It Is Time to Ditch the Phrase ‘Overtourism’
Skift Take
Skift Podcast
Compelling discussions with travel industry leaders and creatives who are helping to shape the future of travel.It started with a Linkedin post.
When Michael J. O' Regan, a lecturer of tourism at Glasgow Caledonian University, posted an academic article he wrote about why we should stop using the word "Overtourism" and the issues he sees with its usage since the time we at Skift coined the term in 2016 (the backstory on that here). It came across my feeds. And in a surprise twist, considering we were responsible for this term spreading, first across the travel industry and then as a widespread media term, I agreed with him.
Here's what I wrote: "This is a fascinating new academic paper arguing why the travel industry should stop using "overtourism" as a construct/phrase and as the person who coined that term in 2016 (he cites it in this paper), I agree with him!
“Surprise twist, I know, but not for the reaso