ENVIRONMENT/LIFE
Tourism Has A Cost
I don’t mean your bank account
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This is a photo of Dorf, a very pretty village in the Austrian Alps. It is considered one of the most beautiful places in the world. When we lived in Germany, my family often drove to Austria for holidays. We stayed with friends in Steiermark and made day trips. We also stayed with friends in Innsbruck and Vienna. Hallstatt is nearby, breath taking, but many mountain villages in Austria are. I guess it’s the way the church steeple stands out close to the lake that makes Hallstatt so spectacular. I, certainly, love the village and feel it has something special.
My family travelled out from Germany a lot. We went to Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, and north to the Baltic. We stayed in Bed and Breakfast homes along with the host. Airbnb was not yet a thing. The homes we stayed in were lived in all the year round.
Now the people of Hallstatt are demanding that fewer people arrive there in one go. They feel overwhelmed by the tourists. They want some kind of rationing — how that would work I have no idea. I relate to their sentiments.
Every holiday season, my part of England triples in population. It puts a strain on all the emergency services, including the coast guard and the…
