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Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature
- jmsmistral 7y ago*Iceland tires ...
- dontbenebby 7y ago>Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature Rightfully so! My city recently opened up a direct flight to Reykjavík. Sadly, I've seen how people treat our national parks. I hope Iceland use the increased tourism revenue to up their ranger presence and fine and/or deport the offenders. To Iceland if you're listening: we're not all bad, I promise :)
- henryaj 7y agoTypo in title: should be "Icelanders".
- magduf 7y agoUnfortunately, you're wrong here. This is from BBC, and they're using a very peculiar and annoying British-ism where they refer to an entity in the plural sense. They do it all the time with companies, saying something like "[Company] have announced earnings" instead of "[Company] has announced earnings" as in American English. Their reasoning is that the company (or country in this case) is composed of many people, so you should use plural. But it's awkward-sounding and annoying, and really doesn't make sense. An individual person is composed of billions of cells, but we don't refer to him or her with the plural tense.
- jihadjihad 7y agoYou see the same thing in Yellowstone--inattentive Instagrammers with selfie sticks hoping to snap the perfect pic next to the wildlife and scenery. Nothing quite as real as being scalded by a hot spring when you're used to viewing the world through a screen.
- growlist 7y agoMass tourism has ruined travel for me.
- mrhappyunhappy 7y agoIf and when I go somewhere, I try to go in off season. And if there is no such thing as off season for a place, I just avoid it.
- growlist 7y agoYeah. Much of the 'real world' is turning into something like a Center Parks (if you know of it) experience, where what we believe to be reality is nothing of the sort. At least some trips are immune though, like a tropical chill out on the beach. It's the long dreamed of trip to Florence, for example, that is likely to be marred.
- merpnderp 7y agoTry Yellowstone in the summer if you want ruined. Non-stop traffic jams, trash everywhere, random punk kids carving crap into every tree on a path they meet, and nearly every tree seems to have carvings scraped off it multiple times.
- driverdan 7y agoWhy? There are millions of places to visit, the vast majority of which are nearly empty. You don't have to go to the big name locations, there are plenty of others that aren't crowded.
- growlist 7y agoBut the unspoilt places inevitably require more effort both upfront and whilst there. The holiday starts to become more like work than relaxation!
- icelandthrthw 7y agoThis comment made me realise why this thread gave me an uneasy feeling. It's not being upset about people travelling, it's being upset about the wrong people travelling for the wrong reasons. I don't see why your long-dreamed of trip is more virtuous than one someone chose because they saw a nice picture on social media.
- growlist 7y agoAt first they were just shitting up the Web - now it's the real world too :( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
- sillyquiet 7y agooh that old elitist complaint is still hanging around?
- wmne 7y agoUsing "elitist" as an insult is getting old. You have to accept that behaviour shown by uneducated people is often inadequate. (Of course, "uneducated" about what... that depends on the context. We're discussing netiquette here but it could be anything else.)
- sillyquiet 7y agosorry, maybe 'snob' is a better word to describe folks who cannot handle the unwashed masses invading their domain. But in seriousness, I understand the impact a bunch of oblivious (willfully or otherwise) people can have on a here-to carefully curated and managed space, I sympathize.
- castis 7y agoIs it snobbery to think that maybe those unwashed masses should get their shit together and not trample on the places they've just landed?
- sillyquiet 7y agoWell it depends on the 'place'. Complaining about the common folk using USENET? yes, that's snobbery. Complaining about too many people messing up a natural space? No, that's not snobbery.
- sillyquiet 7y agoI call this the 'Disney World' effect of nature tourism. Self-involved, entitled people who treat national parks and the wilderness like an amusement park that has been set aside for their entertainment. They expect the natural world to cater to their whims the same way a Disney world employee does, and they just do not understand that's not how the world works.
- maxxxxx 7y agoOur whole society is based on trying to make things easy and convenient. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people have the same attitude towards traveling and nature. Iceland could fix this easily by making places less accessible but then the tourist money would stop flowing. In the end they have to make a choice. Limit accessibility or number of tourists and lose some money or accept the negative consequences and keep the money flowing.
- spaceribs 7y agowhat about stepping up enforcement and fines though? If the rangers of these parks are overstretched, it seems reasonable to re-invest some of that park money towards more staff and fines that effectively offset the damage being done.
- maxxxxx 7y agoThey could do that. But that also costs money and it doesn’t solve overcrowding.
- mistermann 7y agoIt could largely fix the negative consequences though.
- magduf 7y agoMaybe they should just forbid or discourage tourists from countries that cause the most problems, such as Britain and the US. I'm sure Japanese tourists never litter there.
- tomxor 7y agoI think this is a potential basically everywhere, unfortunately most people do not respect the environment and given access will treat nature like a city. Where it becomes an issue is more a matter of forces acting to encourage "normal" people with no previous interest in nature to go and e.g have their piece of the pie for their worthless facebook pic. Anecdotally, I've seen this multiple times on smaller scales in nature reserves in the UK, social networking and selfies definitely play a big role. It's usually the places with easy access, almost no commitment or effort required, easy selfie opportunities... in these locations in recent years i've observed massive amounts of litter and disrespect, to add insult to injury these intruders tend to be ignorant of safety in general, hurling rocks, boulders and bottles into the path of walkers and climbers bellow from cliff tops. The reaction from local authorities is to add more fences and gates, locking previously available easy access routes... basically keep the barrier for entry into nature reserves high enough for careless people to stay away.
- akuji1993 7y agoWent on a roadtrip through England in 2017 with a friend. Your second paragraph was the reason we didn't like it at Stonehenge. Busses and busses of people, littering everywhere. They had to prohibit going near the rocks, as people would break off parts of it to take home (who in their right mind would fucking do this), draw on them, damage them otherwise... Huge bummer for me and my friend. On the other hand, wandering through Dartmoor, meeting 5 people the whole day was absolutely one of the best memories of the trip. Easy access, no effort required is exactly the tourist category that we didn't enjoy in the end.
- magduf 7y agoI visited Japan a couple months ago during "Golden Week", which is their big national vacation week. Several of the sites I visited were absolutely packed with (Japanese) tourists. No one was vandalizing anything, littering, or even acting rude and obnoxious, or in any way I could see breaking any of the rules. As an American, it was rather weird because American tourists wouldn't be like this at all. It's pretty amazing to see a culture where people know how to act properly even when there's a high degree of crowding.
- wmne 7y agoOkay, so restrict their entrance and live without their tourism money. :')
- T-A 7y agohttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-22/iceland-slashes-interest-rates-to-battle-economic-downturn https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-22/iceland-s...
- kd5bjo 7y agoThat would require withdrawing from Schengen, and probably the EEA, impacting Icelanders’ travel rights to Europe.
- AmericanChopper 7y agoIf Icelanders aren’t happy with their current level of sovereignty, then perhaps they should do that. Otherwise they may consider directing some of the 10% of their GDP they generate through tourism to solving some of these problems.
- aikah 7y ago> That would require withdrawing from Schengen No, Ireland isn't in the Schengen zone. Irish people are free to visit Europe (since part of the EU). Also a Schengen VISA DOES NOT allow one to visit oversea French territories. You can't visit The Guadeloupe with a Schengen VISA. So things are a bit more complicated and wouldn't necessary impact Icelander's ability to travel to Europe, it entirely depends on what kind of deal Island signed with the rest of the EU.
- Symbiote 7y agoThat's one option, but another would be taxes: increase landing tax for flights, hotel tax, car rental tax, tourist services tax, etc. Or simply limit numbers: require that people buy tickets to enter particular places (including national parks), and restrict entry once the place is "full".
- CaptainZapp 7y agoEasy: Hand every tourist a brochure about the Do's and Dont's. Aka, like Singapore prints warnings (DEATH TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS) on their landing cards. If laws and rules are disrespected fine the sweet bejeezus out of those assholes (like in the thousands of $ range) and ban them from the country (or ideally, from the Schengen room) for 5 to 10 years. The problem will solve itself in short time.
- ajmurmann 7y agoLove the idea. One improvement: let's make this an international effort and ban them from travel to any other participating country as well.
- close04 7y agoThat escalated quickly. In law there is a principle of proportionality [0]. It's the reason why jaywalking isn't punished by 60 days in prison or by getting sent back to your country and banned from ever travelling to any country that has pedestrian crossings. Also laws should apply equally to everybody. How would such a law apply to locals? Withdraw citizenship? I think hitting them with fines or paying damages is a different matter and might just be enough. Banning someone from half a continent is certainly a knee jerk reaction. Impossible punishments also have some side effects. Even law abiding tourists start avoiding the country completely if they know a mistake lands them on the ban list for half a continent. And perhaps worse, if one makes a mistake they no longer have anything to lose by doing it again until they leave the country, they're facing the ban anyway. See the 3-strikes law [1] where the third strike is almost always murder because by then the culprit knows they'll do life anyway. The deterrent is gone. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportionality_(law) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportionality_(law) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-strikes_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-strikes_law
- shiven 7y agoI don’t know which country you live in, but in the United States of America, all this talk of “fairness of law” is a fairytale at best. And no, you can’t convince me otherwise.
- randogogogo 7y agoI was just there a couple weeks ago. The only incident I saw of this was a recently married couple taking photo's on a cliff, they went out over the ropes, a misstep probably would have killed them. Also when you rent a car there, they inform you that going off road is prohibited. I guess some people choose not to listen.
- jschwartzi 7y agoYeah, people die taking selfies pretty much every year on one of our local hikes here in Washington. It's the easiest trail with a spectacular view(~1200ft of gain) in the entire metro area, so people flock to it in droves. It's a hike out to a cliff that looks down on a valley floor. Every single "outdoorsy" girl on Tinder has a picture of themselves there, standing in front of the precipice. There's also the easiest snowy mountain in the state, which everyone hikes up every year in tennis shoes as soon as the trailhead opens. One year Search & Rescue was called 4 times in one week because some hikers got stranded in the snow because they chose not to do any basic research about the conditions and assumed that since they wear tennis shoes during the winter, hiking through foot-deep snow in them is definitely okay. That week the county sheriff went on the news and asked people to please stop hiking that mountain for a couple of months.
- arethuza 7y agoHappens all the time in Scotland - I assume people look at the height of the mountains and assume they are safe for a quick stroll if the weather is nice. e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-45705249 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-457... "Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team said the walkers' attire had included shorts and leggings, but no jackets." I've never actually said to people I've passed that I thought they were inappropriately dressed (though maybe I should do) - but I have given people maps and directions when they admitted they had no idea where they were or their phone batteries had died (I take backup printouts of maps so not a big deal to give a copy to someone).
- jschwartzi 7y ago
- buboard 7y agoI m really looking forward to the day when we ll be looking back at this era of compulsive selfpromotion with disbelief at the level of kitsch we managed to achieve.
- davidhyde 7y agoClickbaity title implies that all tourists that visit Iceland trash the place and this could not be further from the truth, I thought people were pretty well behaved. This article was about a few bad actors, literally. Iceland’s economy is now heavily reliant on tourism but tourism always comes at a cost and this needs to be factored in when choosing this as your source of income as a country. You don’t hear about the Ecuadorians complaining about tourists ruining the Galapagos Islands because they put a lot of effort into managing tourism there. Tourists are all the same, they just don’t care about your country, deal with it, manage it. Restrict the numbers, increase the cost, use the money to make repairs and clean up the mess. If not then don’t let them in (by making it prohibitively expensive to get there) and find another way to make money for your people.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- lordleft 7y agoI don't know what percentage of Iceland's tourists are behaving in the manner described by the article, but I disagree. There's nothing wrong with educating tourists about proper conduct in a guest country. Some will just ignore the admonitions but others may adjust their behavior. I do agree that a country should account for possible ecological/environmental costs and factor that into fees passed onto tourists.
- marapuru 7y agoThis quote from the article baffles me: > The good instagrammers try to show different ways of enjoying nature. We don't tag places that are off the beaten path that we want to protect as long as possible. Some places have become "insta-famous" without ever mentioning where they are but eventually they become known to everyone. Wait, what? So you take a picture. Put it on instagram (because you are an 'instagrammer'), but you don't mention the place. But since you are an instagrammer, people want to figure it out and now flood the country in search for that place. Trampling all the nature on their way... I get the idea of taking a photo once in a while. Mind you, I really enjoy photography. But I found that a photo never does justice to the moment. So I choose to savour the moment before anything else. Let's hope the future learns people that most of these instagram shots are basically digital waste.
- Juliate 7y agoWhen an instagrammer dies, where go all the likes and the pictures? At least, with paper-printed photos, you have|had material stuff to inherit with some context and history.
- icebraining 7y ago> When an instagrammer dies, where go all the likes and the pictures? The Internet Archive, of course.
- Godel_unicode 7y agoYou are aware that posting a picture on Instagram doesn't preclude you also archiving it, yes?
- Juliate 7y agoAh the irony. :p
- lawlessone 7y agoYou get buried with copies saved to glass discs in 5D!
- tonyedgecombe 7y ago“The relatively new trouble with mass society is perhaps even more serious, but not because of the masses themselves, but because this society is essentially a consumers’ society where leisure time is used no longer for self-perfection or acquisition of more social status, but for more and more consumption and more and more entertainment… To believe that such a society will become more “cultured” as time goes on and education has done its work, is, I think, a fatal mistake. The point is that a consumers’ society cannot possibly know how to take care of a world and the things which belong exclusively to the space of worldly appearances, because its central attitude toward all objects, the attitude of consumption, spells ruin to everything it touches.” Hannah Arendt
- ixtli 7y agoI find that the root issue is individualism. There are immaculately clean cities in east asia whos parent societies would definitely qualify as highly "consumerist." It's not consumption that's the problem but the parameters within which that consumption is allowed to proceed. As well, in individualist societies we seem far more comfortable to discard our trash wherever and just forget about it. A more collectivist attitude appears, from my experience, to get people to be more thoughtful.
- seattle_spring 7y agoEast Asian national parks are also completely paved over and devoid of almost any remnant of a natural experience. And please don't tell me it's only westerners breaking all of the rules in US national parks.
- ixtli 7y agoCan you explain why this seems so to you? Totally not my experience with visiting national parks in Korea and Japan. For one thing, much of Japans un-developed nature is such because its largely as impassable now as it was in the 1600s when Basho wrote Ooku no hosomichi. I dunno why you'd bother paving anything. EDIT: It's also certainly not just westerners, but again, my experience has shown me that there are societies that do better at training citizens not to litter.
- throwaway847272 7y agoUntil recently, I worked at a company that sends these people to Iceland, among other places. Influencers end up in that career for a reason. They are, in general, everything you'd expect them to be: flaky and privileged almost as a rule. They're not bad people per se (no tantrums that I've seen), and are often well-meaning, but most are desperate to be famous. These are the same people who competed to be on The Bachelor or Dancing with the Stars as a means to improve their marketability. They have no real marketable skills other than marketing themselves. Thus it should surprise no one that they are terrible tourists. If I could speculate, it's a combination of cluelessness, lack of interest in researching anything about their destination (other than good photo spots), and a low-key sense of privilege that "it's not that big of a deal" if they do something that might be harmful. In other words, they are a lot like average tourists but with bigger egos.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- lawlessone 7y ago>Thus it should surprise no one that they are terrible tourists. is it even them? 1 instagrammer is ok, if they have 1 million followers though and a fraction of those people follow the same path then everything get's trampled.
- usrusr 7y agoNot just bigger egos: instagrammers naturally compete for attention, it's basically their job to one-up their peers. Regular tourists may occasionally want to do so as well, but it's entirely optional for them. It's like professional vs recreational sports: some hobbyists might be misguided enough to take PEDs, but for a struggling professional they will appear like a possible livelihood-saver.
- ixtli 7y agoI hate to sound cynical but the reason it seems like everyone knows someone who's gone to Iceland in the past 5 years is because the government has been heavily subsidizing flights and hotels to this exact end. There really was no other outcome :( Also the government only needs to levy a 1000 USD fine on a few people in order to stop a lot of this because the American press will seize on it immediately.
- rando444 7y agoThis isn't exactly accurate. WOW air, the budget airline that was offering cheap flights from the US is now bankrupt. They were able to offer the flights so cheap because they were operating at a loss trying to take market share away from Icelandair. The biggest problem has been the government's inability to control the tourism industry, which more or less runs amok, taking all of the profit and contributing little back other than general tax revenue. Members of parliment have proposed various solutions to deal with tourism, but most often there is no agreement, and no concrete actions put into place. Basically there are laws that prevent the government from taxing people differently, so it's illegal to tax tourists different than locals, so it becomes difficult to take advantage of tourism money for government to create facilities, hire people, build infrastructure, etc. It's happening, but it's not what it could be. Various "nature pass" fees have been proposed, hotel taxes, flight taxes, etc.. but no matter what the idea is someone is always against it, which has made curbing the situation hard. With WOW air just disappearing recently, the economy is still adjusting to that.
- thebooktocome 7y agoIcelandic speeding tickets can quickly escalate to the equivalent of tens of thousands USD, and their speed limits seem really low, especially the main ring road. However, you really don't hear many stories in the American press about ignorant tourists getting raked by Icelandic speeding laws.
- jacquesm 7y agoI've been to Iceland once on a business trip and the tickets were outrageously expensive, the fun bit was that the same - now defunct - airline would have happily taken us to the USA for a small fraction that they asked for the trip to Iceland. And that USA trip would be through Iceland...
- amelius 7y agoSolution: put a Pokemon Go character inside the crater of a volcano.
- tomxor 7y agoOk, but make sure it's active, we don't want them polluting inactive craters :)
- shiven 7y agoThey need tougher laws & throw these digital attention whores into prison for 2 years. Deny them access to their IG, or all SM, for the entire time. Guaranteed to stop bad behavior.
- 5040 7y agoThere may come a time where tourists are tagged with GPS trackers. Those who go off the beaten path could face fines.
- asnack 7y agoMaybe a GPS tracker attached around the neck and it zaps you if you go off course. That might lead to weird rise in BDSM tourism to your area
- doctorRetro 7y agoA while back someone posted a comment on another story about travel and tourism - I forget who - basically saying that travel is the ultimate extension of selfishness and narcissism. I disagreed, and I still do, but I will agree with that statement entirely when it concerns Instagram influencers.
- CptFribble 7y agoAfter the volcano erupted in 2010, the government launched a PR campaign in winter 2011 to counter the projected tourism drop. It specifically targeted "inspired" and "enlightened" travelers to come see the "unique" landscape. Also in 2011, WOWair debuted with it's $99 flights to Iceland. Instagram launched in 2010. Maybe it's less "people are garbage" and more "we should make it more expensive to come here."
- mijamo 7y agoIceland is pretty damn expensive, probably one of the most expensive nature destination you can find, together with Norway (although Switzerland probably still wins the prize).
- knd775 7y agoI went there in the winter (when things are generally a bit cheaper) a couple of years ago and it wasn't too bad. Food, however, was incredibly expensive everywhere. No where else have I spent nearly $20 USD for a meal at a fast food restaurant.
- onion2k 7y agoIf you'd eaten the local cuisine it would have been cheaper. Importing goods to an island is expensive.
- EvagohP5 7y agoblame instagram
- rb808 7y agoIts largely a scale thing too. When I was growing up I used to go on weekends away and camp overnight in rest areas, side of the road or private places. It worked great. A few decades later those areas are really popular with tourists but there is no room for hundreds of people to do the same. Meanwhile the new generation of locals can't do it any more and have to stay in hotels now - which they can't afford. Just another reason to leave the region and move to a big city.
- mruts 7y agoWalking on moss and sitting on glaciers. Whatever is Iceland going to do about such anti-social and destructive behavior?
- mothsonasloth 7y ago[Warning ascerbic and anecdotal story below] Iceland was the goto choice for my colleagues at a startup in London. A few days before they typically went and forked out top dollar for premium outdoor gear (Rab / Fjallraven) and discussed their plans to mount Kirkjufell. Iceland is the mecca for many hipsters at least for the UK. I put it down to Sigur Ros, Game of Thrones and that its still not a very touristy place. Like most hipsters, they know the price of everything but not the value. They check into their AirBnB place and use their phone as their main method of interacting in the area, rather than interact with the locals and build an appreciation of customs and the lay of the land. Anyways back to the story, one of these well kitted out souls managed to sprain their ankles going for a leasurely walk in the boggy areas of Iceland, only 5 minutes after leaving their hotel. I just worry now that the Scottish government are trying to market the highlands and outer islands as the "Iceland of the UK".
- 52-6F-62 7y agoI can assure you that it's also a destination for hipsters in Canada, if not much of North America. I've long wanted to go, myself—but it's a touch out of range. It's expensive enough to plan a trip to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or the Yukon (from Toronto)!
- hef19898 7y agoIcelands performance during the European soccer cup also provided a kickstart for tourism. Thing is, it is an incredibly nice country with incredibly nice people. Back the tourists used to be nature lovers, either individual travelers or in small groups with local guides. Now you have mass tourism (at least compared to the old days). And with that you get all the problems that come with it.
- torgard 7y agoSame is happening in the Faroe Islands at the moment. We're at the early stages, though. Last summer was absolutely terrible, with tourists not getting informed. Don't get me wrong, I do not blame the tourists at all. The tourism board has put out a whole lotta campaigns, social media marketing and shit. But they didn't do anything to prepare and inform this huge influx of people. "Unspoiled and authentic" is the message. People go trekking across the mountains, and into the private property of farmers. One farmer has threatened to shoot tourists, with messages of "Tourists fuck off to your own country". At least one person has died. A drunk festival attendee, I believe. It can get foggy extremely quickly. They fell to their death off a mountain, because they couldn't see where they were walking. This could have been prevented by guided tours, but that would ruin the "authentic, unspoiled, whoa nature" image that the tourism board is going for. Alternatively, educating tourists on do's and don't's. A pamphlet at the airport and the dock.
- nwatson 7y agoIn the meantime, Icelandickers themselves trashing their ecosystem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAubG28uODM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAubG28uODM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uba84Q6qwKM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uba84Q6qwKM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmLbLCMb4QQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmLbLCMb4QQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvc0ypXkjcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvc0ypXkjcQ
- siphon22 7y agoWe need to become more vocal about tourist etiquette so that it becomes part of the social consciousness I think. Back then, we were making fun of people we considered unwashed for not having passports and being untravelled, and now we are surprised that unwashed people are ruining nature in other countries.
- cdelsolar 7y agoI went in the winter of 2014 and saw cute fuzzy horses on the side of the road, so pulled over to look at them. When I got back to my car I realized it got stuck and had to embarrassingly ask locals to help. At least I didn't drive off road. Some farmer pulled me out of the ditch with his truck as some other locals helped shovel the snow around my tires.
- rtkaratekid 7y agoIt's not just Iceland. My wife and I typically travel for the outdoors and we are extremely impact conscious. I've noticed a significant growth in outdoor activity in the last ten years or so. Along with the that growth I've noticed more trash, more people going off established trails when they shouldn't (I'm not 100% anti off-trail travel), more disrespect for others who are trying to escape into nature, more people who are unprepared for somewhat serious activities (particularly rock climbing in remote locations, I've had to do a few rescues at this point), more trail braiding and erosion, and to get away from the people getting away, one must go deeper and farther into the backcountry. Iceland was beautiful, but the best places on the island (imho) were often places we explored that were relatively unknown. It's a tough issue that many people in the outdoor community are scratching heads over how to deal with. I want to think that it's a solvable problem, but the cynic in me says it's a societal issue manifesting itself in this form and can't be easily fixed.
- geggam 7y agoThe logical conclusion of people visiting a place is a city. Most of the earth is beautiful if you take mans impact out of the equation. It's not really a problem unless you think people are a problem and then it gets philosophical
- serpix 7y agoThe key is accessibility. If you have a good road then you get people who treat nature as bad as themselves. The higher up without accessible road or further in towards tougher trails and you start to have people there who have the will and stamina to be there and take the necessary precautions.
- tarsinge 7y agoPreikestolen in Norway is a good example of that done right I think, a 5-hour round trip trail to take your picture is a good filter.
- rtkaratekid 7y agoI agree. The higher the non-money relate commitment of getting to a location the fewer people I see. The ones I do see are generally people who have greater respect for where they are. Unfortunately I think that many wonderful places have fallen victim to the "easy to get to" issue.
- mixmastamyk 7y agoThose causing the problem should pay the price. So a small tax on the tourists to clean up after them should be in order.
- derefr 7y agoIceland should make up its mind. Flights to Iceland (from pretty much anywhere) are extremely cheap, presumably due to some sort of Icelandic tourism-board subsidy. This attracts people who choose vacation destination based on price... who might not be the most motivated to nurture (or even pay attention to) the local character of the place they visit.
- esoterica 7y agoThat’s a pretty classist thing to say. Rich people aren’t more respectful of nature than people on a budget.
- darkpuma 7y agoThey certainly litter less. And yes, there are socioeconomic factors in play of course. Or, another take on it: https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/01/david-sedaris-was-right-litter-is-a-class-issue/ https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/01/david-sedaris-was-right-...
- derefr 7y agoThere are two algorithms for choosing a vacation destination: 1. sort vacation destinations based on actually wanting to go there, and then filter based on ability-to-go; 2. sort vacation destinations based on ability-to-go, and then pick the top one. AFAIK, there’s no correlation between wealth/class and which algorithm people use. Rich people are sometimes rich because they’re thrifty, and so are no less likely to employ algorithm #2; poor people are sometimes poor because they tend to splurge on the things they want whenever they come into money, and so are no less likely to employ algorithm #1. My point is rather that people who employ algorithm #2—regardless of who they are—tend to not actually care about the place they’re going to (since they never had it in mind to go there at all, never did any research or looked forward to visiting, etc.); and that, by making tourism as cheap as possible, Iceland is encouraging people who employ algorithm #2 to visit, without really increasing the number of people who visit due to employing algorithm #1 (who, presumably, are the ones they’d actually like to have as tourists.)
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- wazoox 7y agoTourists: people that would be better off elsewhere in a place that would be better off without them.
- morsmodr 7y agoIceland is trying to reduce its dependence on oil exports, which is a good thing, by directing efforts towards Tourism. But looks like this is also affecting nature in its own way. It is like we can't really interact with nature without destroying it in some way or the other. Instagram does affect people a lot and the same people deny it. I am not on Instagram, never got onto it as I realized the impact FB was having in my life when it was the most popular medium. Uninstalled the FB app as well, I do access it through the browser occasionally, necessary evil and all that. But of course, instagramers (don't know if this is even a word) think they are inspiring people. What do I know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I hope Instagram goes through their new change of not showing the number of likes to viewers. Would be interesting to see whether that has any modification of societal behavior of people hooked onto it.
- rv-de 7y agoThere are so many countries and towns all over the world I have seen which basically just prostitute themselves for tourism. It's as disgusting as it is disgraceful. I don't want to see that - I like societies who welcome foreigners but do not depend on their money and hence won't sell their soul to this economic segment. It's obvious how the majority of the population suffers from this attitude where every service is made for customers who won't come back and accordingly is the quality. Iceland is a role model in this regard.
- alistairSH 7y agoI noticed this when I visited Iceland a few years ago. Lots of tourists littering, jumping over barriers/ropes at waterfalls, and ignoring the signs that say "don't go near the ocean - it washed away a family last week!" Stupid and selfish on so many levels. Sadly, I also noticed the same thing on Skye last month. It goes beyond just numbers of tourists (a problem in and of itself, and one I'm obviously part of). Some people are just selfish pricks.
- d-sc 7y agoI’ve lived in touristy areas all my life. The phenomenon of locals being disinterested in the tourists is not a new one and existed long before social media. Mysteriously they don’t seem to mind the money from those same tourists (or live on trust funds).