More visitors when and where places are not full
The occupancy rate of accommodation in West Sweden shows that most of the year most places can accommodate more visitors.
Some places with a high occupancy rate can cater for even more visitors if investment to increase accommodation capacity is made. Most places in West Sweden never experience overtourism.
Some places however cannot accommodate more visitors at certain times without that causing unintended consequences. It can harm nature and culture conservancy; it risks creating conflicts in local communities and visitors can have a negative experience.
Stepping up Sustainability’s strategy to encourage more visitors when and where places aren’t full is:
to implement development and marketing campaigns that create increased occupancy at the desired time and place
An even occupancy for most of the year and in large parts of West Sweden provides the right conditions to create long term sustainable tourism.
We will therefore focus on targeted development and marketing campaigns rather than general ones. Targeted campaigns can more clearly influence where and when visitors travel.
take preparatory measures to manage the risk of overtourism
In many cases overtourism can be managed by careful planning and it doesn’t always need to mean that the number of visitors must be limited.
The problem of large numbers of temporary visitors to an individual destination can often be resolved by improved infrastructure, good logistics and information before the visit. In many cases large numbers of visitors can successfully be managed in this way without it being perceived as overtourism.
Some places in West Sweden however run the risk of suffering actual overtourism that can’t be solved by just improving logistics, information and infrastructure. Preventing that needs measures that can limit the number of visitors at specific times. This could be done, for example, by using timed booking systems to popular attractions and places and being prepared, in extreme cases, to restrict the entry of more visitors on the grounds that there is no more capacity.
