARO: Venice is a city that looks quite optimistically into the future. Despite going through two really challenging years that were accompanied by the flood in November 2019 and the Coronavirus pandemic, the city and its residents have never been discouraged and have always striven to overcome adversity and turn it into an opportunity for revival and growth. During that challenging time, we have continued to lay foundations to ensure that we can establish a more sustainable form of tourism and create a city we all feel responsible for in terms of protecting and…

Have a look! Breakfast in Paris Traveling is a basic need for most of us, but the ecological footprint of getting there should not be underestimated. In Europe there is an alternative for climate-friendly travel. A trip by train is around 30 times more climate-friendly than by car and around 50 times more climate-friendly than by plane. The ÖBB Nightjet connects the most important cities in Europe in a climate-friendly way on 20 routes: from Munich to Rome, from Paris to Vienna or from Amsterdam to Zurich. Board the train in the evening and wake up rested in the centre of the cities the next morning. Whether comfortably in the sleeper car or at very reasonable prices in the couchette car, your vacation can already begin with a green conscience.…

In 1978, Italian mountaineers Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler became the first persons ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. 41 years later, in 2019, a total of 878 people climbed the world’s highest mountain – a record year. Never have so many people been on Mount Everest. If the Covid pandemic had not broken out in 2020, people would once again be lining up below the summit. Alpinism, the art of mountaineering, developed into a tourism industry within a few years, improving the accessibility of the remote site for many climbers. Every year, slopes are groomed, equipment and logistics are improved, and new Sherpas are recruited. The Everest tourism business is booming and is an important source of revenue for Nepal. The state took in…

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The mere word Barcelona triggers countless imaginaries and desires throughout all layers of society, age groups and levels of education: to learn that one lives in the “City of Gaudí” – one example of many acquired names which are part of a very successful tourist branding strategy – always produces envious, admiring or lyrical reactions. A city of sensation(s) What does it mean for the city to be constantly perceived through the gaze of the tourist and to have created an image of itself that tries to represent what is thought to be the image expected by the visitor? What happens to its neighbourhoods and livelihoods when the experiential sequences of a tourist visit mark the rhythm of the city’s calendar of activities, festivals, fairs, themed weekends and events, and…

topos: Tom Hall, when the Covid pandemic hit our lives in 2020, what impact did that have on the publishing house? At Lonely Planet, when did you realize: This is going to have a real impact? TOM HALL: The scale of the impact was apparent as soon as Covid-19 restrictions were introduced in countries around the world. The pandemic would stop all travel. Like everyone in the world all of us at Lonely Planet felt this impact immediately, professionally and personally. Together with the entire travel industry this was clearly a very difficult moment. Our reason for being is to guide travellers as they explore the world. At first, our immediate concern was with health and safety, and showing how individual destinations were responding. Then we focussed on explaining to…

A tower within a tower In 2007, construction work began on a tree-top path project in the Bavarian town of Sankt Englmar (Germany), near the Czech border. Initially equipped with only a kiosk, the offering grew year by year. Today, the trail, which is about two kilometers long, takes visitors up to a height of 30 meters and leads them through the treetops. In 2011, the path was extended to include a suspension bridge suspended 25 meters above the ground, and in 2014 Martin Six, the operator of the Bavarian treepath attraction, came up with the idea of a forest tower. The location for the 52-meter-high tower was moved a total of four times during the planning process. Contrary to the initial idea of building a tower with elevator and…