Global travel erases places we loveTourists are seen at Wat Arun Ratchawararam, where tourists and tour guides have filed complaints about for-hire photographers preventing tourists from taking their own photos. His fears resonate today as tourism-driven economies push cities to stage their distinctiveness, overlaying local life with standardised, tourist-facing layers. To answer these questions, we undertook a study to measure the extent to which global forces are actually eroding or reshaping local distinctiveness. Yet local distinctiveness does not vanish under global pressure; it adapts. The real test of overtourism is whether cities can rewrite their rules -- using global mobility to deepen local character rather than dissolve it.

Source: Bangkok Post March 16, 2026 23:11 UTC