Overtourism is resulting in extra automotive crashes in Scotland. T-plates could be the reply

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In our journey roundup this week, a Scottish resort proprietor has invented “tourist plates” to fight the rise in harmful crashes on his nation’s roads. Plus, why Google Maps doesn’t work in one among Asia’s most developed international locations – and the way a authorities resolution in October would possibly change that.

Tourists and street security

It was a white-knuckle drive by way of Tenerife that impressed Scottish man Robert Marshall to give you Tourist Plate, an adhesive sticker vacationers can placed on their automobiles to alert different street customers that they’re newbies to the world.

“I was completely stressed, I was driving on the opposite side of the road from what I’m used to,” he says. “I couldn’t read the signs, but everybody was tailgating me. I shouted at my partner, ‘I wish these people knew I was a tourist, because they would just stay away from my car.’”

In the Scottish Highlands, the place Marshall owns a resort, there was a rise within the variety of severe street site visitors accidents involving vacationers. There have been near 50 deaths prior to now decade on the A9, Scotland’s longest street, which has gained notoriety for its common modifications from single to multiple-lane freeway.

Last 12 months, the BBC reported native police had been working with US Embassy officers to ship safety advice to American guests particularly. In May 2025, Transport Scotland reported that the variety of crashes involving abroad drivers on the incorrect aspect of the street had elevated by 46% in a year.

“We are suffering from overtourism,” says Laùra Hänsler, a security campaigner for the A9, who has been working with Marshall on selling his T-plates. “The infrastructure is practically on its knees because we’re straining to cope with it.”

The plates have but to be formally endorsed by any authorities. When contacted by CNN, Transport Scotland stated nationwide driving requirements, together with the necessities for displaying car plates, had been a matter for the Department of Transport. But “as we understand it — as long as it’s not offensive, you can put what you like on your car.”

The plates have been producing buzz on-line and have been a selected hit on TikTok. Marshall says he’s acquired orders for the £9.99 plates (round $13.50, of which 10% goes to road-safety charities) from as far afield because the United States, Pakistan and India.

In a Facebook video demonstrating different street customers’ reactions to the T-plate, Hänsler says that she examined the plates by occurring the A9 and maintaining to a gentle 50 miles per hour (on a 60 mph street).

“I let the vehicles gain on me, and you had that couple of seconds and then the comprehension, ‘Oh that’s different, that means something,’” she says.

The automobiles would then routinely pull again to present her area, for her security and theirs.

“That’s what it’s for,” she says. “On the A9, you don’t get the chance to have the split-second of a mistake. And that can cost you your life.”

So why do 70% of the world’s international locations drive on the right-hand aspect of the street, however one other 30% drive on the left?

In mainland Europe, the standardization of driving on the precise started with the sweeping away of sophistication distinctions in revolutionary France — the left had beforehand been the protect of the carriage-riding rich.

In America, it goes again to pioneers and their wagons, and an adjustment that gave drivers more control over the car.

But quick ahead to 2025, and we’re nonetheless fixing navigation issues. Google Maps, for instance, is a ubiquitous software utilized by vacationers to get round new locations, in addition to their very own cities.

However, the favored map utility doesn’t absolutely work in South Korea, regardless of it being, by different measures, a tech-savvy and tourist-friendly nation.

It’s right down to a decades-long battle over a set of map information owned by the South Korean authorities, and geopolitical tensions have expanded to greater questions of “digital sovereignty” and market dominance. A government decision is due this October.

In components of Europe, tourist information booths have gotten a factor of the previous — Scotland has introduced that each one of its facilities will shut by the tip of 2025 — however in Asian international locations together with South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, they’re having fun with a growth. South Korea had about 300 vacationer info facilities in 2015. Now, the quantity has greater than doubled.

“Asian tourists generally value structured guidance and interpersonal explanations,” Xiang Li, a Hong Kong hospitality skilled, instructed CNN. “In contrast, European tourists are more accustomed to self-guided experiences.”

Friends touring throughout Europe find yourself in Tunis, Tunisia, as a substitute of going “to Nice, France”

Friends touring throughout Europe find yourself in Tunis, Tunisia, as a substitute of going “to Nice, France”

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Two American pals touring throughout Europe went viral after one posted movies of the pair unintentionally boarding a airplane to Tunis, Tunisia, as a substitute of “to Nice,” France. They say their month-long journey has been stuffed with mishaps, however they’ve loved each second.

A pair was fined and banned from Venice after swimming within the Grand Canal.

They had been sent back to the UK on the identical day they arrived.

These are the North American airports that vacationers discover essentially the most satisfying.

Overall, passengers are a little happier than final 12 months.

Some Americans are “flag-jacking” when touring overseas.

Canadians are livid.

A Chinese airline has launched a 29-hour “direct flight.”

But there’s a catch.