Arnie Weissmann
Sometimes, all a trend needs is a name to accelerate it. I (and, doubtless others) have been encouraging people for years to avoid crowded destinations and go somewhere similar that's perhaps less expensive, less touristy and with fewer visitors.
And now, there is a label for destinations that reflect this advice: "dupes."
Of all the unpleasant aspects that people want to avoid when they travel, the most unpleasant is you. Or rather, you plus many, many others like you. In 2010, the satellite navigation company TomTom had a memorable ad campaign that proclaimed, "You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic." Not to put too fine a point on it, but when you visit Venice in August, you're not only suffering the effects of overtourism, you're causing overtourism every bit as much as the family you're cursing for getting the last available table in St. Mark's Square.
At the risk of making my favorite dupes a bit more crowded, I'll offer my suggestions to add to the canon of dupes. Bear in mind that dupes are not identical twins with the original, too-popular destination but rather options that overlap in enough important ways to be considered as alternatives. For instance:
The original: Diving in Cabo San Lucas. The dupe: Diving in Cabo Pulmo.
I only discovered this dupe last month and wrote about it here. Because the majority of local accommodations in Cabo Pulmo are basic, most people will enjoy it as a daytrip from Cabo San Lucas, San Jose del Cabo or Todos Santo.
The original: Yellowstone National Park. The dupe: El Tatio, Chile.
If you're interested in Yellowstone's thermal side, El Tatio geyser field has equally spectacular displays (80-plus active geysers). Also in the area are salt flats inhabited by flamingos, night skies so clear that astronomers from around the world set up shop there and a stunning volcanic landscape. And although Death Valley National Park doesn't typically suffer from overtourism, the nearby Valle de la Muerte isn't a bad alternative.
Again, lack of local accommodations means that these attractions are typically seen on excursions from resorts 90 minutes away, in or near San Pedro de Atacama.
The original: Aspen. The dupe: Switzerland's Quatre Valais.
You won't find bargains in the Swiss resort towns of St. Moritz or Zermatt, but in the Quatre Valais region, you can find 250 miles of slopes with lift ticket and accommodations rates so reasonable that the money you save versus Colorado resort towns will likely cover your airfare. I stayed at La Cambuse, a well-managed hotel in Les Collons with a great restaurant, across the road from a chairlift.
The original: A gastro-centric trip abroad. The dupe: New York City's outer boroughs.
Any major city with first-generation immigrants is likely to have good "ethnic" food, and many areas offer regional specialties, but for breadth of variety, nothing matches New York's outer boroughs. An Uzbeki restaurant? Try Brooklyn's Urgut Tandir Express. Hankering for Tibetan cuisine? Have your fill at Khampa Kitchen in Queens. For Sri Lankan, check out Lakruwana Restaurant on Staten Island and for West African, head to the Bronx and Papaye restaurant.
The original: Major safari destinations. The dupe: Malawi.
This is a turn-back-the-hands-of-time dupe and thus not for everyone. If you want to experience what visits to African parks were like 30 years ago, Malawi will give you a pretty good facsimile. Air connectivity isn't the best, true five-star experiences are scarce, but for me, authenticity and a friendly population more than compensated.
The original: Hawaii. The dupe: The Azores.
East Coasters, you likely will still enjoy Hawaii once you deplane from your 10-hour-plus flight, but if you want to get to a mid-ocean volcanic archipelago just 5-1/2 hours nonstop from New York or Boston, consider the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal. The capital island, Sao Miguel, can get fairly crowded in the summer, but it's a great shoulder season destination, and many of the other islands are well short of "touristy" any time of year.
A few closing thoughts about dupes: Traveling shoulder season, and even offseason, can make all the difference in the world, crowd-wise, if seasonality isn't critical. Venice in the winter is still Venice, but without the crowds.
Of all my dupes, Cabo Pulmo is the model dupe: It regulates its tourism effectively, controlling how many divers can be in the water on any given day, guaranteeing it will remain in excellent shape for years to come.
Overtourism is often portrayed as greedy tourism business owners versus protectionist communities, but in fact both sides would lose some benefits if tourism were to go away completely. With dupes always available, if an overwhelmed destination refuses to regulate itself, visitors may solve the problem for them, enjoying time in a dupe far, far away.