観光公害 − overtourism

CNNの記事から引用です。


(CNN) — The nights are drawing in and temperatures are dropping in the Northern Hemisphere. And in Finnish Lapland, that means one thing: tourists are on the way, and they want husky rides.

That's becoming a problem. In 2016, the top tourist activity in Finnish Lapland was snowmobiling. Three years on, it's husky sledding. Around 4,000 huskies work in the tourism industry -- compared with just 660 reindeer.

But the sudden rise in husky rides is leading experts to warn that there are hidden costs to the popular travel activity, from animals flown in temporarily from Southern Europe, to poor animal welfare standards and dogs being put down when they reach retirement age.
(Julia Buckley. The latest victims of overtourism? Huskies. CNN. October 29, 2019.)


北欧ラップランドの旅行者向けアトラクションはかつてはスノーモービル（雪上車）だったそうですが、最近はハスキー犬が引く犬ぞりが大人気だそうです。

ところが旅行者が大挙して押し寄せる結果として、ハスキー犬に多大な負荷がかかっているという事態になっているという報告がされています。ハスキー犬は酷使され、年衰えて使い物にならなくなったら殺処分されるということも行われているそうで、動物愛護の観点から問題視されています。

記事のタイトルで、


overtourism


と表現されていますが、日本語では観光公害という訳が定着しています。

最近の表現だと思ったところが、2018年のOxford Word of the Yearにもなった単語なのだそうです。


Overtourism is fast becoming one of the most hotly debated issues in the modern age of travel. Thanks to cheaper air fares, rising incomes and social media's ability to laser focus attention on specific destinations, more travelers than ever before are descending on places that can no longer cope with their own popularity.

In the past few years, the number of destinations raising the alarm over this has steadily increased. In 2018, the Oxford English Dictionary made "overtourism," one of its words of the year -- it's defined as an excessive number of visitors heading to famous locations, damaging the environment and having a detrimental impact on resident's lives.
(Joe Minihane. Destination trouble: Can overtourism be stopped in its tracks? CNN. July 2, 2019.)


"Overtourism"の背景にネット、特にソーシャルメディアの影響があることは恐らく疑う余地は無いように思われますが、根本のところは旅行者（人間）の身勝手さにあるように思えます。