However, traditional tourism players have steered a concerning drift toward an increasingly ‘hotel only’ model that has weakened Europe’s tourism offering and affordable travel options: soaring accommodation prices with fewer, wealthier visitors going to the same places and a concentration of gains in the hands of powerful hotel chains.
This might have severe consequences. Populism does not typically thrive in the wealthy districts of the EU’s most popular cities. Instead, it feeds on the frustration of non-urban communities that increasingly feel excluded from prosperity. One of the most overlooked opportunities to bridge this growing divide is the potential of STRs to help redistribute the economic benefits of travel across European communities.
Turning our back on tourism growth also risks accelerating Europe’s current downward spiral in political influence, while neighboring regions such as Middle Eastern countries increasingly are opening up to build political soft power. Europe cannot afford to close doors and lose influence against an increasingly disrupted international order.
The continent’s existing tourism model is facing real challenges, from overtourism in iconic destinations to competition for space with much-needed housing in some city centers. But STRs have not caused these trends and blanket bans or crude restrictions are not the answer. From Amsterdam to Paris, and Edinburgh to New York, severe STR restrictions have consistently
The continent’s existing tourism model is facing real challenges, from overtourism in iconic destinations to competition for space with much-needed housing in some city centers. But STRs have not caused these trends and blanket bans or crude restrictions are not the answer.
failed in improving the housing situation in cities, while contributing to raising hotel rates and pricing out everyday travelers.
Instead, by working with digital travel platforms and the wider ecosystem on a common framework allowing balanced local regulations and incentives, we can protect the diversity of accommodation choice for EU citizens while shifting more tourism toward less-visited communities, and ensure the benefits reach those who need them. Doing so would ease overcrowding in hotspots, open economic doors in neglected rural, suburban and small-town areas, reduce political divides, and sustain tourism as the economic — and cultural — lifeblood Europe desperately needs in an unstable world.