Easter Island Under Threat of Overtourism

[Judi Lynn]

DESTINATION & TOURISM PATRICK CLARKE JUNE 21, 2019



PHOTO: Easter Island. (photo via RachelKramer/iStock/Getty Images Plus)


Chile's Easter Island has been drawing tourists to the southeastern Pacific for decades but lately, mass tourism and some bad behavior exhibited by visitors have threatened the destination's future.

Renowned for its massive centuries-old statues known as moai, the UNESCO World Heritage Site has come under threat of overtourism, with frequent flights to the island putting a strain on the local people and its resources. And some visitors to Rapa Nui National Park have compounded those issues.

"Because of the ubiquitous nature of photography in our community, people take the same picture repeatedly. Once one person picks a nose of the moai, you can be sure there will be multiple thousands [of photos], because people are lemmings," archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg, director of the Rock Art Archive at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Director of the Easter Island Statue Project, told CNN Travel.

As recently as the 1980s, the park drew fewer than 5,000 travelers annually. Today, that figure exceeds 100,000.

More:
https://www.travelpulse.com/news/destinations/easter-island-under-threat-of-overtourism.html