Travel May Not Be So Good For The Natives
Before Covid hit, my wife and I were booked on a sailing ship to tour the Dalmatian coast with another couple. Unfortunately, because of Covid the trip was cancelled and the cruise company we booked went out of business. Now 4 years later, we are doing the tour on a larger ship without the other couple.
Croatia and Montenegro are lovely places though tourism may be preventing them from having a more broad-based economy. Are the hordes from the cruise ships bringing devastating environmental and cultural changes that will forever alter how their societies function? Are the tourist industries crowding out other more sustainable sectors of their economies?
Thirty years ago, the fledgling republic of Croatia was at war with what was left of Tito’s Yugoslavia. Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia was determined to keep Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, and Bosnia in their fold. A terrible civil war ensued with Montenegrin volunteers invading Croatia and shelling the medieval town of Dubrovnik.
Now the two are truly independent states. Croatia and Slovenia are both members of the European Union and NATO. Montenegro is also a member of NATO and should be in the EU by 2028. These three states are now part of European alliances that are firmly anchored in the west.
Being part of the European Union and NATO has many upsides but there are also downsides. All along the Adriatic coastline, cruise ships are there in mass. I was on a relatively small ship with just 204 passengers. But some that were in port at the same time had hundreds of tourists, mostly Americans, trying to see the sights. Walking the streets was almost claustrophobic at times.
You would think that the tourist industry would be a boom for the ports they visit. But are they? I would say many of the tourists don’t spend a dime while wandering the streets. Of course, some do and there are numerous land tours being guided by locals. It is also an economic driver for an area and country. I am just not sure it should be the only one.
A few weeks ago, I read that residents of Barcelona were harassing their tourists. They felt their city was being overtaken by massive numbers of visitors descending upon the city like locusts. Some locals believed their soul as a community was in danger of being consumed.
Barcelona is a large city but places like Split and Dubrovnik are not. Already natives no longer live within the old medieval towns that brought the tourists. The housing prices are driving working people from their own city.
Will the very things that made me want to see the sights be the undoing of the locals and their economy? Will these charming nations succumb to Disneyfication. Charm comes with a risk. The people will have to decide whether that risk is acceptable.
