Overtourism — when the number of visitors exceeds a destination’s capacity to manage them without degrading the experience or the place — is the defining travel problem of the 2020s. Here is how to think about it and what practical choices it implies.
What Overtourism Actually Looks Like
The empirical evidence is clear in several cities: Amsterdam has passed laws banning cruise ships from the city centre, limiting new hotels, prohibiting short-term Airbnb rentals in the most affected neighbourhoods, and running advertising campaigns explicitly discouraging visitors who want to engage in drug tourism and rowdy behaviour. Venice has introduced a day-visitor fee (€5, piloted in 2024) and banned cruise ships from the main lagoon. Dubrovnik implemented daily visitor caps on its walls. Barcelona has blocked new tourist accommodation licences and public opinion surveys show that a majority of residents support significantly reducing tourist numbers. The mechanism is consistent: housing costs rise (because tourist accommodation is more profitable than resident rental), local-serving businesses are replaced by tourist-serving ones, public space becomes crowded and unpleasant for residents, and the authentic character of the place — the reason tourists came — erodes.
What Responsible Travel Means Practically
Timing: visiting outside peak season distributes visitor load (and your money) more evenly. The most crowded European destinations in July–August are pleasantly uncrowded in April, October, and November. Accommodation: staying in locally-owned hotels or guesthouses (rather than large chain hotels or Airbnb in residential neighbourhoods) puts money into local economies more directly. Eating: eating at locally-owned restaurants away from the main tourist streets is both better (better quality, lower prices) and more economically beneficial to residents. Transport: taking public transport rather than rental cars reduces environmental impact and traffic pressure. Distributing geographically: visiting smaller, less-visited nearby destinations rather than returning to the same overloaded highlights reduces pressure on those places and often provides a better experience.
The Off-Peak Economics
The financial case for off-peak travel is strong: flights to European destinations in shoulder season (April–May, September–October) are typically 30–60% cheaper than July–August. Accommodation drops 30–50%. Restaurants don’t have queues. Museums are less crowded. The weather is often comparable or preferable for sightseeing (the temperature in Rome or Athens in October is 18–22°C — ideal for walking; July is 38°C and miserable for non-beach activities). The only loss is beach/swimming weather for most destinations — though September in most Mediterranean destinations still has warm swimming water.
The Limits of Individual Choice
Individual travel choices have limits: a single traveller booking off-peak does not meaningfully reduce overcrowding in Venice in August. The structural solutions are policy ones: entry fees, visitor caps, restrictions on new tourist accommodation, cruise ship bans, and revenue reinvestment from tourism into the infrastructure and housing it strains. Most of these policies face political opposition from tourism industry stakeholders. The traveller’s choice is not the primary lever for solving overtourism — but it is a genuine choice about what kind of places you want to visit, what kind of experience you want to have, and whether you want to contribute to degrading places you value. Those are real considerations even if they don’t individually solve a systemic problem.
