Snowy mountains seem to be the top choice of almost everyone who travels these days. If you are one of them, no one can really blame you for loving these vast majestic natural beauties. Mountains certainly do have a very captivating persona, may it be the one with snow or not. 

There are so many reasons to fall in love with a mountain destination. We love the exhilarating feeling of climbing a mountain, we enjoy the cooler weather, we admire the stunning landscapes, we crave for the peace and silence it provides and the list goes on and on.

So it is very clear that we love mountains and mountains offer us so many things like peace, serenity, adventure and more. But are we treating mountains right? Are we being responsible travellers when we visit the mountains?

We are going to have an in depth look at being a responsible traveller in the mountains in this series. The first article in this series will look into the concept of Tourism carrying capacity.

What is Tourism Carrying Capacity

Before we get into the actual definition, let’s start with a few questions about your home.

How many people live in your home? 4?

How many guests would you allow to stay overnight? Another 4?

How many more people can stay at your home if you stretch the limits on a festive time or on a special occasion? Another 10, maybe?

Do you think that is too much because you only have 3 beds, 2 toilets and a limited amount of facilities and this many number of people can destroy the usual comfort in your home or overuse your resources?! Are you worried about such things? Then do read on.

"Tourism Carrying Capacity" is defined by the World Tourism Organization as “The maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time, without causing destruction of the physical, economic, socio-cultural environment and an unacceptable decrease in the quality of visitors' satisfaction”.

- UNWTO

If you might feel uneasy accommodating many of your family and friends at your home for a certain amount of time, you can easily relate to the concept of tourism carrying capacity in a certain destination.

Why is Tourism carrying capacity important?

We all know that many of the most-sought-after mountain destinations are usually remote places and have limited infrastructure and resources. Due to the very reasons, these places have a relatively smaller carrying capacities compared to the cities. 

One of the publicly available research paper shows that the effective real  carrying capacity  of  Leh town has been estimated 566 visitors /day. The total visitors to Leh during the peak season are two to three hundred thousands! 

A country like India with massive population, there are certain limitations in controlling the crowd. According to 2021 data, there are more than 480 million people living in India between the ages of 15 and 34. If 1% of them decided to travel, that itself is a huge number for any given destination, not just for the mountains. 

Having more than the ideal number of visitors in a destination at a given point of time creates something called overtourism. 

The World Tourism Organization defines overtourism as "the impact of tourism on a destination, or parts thereof, that excessively influences perceived quality of life of citizens and/or quality of visitor experiences in a negative way".

- UNWTO

So in simple terms, when the number of visitors to a particular destination increases more than its carrying capacity, it deteriorates the experience for the visitors and the locals and hence overtourism is not a desired outcome. 

Can you think of a time you had a very peaceful time at Taj Mahal?

Problems of Overtourism

You might have seen many of the expectations vs reality pictures that floats around in the social media. The expectation picture is the one you get when the destination is within its carrying capacity - serene, peaceful and enough space for everyone - how the destination used to be before it got massively popular. 

The reality picture would be the one after the destination got popular and visitors super-exceeded the carrying capacity. 

Once upon a time there was a reason to visit a particular destination. May it be the breathtaking views, the silence away from the cities, the slow life away from the hustle and bustle and so on. 

When the destination gets people more than it can ideally handle, all these very reasons starts to disappear. 

A-once-serene monastery becomes a place filled with chatters from the people who are taking their insta-snaps, a-once-secluded viewpoint becomes a tea-joint filled with  discarded cups, a-once-lesser known hiking route becomes a well trodden path sprinkled with wrappers and bottles. 

Over tourism slowly kills the destination in so many ways!

And the only way out would be implementing sustainable travel practices suitable for that destination.

What can you do?

As a responsible traveller what you can do immediately is to be aware of the concept of carrying capacity of any given destinations and the issues caused by overtoursim. 

It would be unwise as well as impractical to ask people not to travel to keep the numbers within the carrying capacity of a destination without having a proper system in place. 

If you want to see any real positive changes in this regard, it has to come from the policymakers with respect to restricting the number of visitors, developing nearby places, improving the infrastructure and so on.

But as a responsible traveller, you can read more about it, educate your friends and family and create more awareness about overtourism and carrying capacity of tourist destinations.

Understand that mountain destinations, especially the remote ones have smaller capacity to carry visitors at a given time. Hence it is good to remember a few points if you are planning to visit one.

Visiting Off-season can be a good idea

• You can choose not to go during peak seasons. 

• Going off-season means, you get to see another side of the destination which majority of the people who visited during the peak season won’t get to see. 

• Also, off-season prices are comparatively lower and you will be getting better deals. 

• Off season business in the destination will be slower and you will be helping the locals to earn an extra income. 

Try Alternate places

• You can visit a nearby place which most probably be as beautiful or even more beautiful, if you get lucky. 

• If practical, you can try an alternative place, very similar to the destination you wanted to go, but lesser visited. 

• Though it is only a matter of time for us to find an alternate to an alternate place as lesser known destinations are getting popular at a faster rate due to increased use of social media,  increased indispensable income, increased willingness from travellers to explore the less explored, improved accessibility and many other factors. 

Whatever may be the case, it would be a good idea to be mindful about the place you are visiting. 

Travel to enrich yourself

• Last but not the least : Travel for yourself, not for the gram nor for the social status!
  • Try not to travel for the gram!
    - A surreal visual does inspire us to take actions. It is no wonder that a glimpse of Pangong Tso lake shown in 2009 Bollywood blockbuster “3 Idiots” inspired many people to visit Leh - Ladakh region and the domestic traveller count skyrocketed after this point. 
    
    - This created more and more travellers posting even more beautiful pictures and in turn attracted even more people. This can very well be a viscous circle that can kill a beautiful yet ecologically fragile destination within the span of a few years. 
    
  • Try not to travel to gain a better social status
    
    A survey conducted by Booking.com in 2018 brought out the fact about Indians travelling for social status! 
    
    75% of the Indian who took part in the survey said their motivation to travel is to “go to places my friends have not been”. 
    
    If someone is finding travel as a way to compete with their friends, that is a one reason to travel but we are not sure how good that reason is. 
    
    Travel can be a very deep and transformative experience if done right. When travelling for social media acceptance or for boasting among the friends, the reason for travelling becomes shallow and greater benefits of travelling is often overlooked. 
    
    At the same time we take this opportunity to mention that there are nothing wrong in travelling for taking pictures or achieve a better status among peers but they are like using a high end computer only to watch online videos. 
    
    To become a better person, to learn, to transform, to gain insights, use travel in a better, more meaningful ways. 

Conclusion

Places with surreal landscapes are great bucket list items and their visual appeal can’t be underestimated. It can inspire anyone to pay a visit to these places and nothing can really stop them from doing that. 

If you are one of them who wants to visit such a pristine, out-of-the-world looking destination, just be more aware that you could be contributing to the over-tourism and the problems associated with it. 

Hence be more mindful when you are using the local resources, be more respectful when you are interacting with the locals, be more careful about what you are leaving behind. 

In short, try to be kinder to everything and everyone wherever you go!

You can read more about how over-tourism in the mountains affects the local resources in the next article. 

In the meantime do you have any negative experiences of over-tourism to share?

For serious readers :

Overtourism and strategies to tackle it by UNWTO

Tourism Carrying Capacity concepts and how to measure