Throngs of tourists are overwhelming the world’s most popular destinations. Here’s how to rethink the way you travel — and an alternative bucket list to get you started.
Entry fees and increased tourist taxes in travel hot spots like Venice, Bali, and New Zealand. Temporary stoplights installed to deter selfies in crowded pedestrian zones in Rome and Florence. Protests against tourist overcrowding in Barcelona and Mallorca. Even a temporary barrier erected in a Japanese town to deter tourists from thronging the area to snap photos of Mount Fuji at a site popularized by social media.
When it comes to headlines about tourism over the past year, the message has rung out crystal clear from the people living in some of the world’s most desirable travel locations: Enough is enough.
And while the lament that travelers are loving to death some of our favorite destinations on the planet appears to be reaching fever pitch of late, the trend’s origins predate the COVID-19 pandemic. “There was this hand-wringing and hysteria during the pandemic,” explains Paula Vlamings, chief impact officer of the nonprofit Tourism Cares. “And understandably, because it shut down many, many livelihoods — and not just in the industry. Many communities were really suffering from the lack of tourism. “But really, overtourism was already a problem in 2017, 2018, and 2019. You were seeing the same headlines back then.”
With tourism not only rebounding to but exceeding 2019 levels — according to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, summer air travel in the United States alone reached record heights in 2024 — the trend toward overtourism is a worrying one, admits Vlamings. It leaves conscientious travelers wondering not merely how best to see the world, but whether they should venture out at all.
In Venice, officials added day-tripper entry fees and installed stoplights to discourage selfies and control pedestrian flow.
Pavliha/Getty Images
With so many livelihoods dependent on global tourism, the answer is not to stop exploring the world. Rotary members in particular know the power of the bonds forged when people from different cultures meet and exchange ideas, hopes, and dreams. Rather than stopping travel altogether, it’s time to rethink the nuts and bolts of travel — to consider, for instance, new ways to travel to new places, perhaps with an ecotourism or voluntourism slant, and always with the idea of meeting locals where they live in a way that benefits them as much as possible.
A symbiotic relationship
As a start, Tourism Cares strives to foster a more symbiotic relationship between travelers and the local communities and environments upon which the tourism industry is dependent, Vlamings says. The organization debuted a Meaningful Travel Map in 2018 that’s grown to spotlight more than 300 “impact partners” across some two dozen countries, tour operators and other tourist-serving businesses and organizations that prioritize social and environmental sustainability.
Though the map is primarily meant as a business-to-business tool to help tour operators integrate more meaningful experiences into their itineraries in destinations around the world, it is also a useful resource for travelers hoping to find inspiration for their own intentional, independent trips. Pinpointed on the map is everything from a beachfront rental apartment on Mexico’s Pacific Coast operated by a local turtle rescue and conservation center to marine expeditions led by guides from the Indigenous Haida group in the remote Haida Gwaii archipelago off British Columbia to conservation-themed scuba dives, local cooking lessons, and multiweek volunteer opportunities in Malaysia’s Perhentian Islands.
As you do your own research, Vlamings encourages conscientious travelers to look for companies with B Corporation certification, a reliable gauge of sustainable choices in business. “Those are the companies that have been through a pretty rigorous vetting and certification process,” Vlamings says, referring to social and environmental performance, transparency, and legal accountability. “It’s a very interesting and growing network of companies around the world.”
Thinking outside of the box when planning your travels is one way to ensure you are benefiting the places you visit rather than potentially harming them. In addition, the care with which you choose your destinations should also be applied to any tour operators with whom you book your travel and excursions. “It’s more important than ever to go beyond the surface of a destination and seek off-the-beaten-path, authentic experiences,” says Matt Berna, president of the Americas for the small-group adventure travel company Intrepid Travel.
When planning a trip, Berna urges people to carefully consider what kind of experience they are truly looking for, whether that’s a cultural experience, an outdoor adventure, or something else.
Next, dive deep into your research. “There are so many amazing alternative destinations that will give you a fresh take on the world if you’re willing to go beyond the classic bucket list attractions,” Berna says.
Traveling during the shoulder season — that is, the time between a destination’s peak period and its offseason — can be a win-win for everyone. Visitors will encounter fewer crowds and have more opportunities to connect with locals, while the people who live there have a chance to extend their earning opportunities.
In Spain, visitors to Barcelona this summer were greeted by protesters, some of them wielding squirt guns.
ZUMA Press Inc./Alamy
“You will often luck out with the same or even better weather [in shoulder season] than that peak travel time,” says Abbie Synan, a freelance travel writer and blogger who also works as an adviser with the travel agency Fora Travel. If you are limited to traveling during high season, consider alternative destinations away from the crowds. That will spread the wealth from tourism dollars and likely provide a more enjoyable vacation experience.
“Amalfi in the summer can bring in hordes of beachgoers,” says Synan. “Stay within Italy but move to another beach region like Puglia, which offers small towns and scenic seaside drives.”
Going ‘Elsewhere’
You can go a step further, too, once you have decided on a destination. Contact travel professionals in the country you’re visiting instead of consulting a travel adviser in your home country for advice. Many mass travel advisers and tour operators sell the same itineraries over and over, says Alexis Bowen, the CEO and co-founder of Elsewhere, which brands itself as a “direct-to-local” travel company that taps on-the-ground experts to craft bespoke vacation itineraries.
Joel Krueger, 55, from the United Kingdom, used the services of Elsewhere this past summer when planning a vacation to Vietnam with his wife and their 19-year-old son. “We’ve traveled in many different places including several heavily touristed locations” — like Florence and Venice — “that have been over-touristed,” Krueger says.
This time around, the family was looking for a more authentic and meaningful way to travel. When Krueger reached out to Elsewhere (which was acquired by the travel guidebook company Lonely Planet in 2022), he was put in touch with a local expert in Vietnam. They discussed places Krueger had visited on prior trips to Vietnam and what the family would ideally like to see and do during their upcoming exploration. “He listened and put together a nice itinerary in places that we hadn’t visited and which he thought would give us a good feel for the country,” Krueger says.
Among the highlights were a hike in Pù Luông Nature Reserve and a cooking class and dinner at the home of a family in Hanoi. “The cooking instructor and mother to the young family took us on a tour of the community vegetable and fruit garden where they raised produce for sale locally and to Hanoi restaurants and markets,” Krueger says. “We met some of her neighbors and got a real sense of the community and their daily life. We wouldn’t have been able to do that in any other way other than through someone who could make that local connection.”
Follow the Kruegers’ lead and get off the beaten path.
This story originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.
The places to go (Shhh! Don’t tell.)
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Instead of Hawaii, try the Azores
Sometimes referred to as Europe’s Hawaii, the spectacularly beautiful islands of the Azores belong to Portugal and include nine major volcanic islands located roughly 900 miles offshore from Lisbon. The Azores saw a record 1.2 million guest arrivals in 2023, but that number pales in comparison to the more than 9.6 million people who visited the Hawaiian Islands during the same period. You might start your trip on the largest island, São Miguel, known for its bubbling geysers and incredible caldera lakes, before catching a flight to the island of Pico or Faial to see sperm whales and 27 other species of cetaceans recorded in these waters. The Ocean Azores Foundation is a good resource for finding sustainable whale watching and scuba diving companies.
In the Azores, on the island of São Miguel, the Vista do Rei viewpoint offers a breathtaking panorama of the Sete Cidades caldera, or volcanic crater. Image credit: Enrico Pescantini/Getty Images
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Instead of South Africa, try Sierra Leone
Atop the list of African countries making their first concerted efforts to court global tourism of late is Sierra Leone, with the World Bank among the organizations working to fund and propel the tiny West African country onto the global tourism stage. International tourism is nascent here, but the country’s attractions include impressive waves for surfing near the capital city, Freetown, as well as diverse wildlife experiences, such as the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary and its rainforest eco-lodges. The endangered primates are rehabilitated on-site, and a community outreach program promotes wildlife conservation.
In West Africa, Sierra Leone is home to Bureh Beach, a surfing paradise. Image credit: Shutterstock
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Instead of Nepal, try Pakistan
Despite a U.S. State Department travel advisory, Pakistan’s incredible natural beauty and hospitality continue to lure intrepid travelers, especially to more secure regions in the country’s north. And thanks to a new visa policy that went into effect in August, it has become easier for most people to travel to Pakistan.
Travel writer Nellie Huang spent part of this past summer exploring the mountains and valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan, a region in northern Pakistan, with her husband and their young daughter. They hired a local guide, Hannan Balti, to show them his homeland and spent most of their time road-tripping along the Karakoram Highway. Huang says her expectations were exceeded by the area’s “jaw-dropping views and some of the most welcoming people we’ve ever met.”
The majestic 20,000-foot peak Tupopdan, or Passu Cathedral, rises above the Hunza River and the Karakoram Highway in northern Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region. Image credit: Ghulam Hussain/Getty Images
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Instead of Bali, try other Indonesian isles
Bali is on many a budget backpacker’s and honeymooner’s hit list, but the southern reaches of the island, around Kuta, Seminyak, and Canggu, are crushed with crowds. The Indonesian archipelago, however, is home to roughly 17,000 islands and hundreds of diverse cultures and ethnic groups. What’s more, the region lies at the heart of the Coral Triangle, where the world’s oceans are at their most biodiverse — and all you need to explore them is a mask, fins, and a snorkel. “Bali is a special island, but other places in Indonesia are just as lovely,” says travel blogger and adviser Abbie Synan. “Lombok or the Gili Islands are nearby and gorgeous.”
Get more adventurous and head further east in the archipelago to the island of Flores and the smaller neighboring islands that make up Komodo National Park to see even more unusual wildlife (Komodo dragons). Consider traveling in the region aboard a traditional wooden Indonesian sailing ship called a pinisi, handbuilt on the island of Sulawesi. You can stay on land to explore here, too, in the Flores fishing port town of Labuan Bajo, where accommodations range from budget hostels to overwater bungalows.
Padar Island is one of the three major islands that make up Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, which is home not only to the legendary “dragons,” but to dolphins, whales, and the endangered dugong. Image credit: Satori Photography/Getty Images
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Instead of Costa Rica, try Panama
On Panama’s northern coast, the city of Portobelo, with its historic landmarks, lively music, and Caribbean cuisine, is a gateway to Afro-Panamanian culture. With its lush vegetation, the area is also an ideal destination for birding.
Craig Zapatka, who co-founded Elsewhere with Alexis Bowen, recently returned from a community-led, three-day hike through southeastern Panama’s Darién National Park. Hosted by people from the region’s Indigenous Emberá group, the hike’s highlights included stunning jungle scenery and routes traversing clear rivers and dense jungles along ridgelines. There were also visits to several Emberá villages, where the travelers were warmly welcomed to meals with the locals. “This trip was particularly special due to the unique insights and direct interaction with the Emberá communities,” Zapatka says.
A group of young Panamanians perform a traditional dance at one of the former Spanish fortresses in Portobelo, a historic port on the Caribbean Sea. Image credit: SL Photography/Getty Images
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Instead of Tuscany, try Umbria
Umbria is a great choice for travelers looking to experience a region of Italy that has kept its traditional identity, says Taylor Lack, a specialist with the tour operator Audley Travel. In central Italy, roughly between Florence and Rome, the region known as the green heart of Italy for its fertile hills tends to be more of a bargain than destinations in Tuscany, and it has a similar appeal.
Visitors can see the Baroque churches in the regional capital Perugia or explore medieval hilltop towns and villages such as Orvieto, says Lack. “Food and wine lovers will enjoy the tastes of full-bodied wines from family-run vineyards, tasty cured meats and local cheeses, as well as taking the time to forage for truffles.”
Nestled among the clouds, Trevi is a hilltop town in Umbria, a region of central Italy known for its churches, its food and wine, and its rolling green landscapes. Image credit: Getty Images
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Instead of the Galapagos, try the Andean Highlands
Rather than follow Ecuador’s more well-trodden path to the Galapagos Islands or the Ecuadorian Amazon, Elsewhere’s Alexis Bowen opted for the Andean Highlands on a recent visit — a volcanic region that runs north to south through the center of this equatorial country.
Bowen recommends staying at a working ranch called Hacienda El Porvenir, near the Cotopaxi volcano, where she enjoyed meeting Ecuadorian tourists vacationing in their own country. “All the food was farm-to-table, and during the day we’d ride horses,” she says. “Whereas I’d ordinarily be having conversations with other Americans at breakfast, here I was meeting Ecuadorians and having this authentic exchange, learning where they’re from and why they love their country.”
Situated beneath snowcapped Cotopaxi, an active volcano in the Andes Mountains, Hacienda El Porvenir is both a working ranch and a comfortable getaway with farm-to-table meals. Courtesy of Hacienda El Porvenir
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