An American mom who moved to the French Alps experienced the impacts of over-tourism firsthand. She says there's a better way to do it

21.07.2024 - 19:26 / insider.com

Whether carving their names on the Coliseum in Rome or haphazardly approaching bears at Yellowstone National Park, tourists frequently make the news for behavior that's, frankly, very stupid.

Well-behaved or not, all tourists can have negative impacts on a destination, from too much traffic and congestion to rising rents and priced-out locals. And yet tourism can also bring economic and cultural benefits to a community — especially when it's done right.

Paige McClanahan's new book, "The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Perils of Travel," is all about how tourism impacts the world, from the good to the bad, and how people who travel can be the right kind of tourist.

McClanahan, an American journalist based in France, talked to Business Insider about what it means to be a new tourist, her experience living in a small touristy village in the French Alps, and why people should stop saying they're a "traveler, not a tourist."

The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

BI: Why do you think your book — and conversations about how to be a better traveler — are important right now?

Paige McClanahan: In 2024, we're expected to see 1.55 billion international tourist arrivals, which is breaking the pre-pandemic record. Tourism is growing. It's growing faster than the global economy. It's a huge force.

At the same time, so many of us who are traveling are looking at our travels through a different lens. All of us, of course, were forced to stay at home during COVID because of pandemic restrictions, and I think that forced so many of us to reexamine this aspect of our lives that we had taken for granted.

I'm hoping this book is arriving in a moment where it can really resonate with people because we're traveling more than ever, and I think we're more ready than ever to consider the implications of our travels. And actually surveys are showing that people are more concerned about sustainability, they're more concerned about their impacts on communities. They're willing to spend more to have a positive impact on the place. So I hope the book is coming really at the right moment to speak to that audience.

Was there a specific moment or an experience you had traveling that sparked the idea for the book?

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In 2018, I moved with my family to a little village in the French Alps.

I had a chance to see firsthand how tourism really brought life into this village that would otherwise have become a ghost town, probably 50 years ago. It brought life, it brought energy, it brought culture, it brought all sorts of activities for my family, for me and my children, that we wouldn't have had otherwise in this beautiful corner of the French Alps.

At the same time, as a resident of a