Tourists Are Equally Satisfied Visiting Lesser-Known Places, Study Shows
Photo Credit: Pictured is Amsterdam, which has suffered from overtourism in the past. Unsplash / Ethan Hu
Skift Take
If there's clear evidence that tourists are equally happy in lesser-visited areas, will the travel industry come together to rework those problematic bucket lists and spread tourism's benefits? Or will it continue to be economic recovery first, followed by more sustainability pledges?
It’s now proven — beyond all the observed anecdotal evidence, but albeit in a limited study — that the information tourists receive about a destination influences their choices while on vacation, but also that directing tourists to lesser-known attractions and areas doesn’t lead them to have a less satisfying vacation experience.
These conclusions emerged this month from a real-life experiment on a group of vacationing tourists, run by Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions and personal digital assistant service Travel with Zoey.
“There are influences that don't really need much evidence or further research to say, ‘oh yeah, people are driven by sort of what's in the guidebook and what's physically obvious,’ but we were curious if we could tweak it, if we could mess with it, and if different technological platforms for tweaking it would have different outcome
