[14000rpm]

Overtourism

noun:
the phenomenon whereby certain places of interest are visited by excessive numbers of tourists, causing undesirable effects for the places visited.

What is it?
In essence, overtourism is too many people in one place at any given time. While there isn’t a definitive figure stipulating the number of visitors allowed, an accumulation of economic, social and environmental factors determine if and how numbers are creeping up.

Overtourism is a term that describes the situation when the number of tourists visiting a destination exceeds its capacity to accommodate them, resulting in negative impacts on the environment, the local community, the cultural heritage, and the quality of the tourist experience.

It is not a new phenomenon, but it has become more acute and widespread in recent years, especially in Europe, where tourism, in some regions, is one of the main economic sectors and a source of employment, income, and social cohesion. There are increasing anti-tourism protests with Local residents are protesting and causing disruptions.

This is the situation in Santorini, Greece:





Where is it happening?
In early July 2024, protesters marched through popular tourist areas in the Spanish city of Barcelona spraying unsuspecting visitors with water pistols while chanting “tourists go home.’’ Barcelona is Spain’s most visited city which sees an average of 32 million visitors a year, many of whom arrive on cruise ships.
Similar protests are still ongoing in Mallorca, Spain.

Anti-tourism protests have been sweeping across Europe this summer, with demonstrations taking place in the Netherlands and Greece as well.
Venice has become the symbol of the overtourism trend that several other European cities grapple with. The city has risked degrading the quality of life and services for the locals as they battled with a limited housing supply and essential services due to a higher inflow of visitors.








Why is it happening?
The causes of overtourism are complex and multifaceted and include factors such as the growth of global travel demand, the emergence of new markets and segments, the development of low-cost airlines and online platforms, the concentration of tourism flows in certain periods and places, the lack of effective planning and management, and the insufficient involvement of local stakeholders and residents.

What is the effect?

The social effects of overtourism include the displacement and exclusion of local residents, the erosion of social cohesion and identity, the rise of conflicts and protests, the deterioration of public services and infrastructure, and the decline of living standards and well-being. At the center of the protests lies the growing issue of rising rents and house prices, which has made home ownership almost impossible for some residents.
I have some personal friends in Barcelona and in Milan who have lived there all their lives. They confirm the ill-effect on tourism and the growing AirBnB penetration. In fact, it is not necessarily AirBnB but the concept, also called as Affiticamere in Italy that is causing angst amongst local. There are investors from outside of Italy and Spain buying up properties and renting them out. They are capitalizing on the growing in-flow of tourist and matching with availability to suit demand while increasing Tariff’s. Case in point – I have stayed at a beautiful hotel in Naples for 50 EUR/night in 2015 near the port. Amazing stay. Cut to 2024 – 180 EUR/night for a Bed and breakfast without breakfast. This could have effectively been an apartment for a local Napolitan but the rent would’ve been not more than 600 EUR/month.
The cultural effects of overtourism include the commodification and homogenization of cultural heritage, the loss of authenticity and diversity, the damage and vandalism of monuments and sites, and the disrespect and ignorance of local values and norms.
In Italy’s Florence, a young woman was recently filmed kissing, humping and grinding against a statue of Bacchus, the god of wine and sensuality, with the mayor’s office calling it an act that “mimicked sex.”

And in 2023, a tourist was accused of damaging a statue in the city’s 16th-century Fountain of Neptune, located in the Piazza della Signoria.

The same year, in another part of Italy, a group of tourists were accused of toppling a valuable statue at a villa.
The economic effects of overtourism include the inflation of prices and rents, the leakage of revenues and profits, the crowding out of other sectors and activities, the dependence and vulnerability of the tourism industry, and the reduction of tourist satisfaction and loyalty.


What are some of the plans being contemplated?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of overtourism, as each destination has its own characteristics, challenges, and opportunities.
Amsterdam is looking to ban cruise ships—a measure Venice adopted in 2021—as they push to keep “nuisance” tourists away. Meanwhile, Barcelona announced that it would stop short-term rentals to free-up housing for its residents.

Switzerland has addressed this issue a long time ago by increasing Cost of Living which in itself is an entry barrier. Furthermore, there is a huge restriction on low-cost airline connections. They are actively monitoring the influx and observe overtourism in only 6-7 destinations. They effectively change their campaigning to shifts the flow to other destinations. From Swissinfo.ch – ‘’ The aim is to balance visitor flows, notably by promoting slower periods, such as autumn. Influencers and other content creators are also being called upon to encourage visitors to get off the beaten track and promote lesser-known sites.
For example, a program has been set up in collaboration with Chinese journalists and influencers to promote hiking trails and electric bike tours in Davos-Klosters. In September, the organization will set up a training course in Saas-Fee for content creators, followed by a tour of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In this way, the organization believes it “has a unique lever at its disposal”.


Although I've not been directly impacted by any sort of protests during my vacations in Spain and Italy this year but the sheer increase in tourists, including myself, has certainly marred my experience.

On the Flipside

There are alternate locations to explore.
There's a beautiful city south of Barcelona called Tarragona. It has a lot of the wonderful cultural attractions and has a beautiful seaside. We were in Alicante in Spain in June 2024 and had an amazing time. We didn’t really plan on going to Malaga, Mallorca or Barcelona and we’re glad we didn’t.
Similarly, there are lots of destinations in Sardinia, Sicily, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Malta, Cyprus etc which are all great destinations. We will be looking at these alternative destinations in the future and avoid all destinations which have cruise ships coming in by the Dozens/day.

How about you?

Malta







Albania







Montenegro







Croatia











Sardinia





Note: All pix from google images. Credit to respective owners.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by 14000rpm

In early July 2024, protesters marched through popular tourist areas in the Spanish city of Barcelona spraying unsuspecting visitors with water pistols while chanting “tourists go home.’’ ...
...

Anti-tourism protests have been sweeping across Europe this summer, with demonstrations taking place in the Netherlands and Greece as well.
Venice has become the symbol of the overtourism trend that several other European cities grapple with. The city has risked degrading the quality of life and services for the locals as they battled with a limited housing supply and essential services due to a higher inflow of visitors.

I have been observing growing sentiments about disliking for the Indian tourists in the Himalayan states. Mainly due to two reasons:

1. Littering is deep rooted cultural element for an average Indian tourist. This is not appreciated by many people living in the Himalayas, and shouldn't be either.

2. Most people have easy access to cars these days and road infrastructure has improved a lot in the last few years, even in challenging Himalayan territory. This encourages most tourists going in their own cars. Now majority of the Indians have developed flawed driving sense about lane discipline which is strictly required and expected to be followed on the narrow and twisty hilly roads. But unfortunately most of them don't give a hoot. This causes discomfort to the local drivers, causes unnecessary traffic jams and leads into many accidents. This behavior by the majority of people is also the reason for local drivers not respecting even those other state drivers who have experience of driving in the hills and have developed driving etiquette matching to the locals.

[StarrySky]

I guess Croatia will be the next to enter over-visited places, since it is now in Schengen area. Even among the small sample size of my acquaintances, the number of people visiting Croatia is shooting up.

[It's Magic]

Originally Posted by 14000rpm

Overtourism is a term that describes the situation when the number of tourists visiting a destination exceeds its capacity to accommodate them

Why look at other countries when over tourism is a reality in India as well?

Look at any famous destination or tourist spot on a public holiday, during the holiday season, or over a long weekend, and you will find them mostly crowded. As soon as a place gets into the spotlight, you will first find many YouTubers creating videos or shorts about it. Once these videos are available on the internet, many people start visiting it. In no time, the place gets overcrowded. As another user suggested, most people have easy access to cars, and venturing out on holidays is slowly becoming the new normal.

In the near future, you might see protests similar to those in European countries happening in India at a few such places due to over tourism.

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by tbppjpr

I have been observing growing sentiments about disliking for the Indian tourists in the Himalayan states.

Similar thing is happening in Goa. People are fed of of Indian tourists. They believe that they are doing the locals a favour by visiting. They will get drunk, misbehave, cause a nuisance and then fight if anyone questions them.

[rajivr1612]

For this very reason, I visit tourist spots during off-season. I have visited both Ooty and Kodaikanal in January. Also I mostly plan my trips on weekdays.

[sachinayak]

Over the last few years, I have been trekking in the Himalayas (typically twice each year). This i find extremely peaceful - to connect with nature, without having to worry about crowds that you would normally encounter otherwise, even in the mountains.

When I went on my last trek to Kashmir Great Lakes, I was taken aback with the crowd. Almost 1500-2000 people begin their trek on this route every day during the season (which is relatively short). The impact of the same on the environment is instantly visible. The trash that is left behind (am sure my trekking too contributes to this) and the number of dead mules who ferry trekkers and their luggage was quite alarming. Some states have banned trekking on certain routes for nature to recover, but slowly and surely humans are destroying every possible place.

Earlier - knowledge was not so readily available on our finger tips. Off beat places remained unknown. The well-known places were expectedly crowded, but go slightly off the regular route and you would find a lot of unknown, but stunning beautiful hamlets/villages which would be rewarding. With all off-beat places now being highlighted on social media, no one is now spared.

Sad but true.

[am1m]

Two points:

1. I'm not sure how I can complain about 'overtourism' as a tourist myself. Unless we accept that we are also a part of the problem, not just 'other tourists', this won't change.

2. What stops the cops in these tourist areas, especially in our country, from enforcing the already existing laws that discourage undesirable tourist behavior? Goa, for example, has always had several good laws to prevent littering and drinking on the beach, and loudspeakers/bright lights on the beach. In over 3 decades of visiting though, I have never seen these enforced on any beach.

The fact is that a large section of the local population in every tourist area has a vested interest in exploitative tourism that generates short-term profits without thinking about sustainability or the nuisance it causes to other locals. And instead of focusing on those issues, it always boils down to an 'outsider vs local' thing and the fundamental problems don't get solved.

[arunphilip]

I've been in the Nilgiris with my parents for the past year or so. As a popular tourist destination during the summer, it attracts crowds from Bangalore, TN (esp. Coimbatore), and parts of Kerala.

Here's some of my rambling thoughts on tourism in Nilgiris.

The outcome of tourism in Nilgiris is two-sided - there are strong advantages:

• The economic stimulus is undeniable - across multiple sectors, particularly the economically disadvantaged.
• Tourists range from the well-off driving up in their luxury vehicles, to groups coming in "tour buses".
• Due to the influx of tourists, there are more eateries, which benefits Nilgiris residents even in non-tourist seasons.
• The tea industry has been languishing, and tourism has given the entrepreneurially minded ones opportunities to cater to this demand - be it via home stays, opening their estates and factories for guided tours, or specifically targeting tourists for sale of niche products (e.g. high-end teas which would previously only find an export market).

Of course, there's the flip side as well:

• The summer months are when the Nilgiris reels under water shortages, with various reservoirs running low, and with the frequency of municipal water supply being restricted to once a week or even rarer.
• There's only so much road area available - which means that traffic snarls worsen, exacerbated by roadside parking. Some homestays are built to maximize floor area in their plot, resulting in their guests having to resort to roadside parking. The only saving grace is that schools are shut during the summer months, otherwise their traffic would have only made things worse.
• Littering increases. Coonoor has a very active NGO called "Clean Coonoor" who have worked on their own and with the municipality to improve cleanliness in Coonoor. That said, it's hard to eradicate a generationally rooted mindset of littering - even among residents. Add to this the mix of tourists coming in, and littering increases sharply. There's the casual littering of papers and packets being thrown on the roadside, and the more egregious disposal of large wastes generated by hotels and eateries, often into drains, or into forests.
• Not all homestays are properly registered and possess commercial licenses. Not only does this deprive the government of revenue (don't crucify me for having said that!), but it also means they likely take away resources from neighbours in the community who are genuine households.

There's no easy answer or conclusions to be drawn, because it is such an intricate situation. Trying to address or control some aspect can have second or third-order knock-on effects.

This year, the government instituted an ePass system for the Nilgiris. Any non-Nilgiris vehicle entering needed to apply for an ePass. As this was the pilot year, there was no restriction on ePasses being approved. The idea was to gather some information about what volumes of non-Nilgiris traffic enters the district - both in terms of number of vehicles, and number of people.

In the future, there might be a limit based on how many ePasses are issued at a point in time.

[14000rpm]

Glad to see good responses. Appreciated. I covered from Europe POV since that is where I live and this affects me directly. In fact Bhpian @naetik30 and I were talking about future travel destinations in Europe and it then occurred to me that many early travel planners will already start booking soon.

Glad the India angle is also being covered in the replies. In fact over tourism has already been affecting India since long. Not just GOA but also Ooty, Kodai, Ladakh, Darjeeling etc.

Originally Posted by tbppjpr

I have been observing growing sentiments about disliking for the Indian tourists in the Himalayan states. .

Respecting locals is a very big cultural issue. In fact its a global issue. Many have seen banners by residents in Hallstat, Austria asking to respect their privacy and keep noise low. Littering is very unique to India though.

Originally Posted by StarrySky

I guess Croatia will be the next to enter over-visited places, since it is now in Schengen area.

It could be.

Originally Posted by It's Magic

you will first find many YouTubers creating videos or shorts about it. Once these videos are available on the internet, many people start visiting it. In no time, the place gets overcrowded.

Switzerland is leveraging the Influencer community to divert tourists to other locations to bleed the crowding.

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

Similar thing is happening in Goa. People are fed of of Indian tourists. .

For the time I remember, Goan's preferred the European tourists from Oct - March given that they spend more than us Indians traveling to Goa.

Originally Posted by rajivr1612

For this very reason, I visit tourist spots during off-season. I have visited both Ooty and Kodaikanal in January. Also I mostly plan my trips on weekdays.

makes Sense. This is what we are considering to do in the future and travel during Shoulder Seasons - Periods where Schools in Europe are not off still.

Originally Posted by sachinayak

When I went on my last trek to Kashmir Great Lakes, I was taken aback with the crowd. Almost 1500-2000 people begin their trek on this route every day during the season (which is relatively short). The impact of the same on the environment is instantly visible. The trash that is left behind (am sure my trekking too contributes to this) and the number of dead mules who ferry trekkers and their luggage was quite alarming. Some states have banned trekking on certain routes for nature to recover, but slowly and surely humans are destroying every possible place.
.

My friend who keeps hiking around Grand Canyon regularly speaks of how the traveling groups are limited and controlled to curb the damage to the ecosystem. Guess it's time sustainability was addressed in the Himalayas too.

Originally Posted by am1m

Two points:

1. I'm not sure how I can complain about 'overtourism' as a tourist myself. Unless we accept that we are also a part of the problem, not just 'other tourists', this won't change.

Correct. We the travellers/tourists are also part of the problem.

Originally Posted by am1m

it always boils down to an 'outsider vs local' thing and the fundamental problems don't get solved.

exactly. The protests in Europe are, by and large, an issue of the system and not an issue with the tourists per se. It has to do with the rising cost of living due to reducing supply of housing to locals who have lived in those places all their lives.

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Here's some of my rambling thoughts on tourism in Nilgiris.

Very good points. There is a growing need for Sustainable tourism. one that caters to each tourist the right way and increases the experience level. I'm sure this has it's snowball effect as it could turn out expensive for the tourists since the business have to make the same money as before with a limited traveller base.

Originally Posted by arunphilip

This year, the government instituted an ePass system for the Nilgiris.

In the future, there might be a limit based on how many ePasses are issued at a point in time.

Glad to know.

As for us, we will start looking for off-beat locations as holiday destinations as well as consider Shoulder-Season.

Daughter has started showing inclination towards hiking as well. We may choose hiking destinations which are usually much less crowded. The Cruise-crowd doesn't have the time or access to these sites.

We are not alone in this thought process though. Many of my Finnish and Swedish friends are considering doing this in the future.

[Naetik30]

Originally Posted by 14000rpm

Glad to see good responses. Appreciated. I covered from Europe POV since that is where I live and this affects me directly. In fact Bhpian @naetik30 and I were talking about future travel destinations in Europe and it then occurred to me that many early travel planners will already start booking soon.

Glad the India angle is also being covered in the replies. In fact over tourism has already been affecting India since long. Not just GOA but also Ooty, Kodai, Ladakh, Darjeeling etc.

I did a Denmark, Norway 17 day roadtrip in May 2024. Thanks a lot to BHPians including @14000rpm for a ton of help with the planning. It took me 6 months of planning, but the entire trip worked out exceedingly well.

Note to self: Travellogue pending.

And few days back @14000rpm and I were chatting about the impact of overtourism especially in places like Spain. And how the local populace is fighting back. It is sad though, that we have to consider if we will be welcome in those beautiful places. Looking at some of the pics in Greece that @14000rpm has posted with tourists jostling for space, I can fully understand how the locals would feel.

Thankfully, there are still places like Norway that are still sparse.

[ads11]

I can only speak to the overtourism points raised for the European cities and as highlighted earlier it's primarily down to housing stock being hoovered up by Airbnb at industrial scale. I remember the early days when it was quite literally someone's spare sofa bed (in Barcelona incidentally) but in recent years I'll show up to an apartment and it's in fact part of an organisation that holds all the units in the building and rents them out. This is Not a good thing and frankly I support the folks pushing back. Places like Dublin I think are now starting to institute anti-Airbnb regulations to prevent new housing stock being used for that purpose instead of for locals. Equally many places have introduced a daily tourism charge - having to book hotels for Paris for a family visit recently and noticed the charge at the bottom of the invoice. Again, I can't complain.

Speaking of alternative destinations listed by the OP, I can speak for Albania. We went on a whim the week of the late Queen's platinum jubilee, mostly because all the other usual destinations were enormously expensive and we wanted to be out of the UK while the country to save going mad from the royal love in. Frankly Albania was one of the most fantastic places we visited. It's a real sleeper hit. Great food (better vegetarian fare interestingly) and drink, stunning scenery, very interesting history with Roman, Ottoman and Communist era museums and sites, and honestly it felt cheaper than India for some of the places we ate out in! We went in their off season so it was relatively empty but we remember speaking to lots of the folks who owned bars and restaurants there and the common refrain was that they were satisfied with the amount of tourism they got (primarily from the Nordics, Netherlands and Germany) and that they didn't want bus loads of essentially Brits on stag- or hen-do's rocking up and being loutish (I can't blame them - the scourge of any place is when it gets tagged as a prime destination for such groups). We found that a refreshing outlook since they admitted the way it was now, locals could if they wanted still frequent some of the nicer places themselves without the prices ramped up to tourist trap levels. But there was a recognition that eventually a bit like Croatia did following Game of Thrones, Albania too will reach some critical mass of awareness and become the next big destination, thereby losing it's quaint charm.

I think on a social level, the enormous growth of tourism has been from the enormous growth in the middle class in China and now India who now have the spending power to afford to go on holidays abroad. This isn't a bad thing, you can't deny folks their aspirations right? But clearly there's issues that come with it - others on the thread have pointed out that we Indians don't have the best social awareness around littering. Similarly there's the infamous stories of the Chinese govt having to step in and chastise their citizens due to too many Chinese tourists abroad embarrassing the country doing things like graffitiing historical monuments like in Egypt. I don't know how one resolves wider social and cultural juxtapositions causing friction abroad in one fell swoop - my instinct is that in due course as more than a critical threshold become used to the norms of behaviour when out of their home country, it'll pass on to more of their peers and there'll hopefully be some self policing.

The fact that we have over tourism is a consequence of a very good thing, which is the democratisation of travel. At no point in human history has it been this easy for folks to go from one place to another (though there's no small irony given the anti immigration stances/sentiment and protests globally too..). But over tourism is definitely an issue and one we have to reckon with. And in most cases it's hard to not sympathise with the plight of locals.

[Naetik30]

Over the past three or so years, I have stopped doing trips within India. It is just mad.

1. In 2022 December Christmas - went to Goa. I know. Wrong time. But we have done it several times and this was a ritual for us. But 2022 was an eye opener. We paid upwards of 20k per night for the room. The beaches had no space to move and traffic jams everywhere. Goa is gone.

2. In 2023 August - Went to Leh. Second day, my son developed altitude sickness. Boy that was an experience. And for the crowds that visit Leh - the health infra is woeful. Do you know that there is only one hospital in Leh. And about 1000 patients for the couple of doctors. My son was admitted there for a couple of days and was among the worst days of my life. Made a hasty retreat as soon as possible. My travels in Leh were - Airport-Hotel-Hospital-Hotel-Hospital-Hotel-Airport and back to New Delhi.

There are these kind of hidden impacts on tourism that no one talks about. The health infra in Leh cannot support the tourism there. I have visited Sikkim (Lachen, Lachung, etc), Rohtang and finally Leh. But the last one opened my eyes and I vowed never to visit the Himalayas again. They are too brittle to handle the over tourism happening.

My Norway trip was on the other end of the scale though. Hardly any human in sight for miles. Even within cities.

[androdev]

The politically incorrect way of saying it is that a society with equitable distribution of wealth and a society without borders, etc. can ruin the planet :-)