Thankfully, due to low-cost airfares, many more people can afford to travel. But is there a downside?
Like timed entries to certain tourist sites, I wonder if some day some popular cities may need something of the sort in the future.
What do you think?
It certainly makes planning a bit more difficult as you are stuck to a timetable, but I do enjoy the benefits of it.
The Columbia River Gorge in OR has literally been loved to death. In response to this, they have implemented timed tickets during the height of summer to the old scenic highway where Multnomah Falls etc are. It really has cut down on the crowds. There are sock same day tickets, so you can take a chance, but no guarantees of course.
In Iceland, the larger thermal lagoons have timed tickets and again you can't just wing it, but it works well there.
I am ok with all of this as for me, it makes the experience much better. As I said, the only downside for me is that you can't just wing it as much, but that is a small drawback.
It's the only way to save some fragile places like the Galapagos. The cost of overconsumption of any kind, including travel, is pollution and environmental degradation/ impact on the natural world. In urban areas and national/ state parks, it's usually overuse of services that can't keep up - think overflowing toilets, long lines for concessions, etc. Venice and Galapagos are two places I always think of when it comes with loving something to death; have not been to either and don't plan to.
Also: Yosemite...
I've heard Yellowstone can be way overcrowded at times in the summer.
I just wonder if timed entries may be expanded to larger areas, like cities or national parks.
Relish the decades of travel prior to the internet, Facebook, Instagram, et al.
Pleasant memories of a vacant Stonehenge, securing cheap steerage on a freighter from Denmark to London, not paying to take the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower, being the only persons on the Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Trail, camping solo near the top of Yosemite Falls, driving and hiking over the Gap of Dunloe in Ireland ( saw 1 trap, 1 lorrie, 3 hikers, 1 bicyclist and countless sheep) visiting and walking on the basalt octagons of the Giants Causeway with no one else in sight, being the only person in the room with the Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, finding no one else in the Rodin Museum in Paris after visiting the Invalides. Entering Yellowstone from the West driving East 2 years after the devastating fire. Saw moose, foxes, elk and a bear. Only two other people watching Old Faithful with me. Hiking into Bryce Canyon and out in a day. Maybe seeing 5 other humans. All those and getting to watch the night launch of the Discovery Space Shuttle from the Cape and the landing of the Endeavor shuttle at Edwards are great travel moments without crowds.
Oddly Covid also affected tourism. Used to hike solo every pre dawn in nearby Griffith Park. Pre Covid lock down no one else on those trails. After Covid it was like Angelenos remember they had a public park that had been there since the 30’s. Quiet treks became noisy. Unlittered trails became littered and seeing no one became seeing far too many.
Thankfully have photos of all of the above.
IMHO far too many “ hidden gems “ have been destroyed by tourism created by interest generated by the internet.
Claudia, I remember those days well.
I remember those days, too, Claudia and Mike. I still remember traveling to the Cinque Terre and I was the only tourist there (in early May). And (like you, Claudia) finding Stonehenge and there was no one else there. Being able to book a decent room on the fly.
But I'm happy that places are doing something to rectify the crowds. Sometimes the time and day matters. When I was at Arches NP in June, entrances were timed during the day but we wound up also going the evening before. No timed entrance and no crowds.
