Tourist Tide

Tourist Tide

By BBC Radio 4

Can beautiful places welcome mass tourism without environmental destruction? Tom Heap reports.

There's been a summer of discontent in some of Europe's most popular tourist destinations. In Venice and Barcelona there have been a series of protests over their inundation by visitors. In the capital of the Basque country, San Sebastian, 'tourists go home' graffiti has appeared.

Dubrovnik is capping the number of visitors allowed in the old city. Even the Isle of Skye told people not to come unless they had accommodation already booked.

So how can the most popular places find a way to continue attracting visitors and their cash without destroying the beauty that was so appealing in the first place? Tom travels to Orkney which has become the most popular cruise destination in the UK and to Amsterdam which is trialling innovative ways to spread its millions of visitors beyond the Rijksmuseum, the coffee shops and the Red Light District.

Producer: Sarah Swadling.

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