Kathmandu, where I spent last weekend, is well ahead of the west in extracting cash-for-heritage from tourists. The hub of the Nepali capital is Durbar Square, a Unesco-listed congregation of palace and temples. Overseas visitors must pay a 1,000 rupee (£6) admission fee. "Thank you for your contribution to heritage conservation," the entry ticket reads. You are handed a Tourist Entry Pass the colour of a Kathmandu sunset to hang around your neck, showing you have paid: simple and effective. Venice introduced a tourism tax six months ago. The man behind it, Simone Venturini, told me on the first day: "Today we are starting entry fees to find the new balance between the community and the daytrippers." Last week the Italian city said the plan would be extended next year. This is a good approach to tackling overtourism, when the industry of human happiness overloads a location. Taxes help to strike a balance between the needs and rewards of visitors and residents. Every enterprise knows inbound tourism is of huge financial benefit to a nation, region or city. But it should be on a fair basis. The hosts provide the infrastructure – hotels, restaurants plus some combination of beaches, history and mountains – and the welcome. You bring the money and a positive attitude (and hopefully avoid rip-offs and food poisoning). Both sides should feel enriched as a result of their encounter. Six destinations that welcome more visitors |
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Ticket to sightsee: Each visitor to the heart of Kathmandu pays £6 and gets to wear a Tourist Entry Pass |
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| Samhain, the ancient Celtic festival that pre-existed Halloween, is having a resurgence. Read more. |
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Squadrons of tourism boards and businesses will converge on London this weekend ahead of World Travel Market from Tuesday to Thursday next week. The event is a gigantic exercise in seeking to grow the business of tourism. Sometimes that just means scale: racking up visitor numbers to a particular corner of the planet. More usually these days, the aim is to entice richer, better-behaved tourists who are prepared to travel off-season and stay longer. Even though I have scarpered five-and-three-quarter time zones away, to Nepal, let me offer last-minute slogans to a couple of attendees: Benidorm, on Spain's Costa Blanca; and the Dutch capital, Amsterdam. Try these:
"We're Benidorm. We deliver fun in the sun, and we like to think we do it pretty well."
"We're Amsterdam. We deliver outstanding art and architecture, plus endless photo opportunities to frame our canals, gabled houses and flowers. For decades we've also delivered fun in the dark. But frankly, that's not working for us anymore."
Benidorm has room and a welcome for everyone. Amsterdam is cracking down on stag and hen parties; it imposes a 12.5 per cent tourist tax on hotel stays and a €14 (£12) fee for each cruise-ship daytripper. If residents still feel overrun by tourists and excluded from enjoying their own city, they can choose to double or treble those levies. You can then choose whether to swerve Amsterdam in favour of beautiful Leiden, Rotterdam or a city beyond the borders of the Netherlands. The tourist mindset sounds increasingly like the language of conquest: ticking off wannasee lists, chalking up another country or capital. Being goal-driven is fair enough when visiting a great art museum or theme park, or climbing Everest. But tourism needs to be a partnership of equals in which terms, conditions and norms of behaviour apply. You, the visitor, agree to spend freely (including any admission fee) to enjoy the culture, cuisine and quirks of the people and their home. In return, Kathmandu, Benidorm, Amsterdam or any of a million other locations will share their spaces and stories with you. |
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Kathmandu airport to close at night |
Nepal's only international aviation gateway, Kathmandu airport, will be even busier than normal until the end of March. For the next five months the airport is closing from 10pm to 8am each night for work to increase capacity. Around 40 flights normally arrive overnight from locations including Bangkok, Doha, Dubai and Singapore. Some have been cancelled, with a consequent shortage of seats and rise in fares; others are rescheduled within opening hours, adding to congestion, crowds and queues. |
Cheap afternoon and evening trains |
Evening-out rail specials to and from London provide excellent value – and can actually be used from early afternoon. From Norwich, Ipswich and Colchester (and the branch lines they serve) you can get a same-day return fare to London Liverpool Street for a flat £27 if you book at least a day ahead and travel after 2pm. You can return from the capital the same evening – or the next day up to 12 noon. First class is a bargain at £41 return.
South Western Railway has a similar deal, though only for same-day returns and with variable fares. You save if you travel into London at 2pm or later. Outside the capital, the Evening Out deal kicks in at 12 noon. No need to book ahead, and railcard discounts apply. |
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Lesser-known European city break? |
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An under-the-radar city in Europe, please. Somewhere that's thriving and is well worth visiting – but people haven't yet noticed? |
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Poland will provide. Besides well-known and crowded Krakow, Gdansk and Warsaw, plenty of other cities are flourishing – each with a deep history and many good places to eat, drink and stay. They also have decent air links with the UK and low winter fares. Top of my list: the central Polish city of Lodz. Its extravagantly long main street is flanked with impressive buildings. One of these is the superbly refurbished Grand Hotel, the best I have stayed in this year. Poland is the land of luxury for less: you can book a chic double for around £130 including a sumptuous buffet breakfast in the former ballroom. The city's attractions include Manufaktura, a former factory reinvented as a leisure destination with some outstanding restaurants. Even the Starbucks is spectacular. The tourist office provides maps for rewarding self-guided walks around the city. Elsewhere, the Jewish cemetery is poignant and beautiful. Also in central Poland – and easily combinable with Lodz, thanks to a three-hour train link between them – is Poznan. The main square is a joy, and the river provides a sense of tranquility. Going northeast and northwest respectively, Bydgoszcz and Szczecin are hard to spell but easy to enjoy, and also offer excellent value and a friendly welcome to winter weekenders. |
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