May 1st, 2010 
Emily Young 
An odd story in the Daily Mail today reported that Japanese tourists could be charged £5 to visit the Lake District.
‘The unusual levy – thought to be the first time visitors from a particular country have been targeted in this way – could raise £25,000-a-year towards the upkeep of footpaths and supporting wildlife projects.’
Quite why or how Japanese visitors alone would be levied on entry to the Lakes is not explained but that aside the idea raises some issues I’ve been pondering for a while.
On regular visits to Cumbria and the Lake District, I’m struck by the seasonal impact of massive tourist numbers.
Erosion on the more popular walking routes is a grave problem: anyone who has lived there 10 or 20 years will tell you it has worsened rapidly, scarring the landscape perhaps irretrievably. More litter can be seen on the fells as the proportion of visitors unaware of the mountain ‘Highway Code’ grows.
The place becomes clogged in high season, with tiny roads choked by cars and worst of all, the luxury giant touring coaches that bus tourists in and out for hit-and-run visits. Frail buildings and drystone walls and tarns and woodlands are under seige from pollution, despoilation and overuse.
But many, if not most, shops and cafes and B&B’s and pubs rely on income from the peak periods, which amount to a total of probably four or five months in the year. It’s an imbalanced economy, distorted seasonally and dominated by low-paid, part-time work. But all these businesses would argue strongly against levies that could reduce tourist numbers.
As the article says, a chap ‘who owns the Lakes Lodge Bed and Breakfast in Windermere and depends on Japanese visitors for a third of his business, doubted it would work’.
It’s a Catch-22 situation: businesses have sprung up to service peak levels of demand – even if they lie almost dormant for the other six months fo the year. That peak demand cannot now be reduced without harming some of those businesses. But those seasonal peaks ruin the environment that attracts visitors in the first place.
I remember watching in Venice a monstrous cruise liner barging its way across the lagoon, towering over the city like a tourist Godzilla. Aesthetic considerations aside, what were these people actually contributing to the Venetian economy?
How could the mayor or whatever allow this thing into the city’s waters knowing that the thousands on board would simply stampede off, cause huge congestion problem in the narrow pathways and plazas, and contribute perhaps an ice cream – or lunch at the most – to the local economy?
On this basis, if I was to start raising money for conservation in the Lakes I’d be nobbling those luxury megabuses. If they happen to be carrying Japanese tourists, well that’s too bad!
- Adrian Lowery, Assistant Editor, This is Money
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Tags: Lake District, Tourist