The feeling of too much came to light in many places on the coasts during the corona pandemic. On Sylt, for example, the locals were among themselves during the lockdown in the first year of the pandemic. When tourists returned to the island, their island seemed even more crowded than usual for the season.
The situation was similar for locals in other holiday regions along the coasts. Citizens’ initiatives were founded in some places. On Sylt, for example, the alliance “Merret Reich’s” was formed, which wants to stop the sell-out of the island and increasingly focuses on the locals and their needs. Citizens’ initiatives are also active on Föhr, which stand up for “livable” islands.
“The locals have nothing left of their island”
A citizens’ initiative has also been founded in Göhren on Rügen. Nadine Förster is one of the initiators of “Livable Göhren”. Göhren is located in the southeast of Rügen – a tourism hotspot in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In summer, “in these months of July and August, which are actually the most beautiful for the locals, the locals have nothing more to do with their island.”
She is in favor of not creating more bed capacities. Because they would also be filled during the high season. “And then you get even more people on the streets, even more people in the supermarkets and even more people on the beaches.”
Coastal overtourism? “We don’t have that in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania”
According to the local state tourism association, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has the highest tourism intensity in Germany – even ahead of Schleswig-Holstein, which is most likely to follow. The rest are clearly below. The probability of meeting a tourist is nowhere as high as in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Tobias Woitendorf from the Mecklenburg-Western Pomeranian Tourist Association would not speak of overtourism in MV, “despite signs of stress from tourism and also some signs of overload from tourism”. He understands the term as a permanent permanent overload of tourist locations. “We don’t have that in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.”
The situation is similar in Schleswig-Holstein. Philipp Queiser from the country’s tourism agency (TASH) says that there can be stress at particularly popular tourist locations – especially in the high season”. But there are also regions, sometimes only a few kilometers away, where things are very relaxed. A challenge then consists in the targeted distribution and equalization of the flow of guests.
Education and countermeasures: What should help the residents
In addition to providing information about the positive sides of tourism, there have been increased efforts to intensify dialogue with the local population for some time, says Queiser from TASH. The aim is to develop a common living space management and to promote a coexistence of guests and locals.
Highly frequented regions, for example, try to divert guests to less frequented places or beach sections on particularly busy days and, in particular, to provide information early on via digital channels – for example about busy beaches or alternative parking spaces.
For example in the Bay of Lübeck, which is also popular with day visitors from Hamburg and the surrounding area, or in St. Peter-Ording on the North Sea. Göhren on Rügen is working on a living space concept, the Schlei Baltic Sea region is advertising a new campaign for togetherness and a common rhythm between guests and locals.
And even with the long-running topic of affordable housing for locals, holiday resorts are taking countermeasures by prohibiting the construction of new holiday homes or taking a more critical look at the misappropriation of permanent housing. On the East Frisian Islands, for example, there have been efforts for years to get affordable housing for islanders. And the municipality of Sylt recently passed an accommodation concept that, among other things, prohibits the construction of new holiday apartments.
What the director of the German Institute for Tourism Research at the West Coast University of Applied Sciences, Prof. Bernd Eisenstein, says about the problems on the coast read at mopo.de.