Overtourism – Destroying The Places We Love Most. The combination of the younger experiential generation and short-term rentals is placing increasing stress on tourist destinations around the world. Democratic Perspective welcomes City Councilman Scott Jablow and President of the Lodging Council, Steve Segner, to discuss the impact on one of the Southwest’s most beautiful cities – Sedona, Arizona.
Segner describes the issue this way: “In manufacturing, you can always make more of the product. But with tourism you can’t.” As for the issue of short-term rentals, Jablow says, “Removal of local control is causing the problem. We can’t regulate them. Because of the governor’s mandate of hands off, we’re getting commercial building in residential areas.”
To make matters worse, short-term rentals are taking housing away from the 10,000 workers needed to deal with 3 million tourists each year. Other problems range from traffic to keeping hiking trails clean. But the city is working hard to address the issues. “The good news is that we have the money to do it,” says Segner.
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