Martinho de Almada Pimentel enjoys the fact that his house’s doorbell is difficult to find. When a long rope is tugged, a real bell on the roof alerts him to the presence of an intruder at the mountainous estate his great-grandfather constructed in 1914 as a memorial to seclusion.
For Pimentel, there isn’t much of that this “overtourism” summer.
He can smell the exhaust from the automobile and hear the roar of the enormous scooters, called “tuk-tuks,” as they are called, when the windows are open. Additionally, he is able to empathize with the 5,000 people every day who are compelled to wait in line around the house in order to ascend the narrow, single-lane switchbacks to Pena Palace, which was once King Ferdinand II’s refuge.
The term “overtourism” refers to the tipping point at which tourists and their money cease helping locals and instead create harm by deteriorating historic sites, overloading infrastructure, and significantly worsening living conditions for locals.
If you dig a little further, you’ll uncover more complex problems facing communities and their politicians, none more widespread than the rise in housing costs from South Africa to Spain caused by short-term rentals like Airbnb.
The travel pandemonium that characterized the summer of 2023 included overcrowded airports and airlines, as well as a dreadful passport situation for US citizens. However, by year’s end, indications were everywhere that the COVID-19 rush of retaliation travel was quickening.
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