ITB Berlin News 2018 - Review Edition

18 NEWS
No Magic Bullet
to Tourism
Overcrowding
Dirk Dathe
Trade visitor
Answers to overtourism must begin
with long-term planning, says a major
new WTTC & McKinsey report
50 Years at ITB
Berlin: Dirk Dathe
Looks Back
Alex Dichter
Senior Partner,
McKinsey & Company
Having worked building and
managing hotels from Iran to
Morocco and Gambia, Francebased
Dirk Dathe has been a
regular at ITB Berlin since the
late 1960s. He’s seen the show
develop massively from its
humble origins, and continues -
despite his semi-retirement - to
make his annual pilgrimage to
Berlin.
When Dirk Dathe first arrived
in the divided city to attend
ITB Berlin in his role with a
German tourism consultancy,
the show was a lot smaller
than today. “I came in 1969 for
the first time. There was seven
halls, and ITB Berlin shared
with the international boating
exhibition,” he recalls.
Previously, Dathe had been
opening hotels in Abadan in Iran,
which has the biggest oil refinery
in the world. “The oil companies
took all the rooms on a regular
basis.” he recalls, meaning trips
to upcoming travel fairs were
not really required. But when
he moved back to Europe to
work as a travel consultant, that
began to change.
“Every year there was a little bit
more at ITB Berlin, they added
a hall here and there. But the
big lift came when they built the
International Congress Centre
(in 1979), that gave it a big push.”
“It really became big in the
1980s,” Dathe continues. “The
facilities were better here than
elsewhere. That gave them the
edge on other trade fairs. And
then the German market at the
time in was very big already.”
ITB BERLIN
HAS OUTGROWN
ANYTHING ELSE.
IT HAS BECOME
A MATTER OF
PRESTIGE TO BE
HERE.
Dathe recalls how ITB Berlin
also began to receive a lot of
publicity in the popular press at
this time, especially on German
TV,which had daily half hour ITB
Berlin segments.
But what attracted global buyers
and exhibitors especially to
Berlin? “The buyers could go to
other shows, but here you had
the whole industry.”
Meanwhile, ITB Berlin “has
outgrown anything else. It’s
also getting more international
because the smaller countries
are coming. It has become a
matter of prestige to be here”
Overcrowding in tourist destinations is a complex problem
which varies from destination to destination and requires
long-term planning and collaboration among all relevant
stakeholders. Most importantly, popular tourism spots
need to understand and be aware of the early warning signs,
argues “Coping with success: Managing overcrowding in
tourism destinations”, a report by the World Travel &
Tourism Council (WTTC) and McKinsey & Company that is
one of the first major analyses of the issue.
The report specifically attempts to
cut through media hype around
the issue, to understand the
nature of the problems at hand,
and to identify specific solutions
which can make a real difference
on what is variously known as
“overcrowding”, “overtourism” or
“tourismphobia”. It does so by
highlighting five types of problems:
alienation of local residents,
constrained infrastructure,
diminished tourist experience,
damage to natural resources, and
threat to cultural heritage.
Practical actions range from
smoothing visitor numbers over
time, spreading visitors across
sites, and adjusting pricing to
balance supply and demand. It is
recommended that destinations
use the data they already have to
take appropriate action.
Focusing on 68 cities, the report
creates an overview in the form
of a heatmap that identifies the
risk of experiencing a given
overcrowding problem. The map
is based on an analysis of tourism
data as well as research on
specific destinations and dozens
of interviews with tour operators,
tourism authorities, hospitality
providers, airlines, universities
and think tanks.
“Coping with success” concludes
that local tourism managers
must work with all public and
private stakeholders to develop
a coherent plan to create and
manage tourism growth that
puts people and communities at
its heart. The goal is not only a
positive impact for hosts, but also
life-enhancing experiences for
millions of travellers each year.
Alex Dichter, Senior Partner,
McKinsey & Company, said:
“Overcrowding is easier to prevent
than to recover from and the real
lesson from our work is that good
management is vital for all tourism
destinations”
ITB BERLIN NEWS • Wednesday 21 st March 2018
www.itb-berlin-news.com