From Venice to the Serengeti, reckless tourists are destroying what draws them. Control is vital to save destinations.
Looking back over the past seven decades, Boeing has a lot to account for. Because it made unsafe planes?
No – because its jets, first the 707 and then the 747 Jumbo, made global air travel affordable.
And the world is now paying the price for the jetfuelled Golden Age of Tourism.
Residents of European cities are up in arms about legions of foreigners swamping them – driving up prices of everything.
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Many cities are talking about, and many – like Venice – have already implemented restrictions on daily tourist numbers, as well as upping access prices to many landmarks.
Now, we in Africa have the horrifying spectre of unruly masses of tourists interrupting one of the most majestic spectacles in nature – the migration of millions of wildebeest across the Masai Mara and Serengeti in East Africa.
Looking at how these louts left their vehicles to get better pictures of the animals makes us thankful that, whatever their faults may be, SA National Parks does try to contain visitor numbers, and their behaviour, in places like the Kruger National Park.
We realise that tourism brings in revenue and creates jobs, but it needs to be controlled, lest the goose which lays these golden eggs is slaughtered by tourist cretins.
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