ALYSSA FRAZIER

Alyssa Frazier is a designer and illustrator from Kansas City, Missouri who is driven to create thoughtful, engaging work that contributes to a more socially and environmentally conscious world. When not designing, she enjoys thrifting and antiquing, baking, watching documentaries, and drinking a good cup of tea. Her degree project addresses the issue of overtourism through personalized, interactive city guides that make it easier for tourists to have a positive impact on the local communities they visit.

___

“FRANKLY, YOUR VACATION DESTINATION IS SOMEONE ELSE’S HOME.” 

Travel is widely considered a beneficial activity for everyone involved. However, with the rise of social media, mass-marketing, and geotagging, record numbers of tourists are visiting locations that are not built to sustain such an increase in population. When tourism reaches a point where it is doing more harm than good, it is known as overtourism.

The effects of overtourism are visible at every tourist destination around the world. Instances of overcrowding are more than annoying for tourists — an unmanaged influx of tourists diminishes affordable housing in local communities and irreversibly damages the environment. The problem worsens as cruises and short-term travel blogs popularize the idea of spending less time in one destination. Without the tourist’s investment in accommodation or ability to visit more remote parts of the area, these short-term tourists often participate in harmful tourist traps that do not accurately reflect local life and do not provide the financial support that a community that relies on tourism needs. Due to modern tourism’s minimal economic benefits, little to no meaningful interaction between cultures, and an inflated cost of living, locals are pushed to extreme levels of nationalism that ultimately drive cultures further away from each other. Do the perceived economic benefits of tourism have to come with so many negative consequences? 

In an effort to utilize design to address this problem, Alyssa conducted research that led to a speculative solution called Scout. Scout is a system that uses personalized, interactive city guides to make it possible to travel consciously without an immense amount of research and planning up front. Each guide is filled with recommendations that are tailored to the tourist’s interests and support the local community. Ethical travel challenges and spaces for reflection create opportunities for cultural connection that enhance the travel experience, while the interactivity teaches users how to become better tourists on their own.

By using these guides, tourists will have more enriching, memorable experiences while interacting with people from different cultures. Through healthier tourism that provides financial support, local quality of life will improve, reversing the growing trend of nationalism in countries experiencing the harmful effects of overtourism. As more people from diverse cultures and backgrounds have more positive interactions, both tourists and locals will gain open-minded perspectives that cultivate the empathy that, frankly, our world needs right now. In this way, Scout provides the framework for healthy tourism that better supports local communities, cultures, and the environment.