CNN recently published a list of the 12 destinations that tourists should avoid during their vacations in 2018. Despite the good data that Barcelona registered in 2016 as a tourist city thanks to the 34 million visitors it had that year, it surprisingly appears on the list along with other sites such as the Taj Mahal, the Galapagos Islands or Venice. What has led CNN not to recommend visiting these places?
Barcelona
The American news portal has argued that overcrowding is the main reason for not visiting Barcelona in 2018, as it has devastating effects for the city and its inhabitants.
They also point to the tourist phobia that has been unleashed in Barcelona among some citizens who show their dissatisfaction with mass tourism through graffiti and demonstrations. In fact, they warn that the protesters took to Barceloneta beach last August to denounce the uncivil behavior of tourists.
Likewise, CNN points out how Barcelona's protests have increased over the increase in the price of apartment rentals due to services such as Airbnb, which makes it very difficult for some to find a place to live and others forcing them to leave their homes due to at the very high prices. They also mention how the City Council tried to solve the problem by passing a law limiting the number of tourist beds.
As an alternative to the overcrowding of Barcelona, they propose to visit Valencia in 2018 since it is a city whose gastronomic and cultural offer can compete with the Catalan capital but having a "less hectic" break.
Venice
Overcrowding is also the reason why CNN has included Venice in this list. Every year about 40 million people visit the city. An intense flow that many Venetians fear will have negative repercussions on such emblematic monuments of the city as, for example, St. Mark's Square.
In fact, months ago the local government decided to adopt measures to control access to this beautiful square in 2018 through the use of traffic lights that control the entrance to the place and by establishing a visiting hours for which it would be necessary to make a reservation with advance.
This new regulation would complement the tourist tax that is being applied to visit Venice and that varies depending on the season, the area in which the hotel is located and its category. For example, on the island of Venice, 1 euro per star per night is charged in high season.
The draft of the new regulations comes after Unesco sounded the alarm about the deterioration of Venice, which has held the title of World Heritage Site since 1987.
Dubrovnik
As a result of the boom in visitors that the Croatian city experienced due to the 'Game of Thrones' series, the local authorities had to establish a quota of daily visits to reduce overcrowding since, in August 2016, Dubrovnik received 10.388 tourists in just one day, which negatively affected the residents who live in the famous walled neighborhood and the monuments. In fact, the city limited the number of people who can scale the 4.000th century walls daily to XNUMX.
Once again, the overcrowding is the reason why CNN does not recommend visiting Dubrovnik in 2018. Instead it proposes Cavtat, a picturesque town on the Adriatic coast that has great beaches to escape the crowds.
Machu Picchu
With 1,4 million visits during 2016 and an average of 5.000 people a day, Machu Picchu was about to die of success, something that has been echoed by CNN. Taking these data into account, Unesco included the old citadel in the list of Archaeological Sites in danger due to tourist overcrowding and, in order to avoid greater evils, the Peruvian government had to take measures to protect it.
Some of them were to establish two shifts per day to access Machu Picchu and do it with a guide in groups of fifteen people along the marked route. In addition, you can only stay in the citadel for a limited time with the purchase of a ticket. A remarkable change considering that until now anyone could freely roam the ruins and stay as long as they wanted.
Galapagos Islands
Like what happened to Machu Picchu, The Galapagos Islands were also included in the list of Heritage in Danger due to overcrowding and the lack of concrete measures to control it for a time.
In order to preserve one of the most beautiful natural habitats in the world, the Ecuadorian government approved a series of restrictions such as: presenting a return plane ticket, having a hotel reservation or invitation letter from a local resident as well as a card traffic control.
The Galapagos Islands is another of those places that CNN does not advise going in 2018 and instead proposes the Ballestas Islands of Peru, on the Pacific coast, where you can also enjoy the beautiful landscape and native fauna.
Antarctica, Cinque Terre (Italy), Everest (Nepal), the Taj Mahal (India), Bhutan, Santorini (Greece) or the Isle of Skye (Scotland), They complete the list offered by CNN also attending to environmental reasons or overcrowding.