Many taking path less travelled
tourism has been highlighted again by renewed anti-tourism protests in the popular Spanish holiday destination of Mallorca this week. This is the latest in a series of protests that have taken place in Barcelona, Malaga and the Canary Islands. The main contention of the activists there is that tourists have driven up housing costs, leading to locals finding central areas unaffordable.
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This May, the irritated residents of the town of Fujikawaguchiko in Japan took the strange step of erecting a massive barrier on a spot on a road that offered the best view of Japan's most popular symbol-Mount Fuji. They decided to do so as hordes of tourists crowd around there to click that iconic photo, leaving litter behind. That is why, from the Acropolis to Bali, Hallsatt in Austria, to French Polynesia, locals demanded and obtained a limit on daily tourist numbers.
This cry is bound to be taken up by locals incensed by madding crowds in more and more tourist spots. India should particularly take note of this trend as there is no doubt that many destinations are feeling the pressure of crowding. Residents of Puducherry and Goa, for example, are getting increasingly exasperated by the onslaught of tourists that often brings quotidian life to a standstill. Those living in temple towns across the country have ominously similar grievances too.
Besides the deleterious ecological
