Overtourism is often addressed with limits, taxes, and restrictions, but part of the international debate proposes a different perspective: not necessarily reducing travelers, but rather distributing them better across space and time. A strategy that involves DMO, transportation, smaller territories, seasonality, and the real capacity of destinations to manage flows.
Add us to your preferred sources.
Overtourism is often described as a problem of quantity: too many tourists, too many people, too many concentrated in the most well-known destinations. From this arise increasingly frequent measures such as controlled access, higher tourist taxes, limits on short-term rentals, restrictions on organized groups, and interventions to reduce pressure on historic centers.
But a provocative question is gaining more ground in the international debate: what if part of the solution to overtourism was, paradoxically, more tourism? Not more tourism in the same places and on the same days, of course, but growth capable of distributing demand, investment, and economic benefits over wider territories and during different periods of the year.
Summary
The problem is not always the total number of tourists
The concept of overtourism describes situations in which visitor pressure exceeds the perceived or real capacity of a destination to manage them without compromising residents’ quality of life, environment, infrastructure, and tourist experience. However, this does not mean that an entire city, region, or country necessarily has “too many tourists.” Very often, pressure concentrates in a few neighborhoods, monuments, beaches, or periods of the year.
A destination can therefore face overcrowding in some areas and underused tourism in others. It is precisely this contradiction that makes the problem more complex.
From Venice to Barcelona: concentration is the real issue
The images of overtourism almost always come from the same places: crowded historic centers, major attractions, cruise ports, neighborhoods that have become symbols of international tourism. Visitors tend to concentrate where there is greater notoriety, ease of access, services, connections, and digital content. Platforms, social networks, and algorithms also contribute to this concentration by frequently suggesting the same attractions and itineraries. The result is a cumulative effect: what is already heavily visited becomes even more visible and therefore even more visited.
More tourism does not mean more people in the same places
The thesis that more tourism could help solve overtourism does not mean further increasing arrivals in already congested destinations. It rather means expanding the geography of the tourist experience: creating travel motivations towards less frequented neighborhoods, secondary cities, rural areas, villages, inland territories, and destinations that have reception capacity but attract only a limited share of flows.
In this perspective, growth becomes a tool for redistribution. A visitor who extends their stay by one or two days and visits nearby territories can generate additional economic value without necessarily increasing pressure on the already congested place.
Seasonality reduction becomes a management strategy
The same reasoning applies to time. Many destinations suffer from overtourism during a few weeks or months, while experiencing much weaker demand during the rest of the year. Seasonality reduction should not therefore be considered only as a commercial strategy to increase hotel occupancy. It can become a real destination management.
Events, connections, tourist products, outdoor activities, culture, gastronomy, and conferences can help shift some demand toward less congested periods. Strategic demand thus becomes different: not only “how do we reduce tourists in August?”, but also “how do we make this destination interesting in March, November or during the week?”.
The role of DMO changes
For years many tourism organizations have had as their main objective the increase of arrivals. Growth in presence was one of the most immediate indicators of a destination’s success. However, overtourism makes this approach increasingly insufficient. DMOs must progressively shift from simple destination marketing to destination management.
This means knowing flows in real time, understanding where they concentrate, identifying areas that still have capacity, coordinating transport and services, and directing communication toward specific objectives. Promotion itself can become a management tool: deciding what to tell, when, and to which markets can help shift demand.
Promoting an alternative destination is not enough
Redistribution cannot be solved simply by publishing a list of “alternative places.” If a territory does not have connections, services, information, accommodation, and bookable products, it will hardly absorb significant flows. The creation of new tourist destinations therefore requires real investments. Transport, digital infrastructure, operator training, accessibility, and reception capacity must go hand in hand with promotion. In the absence of these elements, there is also the opposite risk: simply shifting the overtourism problem from one place to another.
Transport is part of the solution
The possibility of better distributing flows strongly depends on mobility. A visitor may be interested in discovering lesser-known locations, but will hardly do so if reaching them requires three changes or a car. Regional rail connections, buses, maritime services, cycle paths, shared mobility, and fare integration can therefore have a direct impact on the tourist geography of a destination.
In this sense, managing overtourism is not just a matter of tourism marketing. It is also a matter of transport policies and territorial planning.
More nights, not necessarily more arrivals
Another element concerns the way growth is measured. Increasing the value generated by tourism does not necessarily mean increasing the number of arrivals. A destination can focus on longer stays, higher local spending, and wider geographic dispersion. A tourist who stays five nights instead of two can generate more economic value without increasing the overall number of people present at the same time.
This approach also changes the indicators used to evaluate success. Arrivals and overnight stays remain important, but must be complemented by data on geographic distribution, length of stay, expenditure, infrastructure pressure, and residents’ perception.
Sustainability requires measurement
Sustainable destination management requires data. Hospitality Net, in its insights on sustainability in tourism and hospitality, frequently recalls a fundamental principle: you cannot manage what is not measured. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}
To address overtourism, tools are needed that can measure not only how many visitors arrive, but where they are, when they arrive, how long they stay, and which infrastructures they use. Data from mobile phones, bookings, transport, ticketing systems, and platforms can help destinations identify points of greatest pressure and intervene before the problem becomes structural.
Tourism can fund conservation
The overtourism debate also contains a contradiction that is often overlooked. Many areas economically depend on tourism precisely to fund maintenance, heritage conservation, employment, and services. Drastically reducing visitors can therefore have significant economic consequences, especially in destinations that have built a significant part of their economy around hospitality. For this reason, a sustainable strategy must seek a balance between protection and the tourism sector’s ability to generate resources for territories.
When limiting access remains necessary
Redistributing flows does not mean excluding restrictions or limits. In some places, physical and environmental capacity is truly limited, making access control necessary. Natural parks, archaeological sites, fragile ecosystems, and especially small historic centers may require reservations, quotas, or other forms of regulation. The point is that these measures should be part of a broader strategy, not the sole response.
From overtourism to destination management
The central issue is therefore not to establish whether tourism should grow or shrink in absolute terms. The real question is what kind of tourism, where, and when. A destination capable of better distributing visitors can simultaneously reduce pressure on the most congested areas and increase economic opportunities for territories that currently remain on the margins of large flows. However, this requires a change in approach: less focus on simple volume and more on management.
The tourism of the future may therefore not necessarily be tourism with fewer people. It could be tourism more widespread, longer, more distributed, and better governed. And this is probably the real provocation behind the question: what if the problem of overtourism is not tourism itself, but the way we’ve learned to concentrate it?
FAQs on overtourism
What does overtourism mean?
Overtourism refers to a situation in which the presence of visitors generates excessive pressure on a destination, affecting residents’ quality of life, the environment, services, and the tourist experience.
Does overtourism mean there are too many tourists?
Not necessarily. In many cases, the problem is the high concentration of visitors in certain places and periods, while other areas of the same destination receive much lower flows.
How can overtourism be reduced?
Possible strategies include geographic distribution of visitors, off-season promotion, improving transport to less frequented areas, access management, and using data to monitor flows.
Can off-season promotion help against overtourism?
Yes. Encouraging travel during less congested periods can reduce pressure during peak season and at the same time improve the economic sustainability of tourism businesses throughout the year.
What is the role of DMOs in overtourism?
DMOs can contribute by monitoring flows, promoting alternative areas and periods, coordinating operators, and adopting a strategy that moves from simple destination marketing to comprehensive tourism demand management.
Is limiting the number of tourists always the solution?
No. In some destinations, limits can be necessary, especially in the presence of fragile ecosystems or reduced physical capacity. In many other cases, however, better distribution of flows can be more effective than simply reducing the overall number of visitors.
Pubblicato in Destinations
Be the first to comment