Skift Take
Lisbon's post-crisis evolution and corresponding tourism boom show the dramatic impact and lasting ramifications of overtourism. Efforts have centered on sustainable tourism and limiting tourism's potential negative impacts, but, in our view, the focus has been all wrong. Sustainable tourism should be about sustainable cultures, and we all have a role to play.
Sometimes I get really uncomfortable as a traveler in new countries.
And I don’t mean overwhelmed by how foreign a place is or how different it is from home.
What I mean is finding out upon arrival that Lisbon has been a case study in overtourism. Legislation encouraging foreign investment, the sharing economy, and a strong start-up scene combined with the city being a comparatively cheap destination has resulted in tons of travelers heading to Lisbon. It doesn’t hurt that Portugal also has lovely, tiled buildings, beautiful beaches, and a vibrant food scene.
Suddenly, my excited “live like a local” mentality falls flat, and I’m reminded that, in some ways, I’m just another annoying tourist.
Am I just another part of the problem when I rent out a home via Airbnb in Lagos, a gorgeous, beach town in the south of Portugal, for the weekend with a bunch of digital nomads? When 10 friends and I show up at a restaurant for dinner, is it frustrating how inadvertently loud we talk in English and then use poor Portuguese to order “salmao grelhado” (grilled salmon) or “bacalhau” (Portugal’s codfish)? When I ride a yellow tram from Belem (a western neighborhood) to the Chiado district in central Lisbon thinking about how much the trams remind me of San Francisco, am I just getting in the way of a local’s ability to use public transportation?
To a certain extent, the answer to all of those questions is simply yes.
Lisbon’s Recent History
Let me catch you up on some recent history in Lisbon. This lovely city previously had very solid rent controls in place that left little incentive for landlords to maintain properties, and high housing sales tax rates discouraged them from wanting to sell. As a result, many of the city’s gorgeous, historical buildings were left relatively dilapidated and run-down.
[caption id="attachment_288461" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Construction cranes loom over Lisbon's beautiful, historical landscape.[/caption]
Enter a global financial crisis that rendered Portugal unable to repay or refinance its government debt, resulting in a $116 billion (€78 billion) bailout program. In 2011, unemployment in Portugal reached over 12 percent. In 2012, rent controls were rolled back considerably as a condition of the bailout program, skyrocketing rental prices. In addition, a “golden visa” program was launched whereby foreigners can invest in Portugal in a variety of ways such as buying real esta
