Avoid Lake Tahoe. A major travel guide’s advice is making the region reconsider how it wants to manage tourism this summer.
Fodor’s Travel Guide is used by millions to plan their vacations, with in-depth reviews and lists of the best and worst and so forth. Last year, they published their annual No List 2023, to highlight destinations that have been directly harmed by tourism, to encourage responsible travel choices.
“For this year’s No List,” they wrote, “we’re highlighting destinations to reconsider visiting in 2023 in three main categories: natural attractions that could use a break in order to heal and rejuvenate; cultural hotspots that are plagued with overcrowding and resource depletion; and locations around the world immediately and dramatically impacted by water crises.”
Lake Tahoe was listed under that first category – as a place that could use a break so the land can heal. And many locals agree.
The area has a $5 billion tourist economy built around those coming to the lake, but 15 million tourists a year are pushing what the lake can handle. Long lines, stand-still traffic, and increased urban runoff due to those two factors are threatening everything appealing about the lake. If you can even get to a beach, the runoff is causing lake sedimentation that may put an end to Tahoe’s famously clear water.
Fodor’s exhortation to avoid Lake Tahoe for its own good was a wake-up call to many. This month, dozens of business and civil entities from the area unveiled the Lake Tahoe Destination Stewardship Plan, a guide of recommendations for how to protect both the lake and the tourist industry. The plan considers measures adopted by other tourist destinations, such as requiring reservations, timed-entry permits and capacity limits. It’s nonbinding, but Tahoe officials are talking about ways to change that as well.
“When you have folks like Fodor’s say, `Don’t go to Lake Tahoe,′ that’s not good for us as a region. We need folks to visit here, but we need a system to manage them,” said a Washoe County chairwoman.