LES VACANCES - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 52

cause of the predominance of rich second-home owners. Yet it has such deep pockets of
poverty that it is the only county in England that qualifies for emergency poverty fund-
ing from the E.U. It is a grim picture of what happens when the balance tips in favor
of wealthy second-home owners. Instead of reviving a dying town, these outsiders buy it
out from under the locals. But British officials, many of whom own second homes, re-
fused to take action to restrict them. Lord Taylor wrote to me in an email that he had
been “made aware in advance that (second homes) was the one area that the government
would not touch—either because they were unconvinced there was any need, or—in my
view—because it was too much of a hot potato.”
The French have more safeguards to allow locals to control their development through
zoning and development rules. In extreme cases mayors can purchase a home or a boulan-
gerie for the village and then rent it out to a French citizen to maintain the “equilibrium.”
Or the mayor can freeze new development.
“Tourism development must, must work for the local population,” said Maud'hui of
ATOUT. “There is a limit when foreigners owning a second home change the economy
and the environment. Say 15 percent or 20 percent may be the limit. Eventually too many
foreigners will narrow the future.”
And that is when tourism becomes that nightmare the French most fear. “We are far,
far from that, but we think about it,” said Maud'hui.
France, the gold standard for tourism, with strong government support to protect local
communities, still has to work overtime to avoid the pitfalls of mass tourism. In Venice,
tourism has already undermined its way of life.