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So why is there seemingly so much more tourism now?

isisdave

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Several of the recent threads on cruise ships and their impact on ports, as well as personal experiences at just about any national park in the summer, lead me to wonder "Why are there so many more people in these places?"

I first cruised in 1974, and there were lots of places where my 1500-passenger ship was the only one in port. Nowadays, any old port has 3 or 4 ships disgorging about 10,000 people onto the streets. We were in Alaska recently, really early in the season, and Skagway and Ketchikan were in fact like Disneyland on the first day of summer vacation.

Machu Picchu is about to get more limited, Mt Everest is having fatalities partly because of the traffic, you need to book months ahead online for the Vatican and the Louvre and Uffizi and Accademia. Flights are full even though there are more, and if anything goes wrong weather-wise, flights are disrupted for days. There are lines for everything.

So why is that? Why are so many more people traveling now? Is it cheaper than 25 years ago? Is it because it's easier to organize on the Internet? Are people retiring earlier? Is there more gig economy, so folks of working years can take several weeks between assignments to go to Europe or Australia?

I know there is lots more travel beginning in Asia, and in fact we met a lot of these people throughout Europe and in the National Parks last summer. This is a huge market that hasn't traveled much until now, so there's a lot of demand. They weren't overrunning Alaska in May, though.

What's your take on this?
 

silentg

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More Baby Boomers are retiring and traveling.
 

WinniWoman

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The world has gotten smaller and more prosperous.
 

klpca

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Social media has made a lot of places look really good in photos. People want to see those beautiful places!

We have a local spot that used to be known primarily as a climbing spot for rock climbers. As recently as 2010 my daughter and her friends had the place to themselves. Not any more. People line up to get their photos taken there now. Google "Potato Chip Rock". It was made popular by social media. Now when my daughter and her friends go climbing they bring trash bags to clean up the trash that people leave - and they have recently had to start cleaning up human waste as well. People have started to refrain from geotagging their photos but I am afraid that it's a bit late for that.
 

bluehende

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It is the emergence of a world wide middle class.
 

"Roger"

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If you want to know more about the topic, I recommend reading Overbooked: the Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism by Elizabeth Becker.

It gets four stars on Amazon, and, without looking at the individual reviews, I can see why. I found about three fourths of the book totally fascinating (at least five stars), but every once in a while the author goes off listing the agencies concerned with managing tourism. Those sections are alphabet soup (the initials for the agencies) and would get a one star from me. The book covers a number of hot spots such as Venice, the topic of the large cruise ships, etc. There is some good news in the book. France does better managing tourism than most places. A National Geographic ship that goes through the Panama Canal gets high praise. (Another reason for me to like the book. I had actually had taken that trip prior to reading the book.) Knowing that there will be bumps in the road (the boring sections on tourism agencies), I still highly recommend this book.

There is another book of interest on the fairly recent history of tourism: Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day by Doug Mack. Doug finds a copy of the original Fodor's Europe on Five Dollars a Day (five dollars, can you imagine?) in a garage sale. Turns out that his mother had used Fodor's original book as guide during a student trip to Europe in the '60s when student tourism just began to take off. Part of the reason for that is that cheaper flights had just become available. (About $3500 in today's dollars, about what a current business fare costs. Puts our complaining about the current cattle class airline seats and service into perspective.) Doug then goes on to purposely see how much of the original Fodor's trip he could do now.

Interestingly, prior to Fodor's, tour books that covered travelling to Europe only mentioned expensive hotels, claimed you should bring two suits, five to ten dress shirts, etc. Fodor's was ground breaking in that it was the first tour book for more ordinary people.

I related well to this book in that I was part of that first student wave. (I did not use Fodor's. My travel guide was to stay in youth hostels and whoever had been at those hostels for a couple of days would tell me what to see, where to eat, etc. I would then pass on my knowledge to the next students to arrive.) My second reason for relating to this book is that Mack is an alumni of the college that I attended (and that is how I found out about this book.)
 

Ken555

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Thanks for reminding me to buy tickets for the Louvre!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

davidvel

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The U.S. and world economies have been on a huge roll.
 

isisdave

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Here's an article about cost of air travel. I know that's a big part ... in 1966, I remember it cost $90 from SFO to JFK -- although I can't remember if that was one way or round trip, it hardly matters as it's equivalent to about $700 today.

How fascinating the $5 a day book must be now.

"Roger," thanks for the book suggestions. I guess others have thought the topic worth writing about.
 

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Every reply thusfar appears to agree with the OP, that more tourism is happening, yet when I look at specific tourism numbers, some seem to be relatively the same as after the economic speedbump. I would cite one, which I know to be a relatively stable number, but, then, I don't want to make it sound like I am singling out just that tourist destination.

But, to single out one, SW FL was down last year, because of water issues, while statewide Florida set a record for the eighth consecutive year, 126M I believe.

Generally, though, I would tend to agree that more traveling is being done.

&, I far as getting smaller and more prosperous, I am not.
 
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isisdave

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OldGuy

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bluehende

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That graph says that GDP per capita increased less than 3% in 9 years. Or 2014-2016, same amount. Even 2009-2016 is just 9.5% in 7 years, or 1.35% per year.

There are IMHO way more than 9% more people in travel venues in the last 7 years.

That is just US gdp. I see a lot more Chinese tourism where the growth has been much higher and the emergence of a huge middle class there.

Also GDP is not tourism. When the basic needs are already met additional discretionary income is often placed into the travel budget.

Millenials are much more into experiences than things. I am sure this is another factor.

I am sure there are a hundred more factors on why the world would travel more or less. Trying to draw a link between one graph on gdp in america and worldwide tourism is not valid.
 

pedro47

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IMO, There are more baby boomers, more millennials, more senior citizens, more students
cruising, timesharing, taking short and long turn vacations in this decade.
 

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My take?


Prior to my current job both my wife and I could work anywhere in the world where we had internet and I think a lot of people nowadays can do the same

We usually vacation several weeks a year and with the internet we can research where we want to go pretty easily. Back in the day there were fewer resorts and people relied on friends or a planners recommendations

The internet has also allowed people to see reviews. See photos and videos before ever leaving their homes and that makes planning easier

Imagine buying a home 1000 miles from where you are now 40 years ago. You had to go there in person and look. Not anymore

We can shop. Buy. And plan for anything we want right on our devices
 

talkamotta

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Every reply thusfar appears to agree with the OP, that more tourism is happening, yet when I look at specific tourism numbers, some seem to be relatively the same as after the economic speedbump. I would cite one, which I know to be a relatively stable number, but, then, I don't want to make it sound like I am singling out just that tourist destination.

But, to single out one, SW FL was down last year, because of water issues, while statewide Florida set a record for the eighth consecutive year, 126M I believe.

Generally, though, I would tend to agree that more traveling is being done.

&, I far as getting smaller and more prosperous, I am not.
SW Florida had a real bad problem with red ride last year, we go there most years in the fall. The beaches definitely weren't as crowded. . Because news travels so fast people will change locations. I've been seeing quite a few low fares for Dominican Republic lately.
 

OldGuy

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SW Florida had a real bad problem with red ride last year, we go there most years in the fall. The beaches definitely weren't as crowded. . Because news travels so fast people will change locations.

The most thorough article about South Florida water problems, and the plans to solve it, which will take awhile, is in the current issue of the BoatUS magazine.

It is not just about, but includes, making the Everglades the Everglades again. Until that long-range solution is completed, there will continue to be toxic releases going both east and west from Okeechobee.

https://www.boatus.com/expert-advic...e/2019/june/floridas-algae-blooms-wreak-havoc
 
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pedro47

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The real reason there are more people on vacation is because the world population have increased over 20% since 1990.
 

Passepartout

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"We have met the enemy, and he is US."
Pogo Possum

Bottom line, there are just too many of us.

Jim
 

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pedro47

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Another reason there is lot of excess money from the family budget to spend on leisure activities today.
 

isisdave

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Wow, pedro, I guess I'm not noticing that. I was reading an article recently that asserted that 23% of US was "not as well off" as before 2009. Not sure what the details were. I guess the 77% are making up for it.
 
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