a day ago
The ‘holiday roulette' proposal is doomed, whichever way you spin it
The year is 2025. The world's surface area is approximately 57.5 million square miles, but for one reason or another, the majority of tourists find themselves fighting for towel space on small stretches of beach, overlooked by locals screaming at them to 'go home'.
Last week, the chief executive of the world's biggest hotel-booking firm proposed a novel solution to the thorny state of mass tourism: holiday roulette.
Glenn Fogel, from parent company, told the BBC Today programme that visitor numbers to some overcrowded holiday destinations ought to be limited by a combination of 'higher cost and lottery'.
Mr Fogel said: 'It's not for us to try to steer somebody somewhere. That's not my job. My job's not to propagandise and try and force somebody to go some place else.
'Look, somebody wants to come to London because that's their dream of their lifetime to visit London. Let's face it, you haven't lived if you haven't been to London.
'Who am I to try and tell them: 'No no no. You don't get to go to London, you only get to go to Birmingham.'
'I like the idea of both higher cost and lottery, so it's not just restricted only to the elite to visit London. I think that would be a bad thing for the world.'
The idea of pricing people out of holidays to reduce numbers has been discussed before, and the moral pitfalls of such an argument are fairly obvious. But the notion of a lottery system is more unique. How would it work?
Ticket lotteries do already exist in tourism, albeit on smaller scales. At many US national parks, a limited number of permits are issued for certain activities. For example, in the Grand Canyon only 450 people are given permission to raft the Colorado River each year, and in Yosemite National Park a maximum of 300 hikers can embark on the Half Dome Trail per day. In both cases, the tickets are allocated using a randomised lottery system.
The Faroe Islands has previously run a volunteer tourism program on a lottery basis. On some Antarctic cruises, there are limits on how many people can go kayaking, camping or snowshoeing, so lottery systems are used to decide who can enjoy the experience.
Justin Francis, the chief executive of Responsible Travel, told The Telegraph: 'From Wimbledon to Glastonbury and popular gigs, most of us will be familiar with a lottery ticket system for when demand outstrips supply.
'A lottery system limits numbers through chance rather than price, and that feels fairer.
'I think that when combined with other measures they could be an effective and widely used strategy for managing overtourism.'
In Venice, day-tripping visitors already have to pay €5 per day to enter the city. If they are serious about bringing numbers down, why not issue a limited number of tickets via a lottery system?
The principle could apply to other destinations. In Dubrovnik, there are three main gates into the city which could easily have turnstiles fitted if the city mayor so desired. Overcrowded islands could easily adopt such a measure, too. Ile-de-Bréhat, off the coast of Brittany in France, already limits daily arrivals to 4,700.
Some beaches have imposed a daily capacity too, such as Calanque de Sugiton in France or Praia das Catedrais in Galicia. In all cases, a lottery system might be the fairest solution to distributing spots, if demand becomes untenable.
But when you try to apply the principle at a wider scale, the idea quickly falls down. How, for example, would you possibly police a lottery system in a capital city like London, as Mr Fogel suggests?
'Lottery systems only work when you have a barrier or gate to check tickets,' says Justin Francis. 'It might work at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, but it's hard to see how you would prevent people taking a stroll down Las Ramblas.'
Gross simplification
There are other pitfalls. An exclusive ticketing system opens itself up to the world of illegal touts, and there is the small matter of coordinating larger groups. What if you wished to meet friends at a destination, or attend a wedding? When you dig down, the suggestion that 'higher cost and lottery' could fix overtourism is a gross simplification of the quite broad issues at hand here.
Susan Deer, director of industry relations at ABTA – the travel association, said: 'There isn't going to be a single solution to overtourism as it's a complex issue and not always just about the number of visitors. Destinations are all different and have their own challenges, so any approach needs to be part of a wider destination management strategy to achieve sustainable tourism.
'A lottery-type approach may work for some destinations and attractions in terms of managing visitor flows, but won't address other issues, such as lack of availability of affordable housing for local people.'
All credit to Mr Fogel for putting his chips on the table. No idea is a bad idea, and all that. But as a sweeping fix for overtourism, the idea of restricting numbers using a 'holiday roulette' system is a miss, whichever way you spin it.
