hetismij2

So Fodors has a new No-go list for next year.
What do you think of it? Will it make you reconsider your travel plans?
The pictures are terrible, and the figures even worse!
None of the places were on my go list anyway. Having driven the NC500 several years ago I can confirm it was overloaded then and only become more so with time. My brother gave up on it this spring, even though he had rooms booked along the route, as it was just too crowded and no fun.

https://www.fodors.com/news/news/fodors-no-list-2025

Melnq8

A very depressing article.

None of those places are in my plans, nor will they be.

Fra_Diavolo

I was last in Oaxaca in 2018, I think. I thought it was over gringo-fied then -- can't imagine a 77% increase. Loved it back in 2001.

Been thinking about Japan.

If I finally get to Sicily I'm afraid Agrigento is a must.

Surfergirl

We were in Sicily last year, late September, and did go to Agrigento. Did not find it over-populated at all. But, living in Los Angeles, maybe I see things with different colored glasses.

We will be going to no-go Tokyo and Kyoto in April, and this article would not stop us. Again, we're not bothered by crowds, and this may be our first and only visit.

Jean

Yes, depressing. I haven't been to some of these places and don't have a desire to visit. The ones I have visited were many years ago, and I'm glad I can keep my old memories. Bali was absolutely paradise 30+ years ago. Sadly, when we revisit places after many years, we're often disappointed... which is why I was dismayed to see Kyoto on the list. We only spent 3 days there decades ago, and I've always want to go back.

Paqngo

I was in Oaxaca about 6 years ago and really didn’t see a lot of Americans. This was at Christmas time and we loved it. We are supposed to go back this August for a week.

raincitygirl

I'm glad I went to Barcelona in the early 70s and Bali in 1981; no desire to go back. I went to Japan on a school trip in 1970 and it was amazing, I'd like to go back as an adult but would think long and hard about it.
None of the other places are on my list, I can't blame locals for being upset at the over tourism. I will not use Air B&B.

Jean

"I will not use Air B&B."

Ditto. Add VRBO and other similar platforms.

bilboburgler

No where in the USA?

hetismij2

Not this year, though there have been US places on past lists.

I think Japan is in danger of becoming the next Italy or Spain or Portugal. Not so much overcrowding perhaps but certainly a dilution of the culture and way of life due to an influx of Westerners. I have seen reports of Japanese people being offended by Westerners behaviour and lack of respect, and the damage they cause to places. Mt Fuji is certainly a victim of over-tourism, and climate change since it is lacking snow on the top.

I was surprised they didn't include Antarctica in the list tbh.

azuregirl62

We were in Barcelona in September, no problems at all, beautiful city. Second time there so most likely will not be returning though.

zebec

Azure, we too were in Barcelona then (La Merce fest). As I'm sure you noticed too, there were a couple anti-tourist bits of graffiti, but nothing else to cause concern.
Regarding that geisha, a related story:
Back in '91, we stayed with some families across Japan. Once in Kyoto, we attended the Gion Matsuri summer fest. There were a number of geishas evident throughout the city.
We witnessed the following.

Tourist man to tourist wife: "Heck Myrtle! Lookee, here comes one of them-there geisha gals!"
(whips out camera and without asking permission, rushes up to the geisha intent on taking a snap shot).
The geisha rushes by without stopping, completely ignoring the man.
He is perplexed, "Hey, HEY! I want to take yer...yer...why won't you stop for me?"

Mrs Z and I had been standing off to the side in the shadows noticing all this. We grinned knowingly to each other coz we'd long had a plan.
We quickly made our way over to the adjoining alley where we knew that the same geisha would soon be exiting from. I had rehearsed the Japanese phrase for, "Please may we take your photograph?"
And it worked! She stopped dead-still with a warm smile.
The resultant portrait was later featured on the cover of a travel publication.

Understand, I am not trying to boast. Rather I'm pointing out the importance of knowing local customs, local language plus do's and especially don'ts.

I am done. the Oaxaca-Bali-Kyoto-Agrigento-NC500-Kerala shuffle

hetismij2

Just because you didn't experience problems visiting one of the places mentioned doesn't mean there aren't problems. Often ones a tourist wouldn't see, like the housing shortage and high cost of housing for locals due to the huge number of tourist rentals now. A place does not have to be wall to wall tourists to experience problems from tourism.

KTtravel

True, but once COVID hit and the tourists stopped coming to where I live, our local economy really suffered. Even though housing prices dropped, it was hard for many of the locals to stay employed. There has to be somehow be a good balance, particularly for places that rely on tourism for much of their economy.

nelsonian

We were seriously considering the NC500 for September next year. In the end I thought the cost of the 20 something hour flight, hiring a camper van, etc and the poor exchange rate wasn't worth it so have stopped researching.

mrwunrfl

Definitely go. First-timers still love visiting Kyoto according to reports in the Aisa forum. I hope you get beyond Tokyo and Kyoto.

It is overcrowding. Clueless tourists. The real problem is mostly about Asian tourists, not Westerners. The tourists from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea.are in much larger numbers, much more than before, and are (imo) proportionally more clueless about the Japanese way than Westerners.

The article made it sound like the luggage delivery service is something new and set up for tourists. What is new is Kyoto, in the kyoto.travel link, urging foreigners to use it. It is a brilliant system and a great bargain.

AJPeabody

Yogi Berra summarized the whole article (in advance): No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded.

yestravel

I agree -- I see way more Asia tourists than American tourists there. Everyone loves to pick on the American tourists.

MmePerdu

I think this is just another list. Not to say that the problems mentioned aren't real, but no worse than loads of other destinations we might want to visit. It's something to fill space with. We need to up our visitor game everywhere, some people, some places more than others.

mrwunrfl

It is stunning to see the growth in visitors as in this graph:
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Foreign_tourist_visited_Japan.svg

It took 10 years from 2003 to 2013 for the number to double.
It almost doubled again 2 years later in 2015 and grew another 50%+ by 2018 when over 60% came from just 3 countries.
Interesting how USA lost ground to Hong Kong over the years until last year which was probably due to the dollar/yen rate.

Those numbers are the number of arrivals. Length of stay is not a factor.

Might tell a different story using the number of person-days by country. That is, Taipei to Tokyo is a 3-hour nonstop flight, so a person could go for a weekend. It is over 10 hours from anywhere in America, so an American will stay for a week or more to make the trip worthwhile. OTOH, the 20+ million visitors in 2019 from northeast Asia dwarfs the number from America (that is the real story)