国际“过度旅游”现象述评

“过度旅游”对可持续发展具有关键性的负向影响。人类旅行与旅游活动经历了一个漫长的发展过程,2000年前后,全球大多数国家和地区都已经或开始进入大众旅游时代。旅游发展的各种影响——经济的和非经济的、积极的和负面的——都在不断扩大。从总的趋势而言,当人类旅行与旅游活动人数规模、访问区域、增长速度和影响较小的时候,对旅游发展的反对声音多局限在特定地区、时段和人群,但随着旅游规模扩展与速度逐渐加快,“拥挤度”加大的情况下,反对的声音则越来越强烈,甚至开始从情绪上反对转变成社会行动。到21世纪第二个十年的后期,“过度旅游”开始变成一种“全球关注”,关注的群体由最初的旅游目的地居民扩展到学术界、国际旅游机构、旅游业界、国家政府相关机构以及各类媒体,旅游者本身也参与其中。这一关注在2018年形成高潮,“overtourism”正式被英国《牛津英语词典》选入当年的年度词汇。于是,国际社会越来越关注“过度旅游”现象,并以不同的方式确定其含义,评估其影响,探讨产生的原因和谋划应对策略与行动。尽管对“过度旅游”现象的认识还存在着很多分歧,政府、业界、社会乃至旅游者对待这一现象的态度大相径庭,但毕竟这一现象引起了全球的关注,因此,了解和研究这一现象,探讨其发展趋势,应当是旅游相关学术机构的责任。本文旨在为对“过度旅游”现象的来龙去脉做一个初步的梳理,以期推进我国学术界关注这个“全球关注”现象的研究,促进我国旅游业健康有序地发展。也许“过度旅游”在中国尚未成为严重问题,但未雨绸缪、防患于未然是非常必要的。更何况,在全球更加开放,全球化不断深化的国际背景下,一个遍及全球的问题,恐怕中国也很难独善其身。

The Context of the Global Phenomenon of“Overtourism”:An Overview

Travel and tourism,as a human activity,evolves with the social and economic development of the mankind,and this kind of evolution spirals upward,from niche behavior to public behavior,and then there is a new niche emerged,leading to another mass behavior.Under the guidance of traditional economic theory,the development of tourism pays too much attention to economic benefits and positive effects,which leads to the runaway development of tourism and leads to the derivation of overtourism.In the face of the opportunities and challenges of tourism development,since the 1980s,the concept and principle of sustainable development has become an international consensus,the sustainable development must consider the balance of economic,social and environmental benefits,the development of all industries,tourism included,must follow this principle,no matter what.Around the beginning of the 21st century,most countries and regions in the world have entered or started to enter the era of mass tourism.Various impacts of tourism development——economic and non-economic,positive and negative——are all expanding,therefore,the voices of support and opposition are gradually growing stronger simultaneously.However,as the scale gradually increases and the crowd is more intense,the opposition voice is growing louder,even turning emotional opposition into social action.By the end of the second decade of the 21th century,“overtourism”has become a global focus,and the focus groups have expanded from the residents of tourist destination to the academia,international tourism organizations,government agencies and various media,as well as tourists themselves.This focus culminated in 2018 when“overtourism”was officially adopted as word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary.Therefore,the international community is paying more and more attention to the phenomenon of“overtourism”,determining its concept,assessing its impact,discussing its causes and working on countermeasures and actions against it.Overtourism is a global problem,especially in well-known tourist destinations.The causes of overtourism problems are very complex,including macro environment and micro behavior.The background of urbanization,the era of mass tourism,the relevant decisions of the state and local governments,the one-sided publicity of the tourism media,and the fanaticism of tourists are all important reasons for the phenomenon of overtourism.The present and future effects of overtourism are mainly reflected in economic,social and environmental aspects,but the different countries and regions and the different degree of reality of the phenomenon of“overtourism”make the impact of overtourism in these three areas or some of them still have significant gaps.Although there are still many differences in understanding of the“overtourism”phenomenon,and the attitudes of government,industry,society and even tourist towards the phenomenon vary widely,however,this phenomenon has aroused global attention,therefore to understand and study this phenomenon and discuss its developing trend should be the responsibility of the tourism related academic institutions.The author of this paper aims to make a preliminary analysis of the context of the“overtourism”phenomenon,stimulate the study of this phenomenon of“global concern”in China's academic circles,in order to promote the healthy and orderly development of China's tourism industry.It seems that“overtourism”has not yet become a serious problem in China,but it is necessary to plan for the future.Moreover,in an international context of greater openness and deepening globalization,China is hardly immune from such a global problem.As a global problem,“overtourism”should no longer be regarded as a tourism problem or a city problem,but a social problem in a city context.In the face of the possible impact of overtourism,many government organizations,industry organizations,academic teams have put forward countermeasures to solve or control the problem of overtourism from the perspective of sustainable development.Residents will resist the problem of overtourism,but tourism management by government and industry is very important to solve the problem of overtourism,and more importantly,to understand and adhere to the concept and principle of sustainable tourism development.