Get Off the Beaten Path (But Stay on Trail)
May 01, 2024 by Alyce Bender
The famous Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto is busting with a steady stream of foot traffic from early morning until after dark.
More and more in my news feed I have been seeing headlines from places I love shutting down or severely restricting visitor access to popular areas and viewpoints. Or, worse yet, becoming overall unwelcoming to visitors due to the negative impacts they area having on the daily life of locals. While this had been a growing issue before Covid, it seems that the travel freeze and subsequent hyper demand for experiences has only exacerbated the problems at an exponential rate, forcing officials to take, in some cases, drastic measures. For example, this week in Japan, a spot that has become so overrun with photographers (both those with traditional cameras and those with cell phones) wanting to snap what has become a social media “iconic” shot of Mt. Fuji with a Lawson’s convenience store in the foreground that they are erecting a several meter tall plastic sheet wall to block the view. All because photographers are continuously breaking the law to get this image, be it from parking illegally, jumping fences, or crossing the roads, and creating and unsafe environment for locals who live and work in the environment. Over a picture!
Cities all around Europe, such as Barcelona, Venice, Paris, and Amsterdam, have all been struggling with similar issues of balancing the need of tourism dollars and the jobs that the influx of camera-toting visitors support with the displacement and displeasure the shear volume of current visitation brings. The increases in tourist taxes have not seemed to have had any effect on curbing the tide of those seeking to experience something outside their own neighborhood after the global lockdown with some areas like Seville, Spain experiencing visitation ratios of 3:1 visitor to locals.
So, as photographers, what does this have to do with us and what, if anything, can we do?
Partial view of UNESCO World Heritage City Angra do Heroismo in the Azores, Portugal. The Azores receives just over 500,000 visitors a year while other UNESCO cities, such as Nice, France, have 5 million annually.
The short answer is yes, and here are three suggestions on how to do just that.
1.) Be a Trail Blazer - of sorts
I’m not suggesting you fly into a far-flung area and bushwack far into the jungle to colonize areas that have yet to see modern technology. What I am suggesting is that maybe you do take the dirt road rather than the paved highway to your next destination. With over 8 billion people on the planet right now, you aren’t going to be the first person to a location. You just might be the first in your social network to do so. So why not make that a thing? Find places others, including yourself, have not heard much about, and go there. This doesn’t mean that if everyone is doing Alaska, you can’t do Alaska, but maybe consider different locations. Instead of the ever-crowded Brooks Falls, opt for a wilder experience out of Juneau on Admiralty Island’s Pack Creek. Or instead following the overcrowded and dead-horse tourist trails in places like Japan, Spain, Scotland, France, or [insert really any popular tourist/backpacker/photographer country here] put in the extra time and effort to plan a truly unique adventure to different locations within these countries.
2.) Go in the “Off” Season
A good photographer will always find something to photograph. If you have specific reasons to visit these very popular areas, such as wanting to see the Louvre or Colosseum, consider going in the off season. This frequently means not going during summer, but not always depending on the destination. The idea behind this is that it helps spread the flow of travelers throughout the year, rather than having destinations operate on this feast or famine lifestyle so many currently follow. Additionally, it allows photographers to present popular destinations in more uncommon seasons and weather conditions. Paris in the snow anyone?
3.) Stay-cation
This one is arguably more enjoyable with friends who may visit so you can play tour guide and host if that is your thing, but consider staying locally, within a couple hours of your own home and seeing if you might put on your tourist glasses for a weekend. Many times, we can get so caught up in seeing where everyone is traveling to, we can forget that we live in destinations that others may want to visit. Showcase your neck of the woods (to use a bit of my southern colloquialism)! I’ve been back in Las Vegas since August of last year, and the only time I have found to go out and photograph my own beautiful “backyard” locations was the one weekend I had friends visiting. It was bittersweet as I love the nature around Las Vegas, and yet when I’m home, I’m in the office so much that I don’t make time for it. Having them come out allowed me to take a weekend and see it again. Don’t forget those local gems!
Hiking a few minutes over a ridge with a friend just a few hours drive outside of Las Vegas when we had incoming winter storms at sunset, and I was able to create this image both unique in composition and relatively close to home.
Have any other suggestions of how to responsibly help fight the over-tourism that hotspots around the world are seeing at this time? Drop them in the comments below!
