- by Eliza Amouret, Vittoria Torsello and Sarah Collins
When everything appears perfect on the outside, it gets harder to uncover what's really happening behind the scenes. Every time summer suddenly rolls around, we begin to sense that something is wrong. But how can overtourism be exposed when it is so media-driven?
Since we conducted most of our reporting during the winter months, we crossed borders primarily through a WhatsApp group. We visited Greece, Italy and France, but also traveled through time and, most importantly, through the lives of our main characters: passionate and determined protectors of biodiversity.
The stakes were high and not everyone was eager to speak. Gaining trust was slow but essential to revealing what lies beneath the Instagram-perfect posts of the Mediterranean. To add a touch of optimism, we tried to show some solutions that are being implemented to limit the impacts on natural areas. We felt it was important to bring this point of view, so as not to surrender to despair.
Sarah Collins spent a couple of days on the Cycladic islands of Naxos and Paros meeting with locals at a time when tourists were not crowding them in excess. Over coffee, she met with Eleni Andrianopulu, a local who is very attached to her island and who is fighting mass tourism to protect her habitat. Sarah also visited a bird hospital staffed almost entirely by volunteers.
Four-hundred-and-fifty miles away, in Puglia, southern Italy, Vittoria Torsello went near Lecce where she spent time with activists and conservationists who dedicated their summers to protecting turtle nests from beach businesses.
In the Calanques, in southern France, Eliza Amouret focused on the approach being implemented by local authorities, the National Park and the municipality of Marseille to preserve this natural gem without preventing tourists from entering.
Though focused on many different places, our stories were all connected by a common question: “What type of tourism do we really want for the Med? And could the current forms of tourism really be the only economically viable models for this region?” These reflections served as a through-line, tying our disparate perspectives together.
Vittoria focused on a kind of dream tourism, one that rises from the ashes of lands deprived of water, places that need investments in basic resources rather than villas or luxury resorts.
In Marseille, Eliza paid attention to another popular type of tourism in the Mediterranean Sea: the cruise ships that have become a nightmare for locals living above the port.
While on one side, a tourism that locals cannot sustain was being promoted as the only way to “develop” the region and “create jobs,” we found inspiration in local voices, those unafraid to propose a different narrative, one that cares for the land rather than simply using it.
Top image: A cruise ship docked in the city center of Marseille (Eliza Amouret)
Editor's note: This story concludes the series “Beauties Under Siege”, which offers a preview of the magazine we have in mind. It was produced as part of the first edition of the Magmatic School of Environmental Journalism.
