I WAS taken by the headline of the inner page of The Times, ‘Tourist hot spots being destroyed by their success’ on March 2.

The article highlighted the problems of St Mark’s Square in Venice where there are payments of 3 Euro (low season) and 10 Euro (high season) to enter the city, paying for clearing up the rubbish and damage caused by 24 million annual visitors.

Importantly the Italian Government saw the numbers as causing ‘a degraded experience for visitors’.

In the Croatian city of Dubrovnik permits for only two cruise ships are given to dock daily disgorging 4,000 passengers, while limiting the numbers of visitors allowed to enter the old city.

Numerous other examples are given in the article showing a general growth in global tourism, a stronger economic growth, more affordable travel and a swelling nationally of the middle class. To meet this demand bigger planes and ships have been built.

Tourism represents three per cent of world GDP and provides five per cent of the global workforce. By 2025 Britain’s tourist revenue is expected to reach £257 billion - just under 10 per cent of GDP. Additionally the Chinese are coming, with 400 million heading abroad by 2030.

What does that mean for the popular areas of the British Isles?

There are signs of emerging controls within this country. In a privately owned village of Clovelly in Devon £7.50 is levelled to visit. In Edinburgh 85 per cent of persona consulted favoured a two per cent or £2 per night levy.

One can see on visits to major ‘hot spots’ - London, Stratford, Bath and Oxford - vast crowds of people of all nationalities, not only bringing wealth but considerable problems, noise and air pollution and pressure on public facilities, including litter disposal. Congestion charges are becoming normal in cities and ‘park and ride’ are in situ everywhere.

Given that ‘charging to enter’ becomes more prevalent, if the charge were too high this would deter some people and possibly become the preserve of the rich.

How does this effect the Lake District and wider Cumbria? We already see the traffic queues on a sunny week throughout the year. The crowds have changed the character in Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere and Keswick. They are now just shopping malls, hardly conducive to a ‘quality experience’.

Nationally and locally helpful initiatives have been proposed; ‘spreading the load’ has distinct possibilities as long as they safeguard ‘the quality of experience’. Certainly the coastal area and Eden Valley could take an increase in visitor numbers as long as they are prepared.

The staggering of holidays nationally would help to ease the pressures on facilities and infrastructure though we must not expand the same to meet peak demand. As a local example the resistance by the Lake District National Park Authority not to provide car parks in Kentmere and Longsleddale has very much guarded the visitor experience and importantly protected the residents from being overrun and inconvenienced. In our valleys it is the farmer who has the most inconvenience when wanting to move stock or machinery.

I would suggest, firstly the introduction of a ‘bedroom tax’ as suggested by the late John Toothill (former National Park Officer) to pay for landscape improvement and facilities. This would be collected as VAT returns are. Secondly the introduction, on a experimental basis, of a compulsory bus service in popular valleys such as Langdale, Buttermere, Borrowdale and Ullswater at peak times so as to control traffic. Booked stays at hotels, B&Bs and caravan sites would be exempt.

Lastly the introduction of a register of outdoor events, to control numbers within areas of the national park. This would include ‘charity events’ that can be held closer to home and not require facilities such as parking, toilets and litter removal.

I hear the ‘hackles’ rising; ‘he just wants to keep it for himself and his elitist group’; ‘why shouldn’t we have the freedom to roam’; ‘must we always dictate and control’? The answer to the last one is YES so as to conserve and maintain this unique landscape as a World Heritage Site.

David Birkett

Kendal