Skift Take
Norwegian Air CEO Bjorn Kjos doesn't care that some in Barcelona would prefer that the tourists stop coming. He can fill Boeing 787s at decent fares with Americans and Europeans who want to visit Spain. He has a business to run. Can we blame him for trying to maximize profits?
In 2016, Skift created (and later trademarked) a word you may know: overtourism. It occurs when a region is so inundated with visitors that basic services are strained, and locals lash out and complain that their home isn't what it once was.
It's a subject we hear about often in Lisbon, Barcelona, and Iceland. And while local tourism boards created this problem, airlines also deserve blame. As destinations become popular, airlines add flights, which is why three (three!) airlines started flying this summer from Dallas/Fort Worth to Reykjavik.
Last week, in an interview at Norwegian's Air's headquarters near Oslo, I asked CEO Bjorn Kjos whether he weighs local views on tourism when deciding whether to add new routes. Norwegian has a base in Barcelona, and has focused on shuttling Americans and Europeans there.
"We take people where they want to go," Kjos said. "You take away the tourism in Barcelona, you get millions of layoffs. There may be some people who don’t like so many tourists, but that creates the jobs for most of the people down there. So they will have to do some regulation to deal with it, and buil
