Demarketing overtourism

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of education as a change agent in redeeming destinations from the ill effects of overtourism. In doing so, it begins with a theoretical exposition of the concept of overtourism and position the role of knowledge in its historical development. The concept of undertourism or degrowth tourism is discussed to provide the much needed contrast to the debate. The underlying mainstream assumption is that those who contribute to overtourism know neither about the dangers of it nor about whether they could do something to reverse destinations from those dangers. This assumption would lead to the straightforward conclusion that education will help reverse overtourism. In practice, however, this need not be true. For instance, individuals in their transformed states of existence as tourists may not consider knowledge in their decision making process the same way as in their day to day routine roles. We conclude that, while educational interventions are valuable, their impacts on overtourism are far more nuanced than what we currently anticipate.