Overcrowded travel destinations: Visitors finding less and less hospitality
European destinations, such as Hallstatt in Austria, Venice, Italy, and Mallorca in Spain, are grappling with the challenges of overtourism. With millions of visitors annually, these locations are experiencing strain on infrastructure, housing markets, and the environment.
Hallstatt, known for its picturesque landscapes, hosts over a million visitors each year, many from Asia. The mayor aims to restrict access to the main road to control the tourist flow. Meanwhile, Hallstatt benefits financially by offering services like free childcare, affordable senior meals, and support for emergency services.
Venice generated over five million euros in entry fees for day-trippers in 2025, yet the problem of overcrowding persisted. Similarly, Venice's neighbour, Italy, struggles with the strain of mass tourism, as hiking trails and historic towns are overcrowded. Four landowners in the Dolomites demand a five euro toll for access to Seceda, a popular viewpoint, to address issues like litter, stressed livestock, trampled alpine pastures, and irresponsible tourists.
Spain is on track to exceed 100 million foreign visitors for the first time in 2025, making it the second most visited country in the world after France. Protests against soaring rental prices caused by holiday apartment demand have appeared in Spain. Efforts focus on distributing tourism more evenly throughout the year and investing in modernized infrastructure. Major cities like Mallorca experience high tourist volume, causing pressure on natural resources and residents’ quality of life.
France emphasizes ecological, inclusive, and digital tourism, pushing rail travel over short-haul flights to reduce environmental impact and disperse tourists from hotspots like Paris or Nice. France also has strict regulation on short-term rentals (capping rental nights and fining non-compliance) to mitigate housing problems caused by vacation lets.
Increasingly, travelers avoid peak season and overcrowded sites, favoring lesser-known destinations and shoulder seasons. Over half of European travelers actively seek niche or less crowded spots, suggesting opportunities to promote sustainable travel and reduce pressure on traditional hotspots.
Challenges across these countries include overwhelming infrastructure and local services, environmental degradation due to high visitor numbers, housing shortages and affordability issues caused by short-term rentals, resident protests and social tensions, and difficulty in enforcing regulations and shifting traveler behavior.
Mykonos has become so expensive that hardly any Greek can afford a holiday there due to its price development. Locals in Scandinavian tourist hotspots, such as Denmark's capital and Norway's fjords, complain about reckless behavior of tourists, like ignoring safety barriers for Instagram shots. Some traders on Lake Garda complain about empty terraces and poor booking figures during the summer.
In Greece, super-destinations like Santorini and Mykonos now have to pay an entrance fee of 20 euros for cruise tourists during the high season. Beaches in Greece are public by law, but beach bars and sun loungers are taking up more and more space, leading to authorities monitoring this more closely and enforcing violations. Some locals in Spain resort to creative forms of protest, such as putting up fake signs warning of jellyfish, rockfall, or swimming bans to keep tourists away from beaches.
Measures against mass tourism are being considered and implemented nationwide in Spain, including significantly increasing the overnight tax, up to 15 euros per night in Barcelona. Employees in Greece cannot find accommodation because almost everything is rented out to tourists.
Despite the challenges, it is clear that European destinations are taking steps to manage tourist volumes through regulations, infrastructure investment, and sustainable tourism promotion. The goal is to balance the economic benefits of tourism with the socio-economic and environmental impacts intensified by seasonal peaks and viral destination popularity.
Transport choices in these overcrowded European destinations are evolving to mitigate the strain on infrastructure. For instance, some cities are investing in public transportation systems to reduce the number of vehicles on the road, improving the lifestyle of residents.
As travelers look for unique and less crowded experiences, a shift in tourist behavior towards niche destinations and off-peak travel is observed, potentially revitalizing lesser-known European locations and promoting sustainable travel lifestyles.
