Kyle Chayka: At last count, three of my friends have been traveling in the Dolomites in the past month, per Instagram evidence. By NYT standards, thatās enough for a trend piece. A year ago, I had never heard mention of them as a millennial destination. Now Iām familiar enough with the spiky peaks and Scotland-esque green valleys that I can identify them on sight. Of course, the Italian alps have always been compelling to travelers and perhaps hut-to-hut hiking is a pastime appealing to thirtysomethings in my demographic. But the sudden fad is interesting to observe. Different places seem to become fashionable every year, at different points in the year, the same way thereās always a new hot clothing brand (Dolomites = Loewe, in this case). As in fashion, classics get revived for a new season. Just observe TikTokās obsession with the French Riviera in 2023.
Overtourism is everywhere. Pick a popular place, and you can probably find an article about it. This month, NYT reported that itās ruining Barcelona, sparking protests with locals shooting squirt guns at tourists. Itās plaguing Kyoto, where residents are harassing tour guides. Santorini in Greece is having the āworst season everā per CNN because cruise ships of visitors abandon the city by nightfall and donāt spend enough money: Itās both too crowded and economically unfeasible. Venice, the original overtourism victim, has a new fee for visitors as if it were an amusement park ride. Icelandic geography is getting trampled. Lisbon restaurants are offering lower prices to actual Portuguese.
In Barcelona, the deputy mayor said this of tourism: āWe have to understand that the demand is unstoppable. The only thing we can do is control the supply.ā A fascinating statement: There is no end of people wanting to visit Barcelona, so they must stop some percentage of people from being able to visit Barcelona. The city government does this by raising tourism taxes and banning Airbnbs, theoretically limiting tourists to the available number of officially licensed hotels and rooms. Barcelona had Google Maps remove a public bus route running to Parc GĆ¼ell so that tourists wouldnāt destroy its usefulness for locals. (If the tourists canāt see it on their phones, does it even exist for them?)
This all leads me to wonder: Is there any way to truly prevent a place that is remotely appealing from being overrun? A destination must resist fashionability. Overinvesting on an ephemeral surge of tourism makes it even less economically sustainable, because when the surge passes, the excess revenue runs out and jobs disappear. Itās possible to stay off the touristic grid but only so long as some TikToker doesnāt blow up your spot. Like an obscure Japanese ryokan or a rural Aman resort, a destination could also be so expensive as to be inaccessible. (No one is that mad if the tourists are all extremely wealthy.) The ultimate resistance to tourism might be ugliness. If your city is unappealing enough, no one will want to go there. But then it might conversely become appealing for that very fact? See ā90s Berlin.Ā Tourism has become value arbitrage: Invest in an undiscovered place early so you donāt have to go there when itās overrun.
One solution as a traveler is to intentionally visit a place during its off-season. Everywhere has one, it just might not be as perfectly appealing as Marseilles in July. But geography isnāt a ripening fruit thatās only good at one moment. The world is large and almost any corner of it holds something interesting. One memorable experience of our trip through Provence for me was stopping at a generic highway rest area (aire de service) to charge our glitchy electric car and walking inside to successfully order an espresso to go from the cafeās grumpy staff in my terrible French. I had as much fun there as at some of the wineries. Iām not likely to intentionally plan a tour of international rest areas, as opposed to the Dolomites, but I might actually really enjoy that. It would be so generic as to be unique.
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I agree with Barcelona's Deputy Mayor. From the perspective of a tourism destination, sustainability (in every sense) hinges on limiting access. All top locales know this and a few have the leadership to act on it - they will win the most affluent and discerning travelers, inspiring other places to follow their lead. What happens to the "mass traveler" who loses his or her access to the world's treasures as a result? In the rosiest scenario, regional destinations would take note of the market's hunger for beauty, atmosphere, and narrative, and invest in making local places deeply compelling. More likely, the middle class will seethe with envy at yet another treat which the rich have always enjoyed, but only recently made truly visible through social media.
Erm... any tips for the Dolomites in September then...;)