Sector ‘can’t ignore’ tourism protesters Ian Taylor


The travel sector can’t ignore complaints of overtourism following protests by tens of thousands of Canary Islands residents and imposition of a day-tourist tax in Venice last week. That is according to industry


consultant and former Federation of Tour Operators chief Andy Cooper, who said many destinations lack “any serious tourism strategy other than encouraging ever greater numbers of arrivals”. A protest in Santa Cruz de


Tenerife on April 20 under the banner of ‘Canarias se agota’ (‘the Canaries are exhausted’) drew up to 50,000 demonstrators according to organisers, and 20,000 according


to police, demanding a limit on arrivals, curb on hotel construction and regulation of short-term holiday rentals. Protest placards included ‘My misery, your paradise’ and ‘Tourism increases my rent’. Organisers point out the Canary


Islands’ population of 2.2 million hosted 14 million tourists last year, with the sector accounting for 40% of jobs. Yet the islands form the second- poorest region of Spain, with a third of the population living in poverty. Venice introduced a €5 entry fee


on day-trippers on designated dates from April 25 and will limit the size of walking tour groups from June 1. Cooper said: “It’s important


those representing the outbound sector don’t simply ignore this and treat it as a local problem. Sooner


Designer Travel’s Fab Bank ‘will set our agents apart’


Juliet Dennis


Designer Travel is creating an in-house database of its homeworkers’ “secret” tips and experiences to set its agents apart as “real travel experts”. The homeworking business


announced the launch of the Fab Bank at its annual conference, held at Ikos Andalusia in Spain over the weekend and attended by 90 of its 140 travel agents. The information bank has taken


12 months to develop and is now live for Designer Travel agents to add their own advice and information.


4 2 MAY 2024 Agents can populate the system


with details of best restaurants, resorts and hotels, alongside tips about excursions and activities, plus specific details, such as whether a swimming pool is saltwater and the times of local buses. Managing director Amanda


Matthews said the Fab Bank was a way of retaining recommendations from fam trips and holidays for its agents to share within the business for use during the sales process. It will not be available on its


website or for consumers to search. She said: “We have spent a year developing this system and we


believe it will be a game changer for our business. “It’s about storing all those little


gems of information, like the best room in a hotel. This is not the information you get in the holiday brochure, it is a ‘secret’ database.” Designer Travel agents will be


incentivised to populate the database over the next year, she said, adding: “Our travel experts are all so excited about it and, as a team, we will be focused on this for the next year. “There are so many agents


joining the industry who say they are qualified but may not have the same


level of expertise. Once this is built up, it will be really powerful and set us apart as real travel professionals.” All the information will be


date-registered and some will be retained only for a limited time to ensure it is not out of date. Images and videos will also be uploaded, as well as maps showing hotel locations. Matthews said the database would


be used to produce fact sheets for clients. She said: “This will save our homeworkers so much time, and the more it gets populated, the more we will look brilliant and the less time it will take us to look brilliant.”


travelweekly.co.uk It’s important those


representing the outbound sector don’t ignore this and treat it as a local problem


or later, governments will feel compelled to act [and] this may ultimately damage the sector.” He suggested: “There will need


to be a variety of measures, agreed by local stakeholders, to reduce local impacts without damaging the underlying reasons why a destination has been successful.” Megan Epler Wood, managing


director of the Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Programme at


Cornell University in the US, agreed, saying: “Venice’s fee is part of a trend. Destinations globally are seeing costs skyrocket for managing tourism. “Tourism volume is reaching


pre-pandemic levels and numerous destinations are realising they need a tax or entrance fee to recompense for the cost of managing tourism.” She noted: “Greece recently


reported receiving only €0.42 per tourist at the municipal level, causing a strain on infrastructure.” However, Epler Wood also noted:


“Most research shows an additional tax does not lower arrivals [and] water, waste, energy utilities and affordable housing are not generally addressed by the destination marketing organisations which often receive the tourism tax.”


Fab Bank was launched at agency’s conference in Spain


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