The national park saw a huge increase in tourism during Covid, and visitor numbers have continued to rise after the pandemic.
This has increased complaints about littering, traffic and anti-social behaviour, with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority facing repeated calls to take further action to manage the impacts.
Councilor Richard Foster, leader of the Craven District Council, said “most of the problems” have been caused by TikTok and YouTube videos putting pressure on Dales communities by attracting dozens of visitors to beautiful places. .
“We have a big problem as people have now found the Dales and want to go to the honeypot locations,” he said at a recent council meeting.
“Threshfield Quarry is a good example: an influencer posted ‘come to the blue lagoon’ and next thing you know everyone is showing up.”
Coun Foster said: “We had similar incidents in Burnsall with a TikTok post, meaning the town was suddenly full of people from as far away as Brighton and Bournemouth.
“We actively encourage people to get out into the countryside and engage with nature, but it seems like they want to turn the countryside into a city in big heaps together.”
His comments come after the council carried out a review of the impacts of tourism and made several recommendations for better management.
The council suggested that more litter bins and rangers be introduced in the Dales, and that the national park authority should engage better with parish councils who gave evidence during the review.
It was led by Settle and Ribblebanks Councilor David Staveley, who said tourism should be encouraged because it is a key part of the economy, but it needs to be better managed.
He said litter was a particular problem for parish councils who are “footing the bill” due to the national park authority’s no-bin policy.
Councilor Staveley said: “This aspiration for visitors to take their rubbish home is for the birds, it is not what is happening.
“Unless they want their streets to be filled with rubbish, the parish councils are left with the idea that they have to pay for the rubbish bins with their precept.”
The national park authority previously responded to the review, saying it would not budge from its policy of having no bins as it believes “bins attract more rubbish and visitors should be encouraged to take their rubbish with them.” to home”.
Its chief executive, David Butterworth, also said claims that “there doesn’t appear to be any coordination” between the authority and event organizers for attractions such as the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge are “simply incorrect”.