Debating overtourism and undertourism in the context of human rights

Abstract

The discussion regarding overtourism and undertourism tourism in the context of human rights is needed, as nowadays the debates on tourism, as challenging phenomenon, are becoming more and more active. In recent years, various world media and international economic forums have been increasingly discussing the phenomena of overtourism and undertourism. Tourism is associated with the processes of globalization, experiencing (as yet) an uncertain trajectory of growth, and generating and distributing its benefits and costs, this has to be emphasized, because tourism has for a long time (and often still) been uncritically perceived as an alternative to heavy industries, as it is considered light, clean, low-impact, and non-consumptive (Perkumienė and Pranskūnienė, 2019). In 2020 the global health crisis, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, hit the world and has widened the concepts of overtourism and undertourism. Just half a year ago, the travel and tourism industry still ranked almost 9 percent on the world economic map markets. However, the global pandemic crisis stopped the sector suddenly and became a challenge of unprecedented proportions. Researchers point to a long-standing problem of managing the impact of tourism, which is not well conceptualized. Without silencing the debate on excessive tourism flows and volumes, the phenomenon undertourism is discussed and understood as a desire to travel to extremely little-visited, unknown, not-so-popular, but still interesting places. It is important to point out, as we have travelled so far, we will not travel in the future, so the usual forms of tourism will have to change. After the end of the pandemic, we will probably not return to our usual way of life at all. It is no coincidence that insights into the concept of the "new normality" are increasingly heard in the world's media, and it is noticeable that the world societies [...]