The complex causes and solutions for overtourism are the focus on a new online self-study course launched by the International Centre for Responsible Tourism global.
Titled “Addressing Overtourism and Managing Success”, the short course covers five topic units including defining the overtourism problem, analysing its causes, assessing what the travel industry can do to mitigate it and reviewing overtourism in destinations.
The final unit looks at how a student can move from theory to practice and apply their thinking to a real world problem. After the student completes a short report, ICRT global issues a Professional Certificate.
Dr Harold Goodwin, the leading expert who created the new course published this definition of overtourism in 2017: “Overtourism is the opposite of Responsible Tourism, which is about using tourism to make better places to live in and better places to visit. Overtourism describes destinations where hosts or guests, locals or visitors, feel that there are too many visitors and that the quality of life in the area or the quality of the experience has deteriorated unacceptably. Often, both visitors and residents experience the deterioration concurrently and rebel against it.”
Debbie Hindle, chair ICRT global said: “The causes of overtourism are complex and vary from place to place therefore the solutions to it will also vary. This course is a comprehensive overview of where overtourism has come from and how leading practitioners around the world are looking to address it. It’s essential learning for all parts of the travel industry so that they can understand their role in helping to take responsibility to ensure tourism makes places better to live in.”
The self-study online course can be studied over a short or as long a period as a student wants and is available for £365. Professional Certificate in Addressing Overtourism
The self-study course follows the launch of a scheduled version of the course, in which students meet at the beginning, middle and end of their studies over a ten-week period with two hours of study a week. The next scheduled overtourism course will run on 4 September with meetings at 1pm on 4 September, 2 October and 30 October. Addressing Overtourism 4 September
Consultant Ali Hochberg who completed the first scheduled course wrote on LinkedIn :”If you’re in the tourism industry you already know that overtourism is an issue – and one that isn’t going away any time soon. This course provided a framework for understanding how we got to where we are today, some of the most common cause/effect dynamics in destinations experiencing overtourism, a toolbox of potential “fixes”, and how some locations are choosing to address the issue.
“I’ve taken multiple tourism courses at this point and I can say this certification course easily rises to the top. I’m currently finishing their Responsible Tourism certificate course and have pre-registered for their new course in Creating Shared Value, if that isn’t enough of an endorsement!”
ICRT global’s courses in Responsible Tourism and Addressing Overtourism were created with the support of founding partner easyJet holidays.
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