Why 2024 could be the worst year ever for ‘overtourism’

The city now hosts many apartments which are rented out solely to tourists – causing a housing shortage and driving up rent prices. Locals are therefore finding it difficult to secure affordable accommodation.

The US state of Hawaii, which has a population of around 1.4 million people, attracted around 9.2 million tourists in 2022, the islands’ government has said.

Hawaiians have complained that once-pristine beaches are now so busy they are practically unusable.

The island city of Venice in Italy is home to around 55,000 people but was visited by some 4.6 million tourists in 2022, Statista has said.

The number of visitors is putting a strain on the city’s infrastructure and is hampering the experience for both locals and tourists.

From June, groups of visitors to the city will be limited to 25 people – roughly half the capacity of a tourist bus.

What other places are struggling with overtourism?

The port city of Dubrovnik in Croatia has a population of around 28,400 people but was visited by more than one million tourists in 2022, the Dubrovnik Times reports.

One of the main causes of overtourism has been cruise ships offloading thousands of passengers a day.

Most visit the city’s Old Town – where the formerly rough limestone main street has been buffed by the footfall that comes with huge crowds of tourists.

Barcelona in Spain, which has a population of around 5.6 million people, was visited by around 9.7 million tourists in 2022, according to the city’s council.

The number of apartments being rented out solely for tourists means rents are soaring, while the number of visitors is also said to have led to a rise in antisocial behaviour.

Outside of Europe, iconic destinations such as Machu Picchu in Peru have struggled with overtourism.

As of 2020, the number of tourists visiting the ancient Inca site had jumped from less than 400,000 tourists a year to over 1.4 million visitors in 20 years, The Real World travel advice website reports.

Are parts of the UK badly affected?

The UK is one of the most popular destinations in Europe – with just over 30 million tourists visiting in 2022, according to the national tourism agency VisitBritain.

Although millions descend on central London, smaller cities across the UK are also popular.

Bath in Somerset, which has a population of around 109,000 people, attracts around six million visitors a year, the local council has said. The number of tourists means the city centre becomes very busy with crowds.

What factors are driving overtourism in different parts of the world?

Justin Francis, the chief executive of Responsible Travel, a company which specialises in sustainable travel, says one problem is that flying is “artificially cheap” because the aviation fuel kerosene is one of the few untaxed fuels in the world.

Mr Francis also said the rise of social media influencers wanting to build their brand has also played its part.

He added that the tourism industry itself has worked to increase tourism with “very little regard for the impact on destinations”.

Why might 2024 be one of the worst years for overtourism?

In 2019, the number of international tourist arrivals across the world reached its highest ever level at nearly 1.5 billion.

Since then the industry has been recovering from the pandemic, with Sandra Carvao, director of market intelligence and competitiveness at UNWTO, saying the figure for 2023 is likely to be at “around 88% of that volume”.

Looking ahead to 2024, Ms Carvao told Sky News: “There is a lagging tourism recovery in Asia, which pre-pandemic was the second biggest region in terms of travel after Europe… but if Asia keeps recovering at the rate it has been, the global figure will most probably surpass the 1.5 billion figure we had in 2019.”

A record number of international arrivals around the world could mean more visitors to some of the most popular destinations which are struggling with too many tourists.

What have destinations been doing to tackle overtourism?

In 2018, Mato Frankovic, the mayor of Dubrovnik, introduced a cap on the number of cruise ships allowed to stop at the port to two a day, carrying a total of 5,000 tourists, to reduce overcrowding.

Meanwhile, authorities in Barcelona have taken measures to allow locals to continue to enjoy the city despite the presence of tourists.

Measures include putting restaurant tables in roads rather than on the pavement, which narrows the road but allows pedestrians to continue to walk down the streets in their city.

Peru previously limited the number of tourists allowed to visit Machu Picchu to 3,800 a day. However, the country announced earlier this month this will increase to 4,500 a day in January 2024 – with the potential for a further hike to 5,600 on specific dates.

What can you do to limit the impact of overtourism?

Other than stopping going on holiday, there are a few things people can do to help limit the impacts of heavy tourism.

An obvious thing to do would be to go places that are not struggling with overtourism – but people can also look to see when the quieter periods are for popular destinations in order to limit the negative impacts of their stay.

Dr Harold Goodwin, professor emeritus and a senior fellow at the Institute of Place Management at Manchester Metropolitan University, has urged people to consider the impact they are having on the local economy while travelling.

He told Sky News: “Buy local, if you do that, you will have a much better experience and you’ll be contributing to local economic development and people’s livelihoods in the places you’ve chosen to visit.”

What impact does overtourism have on climate change?

The tourism industry is responsible for around 8% of global carbon emissions.

Mr Francis says one of the things driving this problem is the fact people appear to be taking shorter and more frequent breaks rather than fewer, but longer, holidays.

This in turn leads to a larger number of flights.

Mr Francis said: “At Responsible Travel, our view is that we should go back to the way we used to travel in the past, or at least how I remember traveling, which is having fewer overseas trips, but to stay longer because fewer trips means less carbon emissions.”