10/26 (Sat.) Are we the victim of overtourism? (Host: Debby)

[Debby wu]

Hi all, This is Debby. Welcome to my host.

I believe most of us love traveling around. Some phenomena occur in the world due to tourism such as "overtourism".
Overtourism can be defined as “the impact of tourism on a destination, or parts thereof, that excessively influences perceived quality of life of citizens or quality of visitors experiences in a negative way”.

Also, I recommend sparing some time for the article in the second part. It's related to our neighbor, Japan.

First part

<article>Addressing Overtourism: what can be done?
https://responsibletourismpartnership.org/overtourism/

if you like to know more...
1. BBC RADIO (18 mins) - The Trouble with TouristsーShould cities be worried about overtourism?　　 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswh0d　
2. article -20 cities that could be the next to suffer
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-l ... -they-cope

Questions
1. Is tourism pollution affecting your local community? Could you share any example?
2. What are the pros and cons of overtourism?
3. How to be a good traveler that lets the locals hate us less?
4. Do the Taiwan government shape any related policy about overtourism? What rule would you suggest?



Second part

Japan is the top 3 travel destination for Taiwanese. In the past 3 years, tourism in the world to Japan has increased by 21% against a baseline 1% for Europe. The below article discusses the phenomena in Japan.

<article> Overtourism: Is Japan Becoming a Victim of its Own Success?
https://www.theinvisibletourist.com/ove ... pollution/

Questions
1. Have you visited Japan? What's your image of Japan? Why Taiwanese is addict to Japan?
2. Some deers in Nara (奈良) cause injuries to tourists wanting a perfect selfie. The deer also eat the food scraps (with plastic packaging) left by travelers and make deer sick or dead. In this case, should the local government set up an area for deers so that it will be easier to manage or protect the deer?
3. In recent situations, there will more tourists to Japan and the Olympics will be held in 2020. How should Japan government face the situation?
4. The internet or social media makes some nature spots or small villages to be popular in a short time. The locals usually haven't reacted it and already been impacted. Could you share your opinion?



********************************************************************************************************************************************
Agenda:
3:45 ~ 4:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
4:00 ~ 4:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
4:10 ~ 4:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
4:50 ~ 5:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
5:10 ~ 5:15pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
5:15 ~ 5:55pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
6:00 ~ 6:20pm Summarization (20 mins)
6:20 ~ 6:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements ********************************************************************************************************************************************
聚會日期：列於該貼文主題內
聚會時間：請準時 4:00 pm 到 ~ 約 6:30 pm 左右結束
星期六聚會地點：丹堤濟南店
地址、電話：台北市濟南路三段25號 地圖 (02) 2740-2350
捷運站：板南線 忠孝新生站 3 號出口
走法：出忠孝新生站 3 號出口後，沿著巷子(忠孝東路三段10巷)走約 2 分鐘，到了濟南路口，左轉走約 2 分鐘即可看到。
最低消費： 80 元


注意事項：
1. 文章是否需要列印請自行斟酌，但與會者請務必自行列印 Questions for discussion。
2. 與會者請先閱讀過文章，並仔細想過所有的問題，謝謝合作！


給新朋友的話：
1. 請事先準備2~3分鐘的英語自我介紹；會議結束前可能會請你發表1~2分鐘的感想。
2. 請事先閱讀文章以及主持人所提的討論問題，並事先寫下自己所欲發表意見的英文。
3. 全程以英語進行，參加者應具備中等英語會話能力，對任一討論問題，能夠以5到10句英文表達個人見解。
4. 在正式加入之前，可以先來觀摩三次，觀摩者亦須參與討論。正式加入需繳交終身會費 NT$1,000。

[Luis Ko]

Anything that goes over the top will never be good. It's siad “too much of a good thing”, isn't?

[Kooper]

Tourism is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it grows or at least sustains local economy. It in particular is seen as a lifebelt to a government or municipality during a financial or economic meltdown, when most of other industries are sliding into recession. On the flip side, too much tourism makes the guests upstage the hosts. Local residents no longer feel in control of the community they are in because the lion's share of local economic activities have transformed into serving tourists instead of local dwellers, while travelers are experiencing a touristic culture of their own rather than local exotic cultures. In short, overtourism defeats the purpose of travelling to a remote destination in the first place.

Overtourism also exemplifies a typical no-win situation called prisoner's dilemma, in which every individual makes a sensible decision in their best interests but the actions add up to an overall disastrous outcome.

[Kooper]

Anything that goes over the top will never be good. It's siad “too much of a good thing”, isn't?

I can't agree with you more, Luis. BTW, both of the expressions are great.

[Kooper]

Attendees(13): David Jr., Jerry, Morris, Apple, Debby(host), Kooper, Laura, Winston, Steve, Iris, Julian, Christine Hsiu, Jason