Dine with an idyllic view, sunbathe between colorful lemons or swim in azure blue water. This is what a trip in Europe looks like. At least if you can believe TikTok.
It all looks fantastic. No wonder the videos are watched so much. Especially outside Europe.
How different is the feeling in the Southern European countries that are the scene of the films, such as France, Italy and Spain. They are doing their best to get rid of mass tourism.
Spain used TikTok after corona to attract tourists again. Tourism is an important source of income there, just like in many southern European countries. So you would think: every tourist is one. But that’s different, says Spain correspondent Richard Hogenkamp: “The mass tourist yields little. They have so little time that they sometimes don’t even visit a shop or terrace.”
He discovered this in Tossa de Mar. The South Korean K-pop artist YooA – immensely popular in South Korea, but chances are you don’t know her – decided to shoot her music video there. And since then, the town near Barcelona has been flooded by South Korean tourists. See here the example of the power of a few idyllic pictures that go viral.
At the beginning of the music video, YooA is in a hole in the city wall. And it is precisely that image that many South Korean tourists want to copy. “The picture has to be perfect, so it takes quite a bit of time,” says Hogenkamp. “It’s a matter of: get off the bus, wait in front of the wall, take a picture and get on the bus back to Barcelona.”
In Tossa de Mar it leads to frowned eyebrows among residents.
Things are also going wrong in other places in Spain. Like when tourists walk through nature reserves looking for the right place for a photo or video. Or just park their car along the road. It causes damage to nature, so the government intervenes. Some areas now have a maximum number of visitors. When that is achieved, the gate closes.
Not only Spain, Italy is also struggling with mass tourism, says our correspondent Anouk Boone. “Yes, it generates money. But it also affects the quality of life of certain villages or towns that are popular.”
That is why municipalities sprinkle rules for tourists. And sometimes there are hefty fines. A small selection:
Boone also mentions the village of Positano. The images of the picturesque village on the Amalfi Coast come in handy on TikTok. The village has almost 4000 inhabitants and is flooded every summer by tens of thousands of tourists every day.
Don’t blame those tourists. Positano looks photogenic. But the hordes of tourists cause congestion in the narrow streets. The municipality intervenes. “Since this year, the places where tourists like to pose with the colored houses have been designated as ‘red zones’. It is forbidden to take photos or videos or to stop walking. Tourists who do so can be fined from 65 to 275 euros.”
The #EuropeanSummer is in some places just a little less carefree than it seems in the pictures that everyone is presented with. Notice that too more and more Americans. They make TikToks about the ‘real’ Positano.
To avoid the crowds, Italy is trying to spread tourism. Discounts lure tourists to come before or after the high season.
2023-07-28 05:19:57
#TikTok #lures #crowds #tourists #Europe #struggle
