SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Lake Tahoe has been placed on a travel/tourism company’s “No List” for 2023.

Fodor’s Travel, a longtime tourist, travel company that publishes guidebooks and a yearly list of places to visit, or not, has recommended tourists bypass Lake Tahoe next year due to a “people problem,” — crowded beaches and trails and traffic that slows to a crawl that is also threatening the lake’s famous clarity.

“For this year’s No List, 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,” said Fodor’s Travel website. “This year’s No List does not serve as a boycott, ban, or cancellation of any sort; but a call to travelers to consider wisely the choices we make. We can have a positive impact on this world we love so dearly.”

Fodor’s website said the “people problem” causes heavy traffic on roads and trails that lead to a fine sediment pollution running off the urban landscape and crushes Tahoe’s roads into a fine dust and debris and pumps tailpipe emissions into the air.

When it rains or snow melts, stormwater transports these fine pollution particles into the lake, clouding its cobalt blue waters, the website said.

“It is difficult to take our city’s talk about leadership on the problem of long-term climate change seriously when we simultaneously encourage visitor traffic that results in jams that can stretch into Sacramento,” Scott Robbins, a spokesman for the Tahoe Neighborhood Group and South Lake Tahoe City Council candidate who has garnered the most votes in the race for three seats in the November Election, said to Fodor’s Travel.

“We’re feeling the increase of population around us,” President and CEO of Travel North Tahoe Nevada Andy Chapman told Fodor’s. “We all need to give nature a break, but we don’t want to tell people not to come to Tahoe. We want to educate people how to respect Tahoe.”

South Lake Tahoe Mayor Devin Middlebrook pushed back on the designation during the council’s Tuesday Nov. 15 meeting.

“I do take issue with the Fodor’s list. I think they left out a lot of the things we are doing. They didn’t talk about us working to expand Clean Tahoe, they didn’t talk about all of our new really cool solar composting trash cans, they didn’t talk about our ranger programs, they didn’t talk about our Take Care Program, Lake Link.”

He continued, stating, “they just talked about all the challenges and bad things but they didn’t mention any of the myriad of programs that our team has done to address the things that are in the article.”

Read the full post at https://www.fodors.com/news/news/fodors-no-list-2023.