Barcelona, Venice and Amsterdam are among Europe’s favourite travel destinations and benefit greatly from tourism. However, the massive influx of visitors places a considerable burden on the cities and their inhabitants.
To counteract the negative effects of overtourism, these cities are taking decisive action. Following public protests, no new hotels may be built in Venice and cruise ships will have to use other moorings in future. Amsterdam has banned guided tours of its famous red light district in order to protect local residents. Paris is planning to ban coaches from the city centre in order to improve the quality of life. Other overcrowded cities are also trying to control the situation through various methods.
Do you think that overtourism is a serious problem in Europe?
Sources: National Statistics Offices, Statista, Le Monde, Forbes
We have similar problems in Switzerland. There is a tiny hitherto unknown village somewhere with an even tinier boat mooring place (literally big enough for three people to stand on) that was used as a filming location for a popular Korean television programme.
Cue hordes of Korean people wanting to take pictures on that boat mooring thing. Nothing against Koreans, they are very well behaved and always very welcome, but the sheer number of people creates many problems.