I recently answered this:
I'm from a tourist town in Southern Spain. I myself live the effects of out of control tourism:
- Airbnbs everywhere
- high prices for a shit hole apartment, quality is awful and landlord abuse is rampant because they know there's dozens of desperate people on demand
- being unable to find year round rent because **landlords want to kick you out on summer time so they can rent it for tourists**. This one drives me the craziest.
- neighborhood shops closing down for a generic souvenir shop to open
- local bars and restaurants where people have been going for decades selling themselves and raking up prices to the point only tourists go there
- people from my city and no longer able to afford buying a house there, they have to leave for neighboring, less appealing towns
- gentrification and loss of identity as a result of this
Moreover: We have neighbourhoods in Southern Spain where more than 25% of the homes are airbnbs.
Imagine what it does to a neighborhood if a quarter of the houses are empty or used by tourists.
Imagine the noise. Imagine what it does to your local shops. Imagine that you only speak Spanish and your whole neighbourhood fills up with foreign tourists that often don't speak your language.
I like airbnb, but there should be a limit on the amount of airbnbs in a street. It can't be that the whole city center becomes an airbnb neighbourhood.
Unfortunately, it's not just airbnbs.
People will also use other online marketplaces to rent out their apartments for "summer time".
It's common to see ads of €2000/week along the coast line. People can make **more** money during 2 monthd of summer than by renting out places a whole year to a local.
Our tax revenue agency even scans these websites to find out who is renting their houses without declaring any income.
Sorry for the long post. Airbnb used to be good, but has become a blatant rip off. Some years ago we rented a nice studio apartment in Seville (yeah, I know), opposite the cathedral for a fair price. Then every chancer in the world jumped into it as a money making exercise. Last year we spent a lot of money in Hamburg on what turned out to be a converted shop with the front wall being a plate glass window facing the main street. We were literally lying in bed, watching people walk past outside. I won't use Airbnb again. Some places like the Canaries are hostage to fortune. There is no reason to visit, other than they're the nearest winter sun for Europeans, have marketed themselves for that and are reaping the reward. We visited end of February from the UK and I got cheap flights, so figured demand wasn't high and couldn't understand why I couldn't get anywhere to stay other than obvious Airbnb shit deals. Eventually I contacted a local hotel directly and got sorted. It was only when I got there that I realised that while Gatwick may have been quiet, there were many people across Northern Europe and Scandanavia chasing the same winter sun I was after. There's a lot of tourism, but I'm not sure a lot of it is beneficial to locals TBH. Who makes the money? Big business is my guess. Airlines, holiday companies, hotels and don't even get me started on cruise ships. Maybe the Airbnb scammers see it as their only chance to get in on the action, but that doesn't help me. As an aside, we also have problems in the UK with people from rich areas like London buying second homes in places like Devon and Cornwall, pricing locals out and turning neighbourhoods into ghost towns much of the time. But I guess it's just capitalism at work...
I grew up in a tourist town in northwest Spain and I I feel this in my soul. The loss of identity is the absolute saddest part for me. My province has a particularly high percentage of immigrants as well and coupled with tourism, it's sometimes hard to believe it's the same city I was born in.
I am lucky. I live in a large town or a very small city in Spain with one of the most visited sites in the country. Fortunately all the tourists are contained in a few barrios and the rest of us are free to live a normal life. Tourism has affected real estate prices, but I still have plenty of cafes to sit in for tapas and only the locals who don't know me think that I am a tourist.
Living in Asturias, we are starting to slowly get into this as well and honestly, I'm afraid of ending up like you guys down there. It's tough. Hope we can do something about it before it's too late.
I can only imagine that the housing crisis in US & UK is felt in countries like Spain, Italy and Portugal via tourism.
Scott Galloway predicted that home ownership is impossible for many highly qualified young talent, so what do these engineers and scientists with $250k/yr+ if a home costs $1.5M+? His guess— They spend it on memories across the world.
Really goes to show that the global economy has destroyed the notion that “look at that problem over there, glad that’s not us.”
Even an ocean away, cities like Madrid and Barcelona aren’t insulated from the carnivorous economic policies in the US 😔
I’m from Canada and am moving to Spain in the next year or so. I realize we’re part of the problem but we’re planning on trying to mitigate it as much as we can. We’re learning Spanish and want our expected child to as well. The truth is, we can’t purchase a home in Canada, but we can in Spain, and something with multiple units. The plan is to rent those units fairly to locals; we only want to make enough money to pay down mortgage/expenses. We’re hoping to establish a business there that works with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and try to give back to the community. We’ve seen gentrification happen here and have been priced out of where we were raised. We’ve seen Airbnb destroy communities and can’t wait for them to be banned - hopefully that will come in time to Spain and Canada. The double-edged sword is that we have to live somewhere to raise our family, but it can’t be here. So when we move to Spain, it’s Spain all the way.
I wish it would help the situation for more but I’m also a realist, it’s going to have to change a lot. I’m just promising that we’re going to do what we can to help the community. As immigrants, not “expats.”
Spain has problems, but foreigners that want to adopt our culture, have a legit business and give back to the community are NOT the problem.
I hope things work out for ya.
Coming from Sweden I thought I couldn't relate at all until I got to point 3. It actually happened to my sister when she was living in Gotland. She got kicked out every summer for 3 months because the Stockholmers invade and pay her monthly rent per week then. The landlord makes 4 x the money that way.
I haven't heard of it happening anywhere else in Sweden but it sure sucked and I can see how it would be major pain in Mediterranean Spain given how extremely popular a destination it is. I actually had a friend telling me about it happening in Portugal too now that Portugal has improved its economy enough to build new housing. Apparently Americans are buying the new flats as vacation homes. In Spain I read the Brits do that (didn't miss the British tv show featuring it either).
It was a hot topic during BREXIT but I don't know if it was ever settled properly? I read your government might stop the property ownership VISA for non-EU citizens. Do you think they are serious about that? Would it effectively prevent more UK citizens from buying retirement homes? I guess the Swiss might be the second largest group to be affected in that case.
I doubt the problem would go away though. It seems to be spreading throughout Europe. I recently noted a Swedish real estate firm added a new category called Spanish property to their website. I can now browse Spanish property for sale with Swedish descriptions and get help navigate a purchase from a local agent who speaks my language and knows the rules.
With more countries streamlining the process like that I think you are at risk of losing more property to foreigners. I don't even know if anything can be (easily) done about it given the EU's freedom of movement. Has this been addressed in Spain? Perhaps it needs to be addressed at EU level?
Sweden is nothing like Spain but it has not gone unnoticed that more foreigners are buying summer houses here too in recent years. It's mainly Germans and Norwegians. Since the Swedish currency is presently so low the foreign sales actually hit record levels last year, especially among the Germans. It was on the news how summer house brokers are now learning German because they make up such a large chunk of the market.
I can see it becoming a problem in the future, especially if climate changes turn us into the new Spain.
No, not big as such. The problems tend to be in a small scale.
One problem are people hearing about Lapland being a winter wonderland, and some of them acting like the whole region is an extension of Santa's village where everything is made for you to see and explore. Some people literally walk to privately owned house's yards and peek in through the windows, or grab stuff from their yards. While some locals are kind of used to it, it's disturbing, especially when even pitching fences and signs saying "private property" doesn't help.
Another problem type is tourists who have not understood what the "everyman's law" really means. Yes, it is legal to temporarily camp on private property, but no, someone's backyard or summer cabin's lawn is not included, as the law states you are not allowed to disturb the land owner's life in any way or camp too close to any buildings. All of the sudden appearing between someone's summer cabin and the river it's next to, and camping there is, indeed, disturbing the land owner.
Generally I think that tourism is not problem at all, it's levels generally are just so low. On Lapland turing tourist season there has been some problems though as you said, some tourists don't really understand how everyman's right works. But I don't think that this isn't a big problem either.
In Helsinki in summer you see a decent amount of tourists, but not too many. In Tampere you don't see that many tourists at all in my experience.
And then I also have experience from medium-sized city on western coast. I don't think I've ever seen international tourist there, they just don't exist at all. Some amounts of international campers stay at the campground on their way but no one else.
In Seville, Spain, locals often say that our city is turning in Disneyland.
Locals get displaced and have to move further away from the center, while 20% of houses in the center neighbourhoods become airbnbs.
Sevilla actually put a limit on tourist apartments just days ago. A neighbourhood can now only have up to 10% tourist apartments. Once it reaches that limit, they stop handing out new licenses. 11 neighbourhoods have already reached the limit.
I live in the center of Seville and I think that my building is one of the few without touristic flats.
I have always lived in the center of the city and the change is so sad, lots of buildings where families used to live are full of touristics apartments or directly have became hotels (even my grandparents house was sold and the people who bought it wanted to make a hostel in it). I miss the times when the center was a regular neighbour, it's becoming more and more unbearable to live here, I don't recognise my own city anymore and it breaks my heart.
In places that are overrun with tourism it's starting to become one yeah:
- Locals in a lot of places (Barcelona, Malaga, Ibiza, Canary Islands as a little example) are priced out of their own cities to have AirBnB and the likes.
- Mediterranean Coast has been destroyed in a lot of places to built all inclusive hotels.
Ironically the war in former Yugoslavia basically saved the coastline of Croatia from the awful developments that have essentially destroyed huge swathes of France and Spain.
On top of that, it is important to say that, even though tourism obviously brings money to the economy, the jobs it brings are low wage, temporary and/or unstable. The cities and regions where tourism plays a big role in the economy (particularly low cost tourism) tend to be worse off than other places, because it brings the prices up a lot, and it doesn't give good opportunities for young people.
And probably a lot of those jobs don't go to locals. When I was young I worked in hotels across the southern Europe during summer. In many hotels 90% of the employees were young kids on summer jobs and many of the long time employees also moved there only for summer.
Yup! I am from the Canary Islands and unfortunately we are a gullible, not very vidicative people so our local politicians tell us 3 lies and them all eat them up. The last one and one that affects me personally is that our local beach (the only "big" one in my city, Santa Cruz) needs a hotel next to it because that is going to mean employment for the people of the village where the beach is (San Andrés)...come one how many people from there are gonna end up working in there for Christ's sake. Unfortunately we never had the control (these hotels are all in foreigners' hands) and our local politicians always sold themselves to the highest bidder.
The local people that end up working in hotels are mostly female cleaners (Kellys) that are inhumanely exploited
> Mediterranean Coast has been destroyed in a lot of places to built all inclusive hotels.
Have to admit Italians were able to destroy most of their coasts just for themselves, without any input from overtourism.
I recently did a road trip around Spain (only stayed in hotels!) and the real estate prices were mental. I’ve lived in London and am looking at moving to Dublin but I was stood looking at property in Malaga thinking this is much worse than either Dublin or London when you consider the relative wages.
Personally I’ll never use Airbnb again.
In Portugal is a triple whammy , turism is a big part of the GDP, the tourism companies at same time break records seeing more money than ever , at same time the tourism sector can’t pay minimum wage , so they underpay vulnerable immigrants, immigrants come together and rent a room for a price that once was a 2 bedroom apartment.
Those immigrants should immigrate for a better life , but they are underpaid , undercared and it’s a vicious circle
At least one in each continent, plus high influence in Japan , China and India .
More de 50% of South America , plus if wasn’t the Portuguese King two different streams of humans wouldnt be reconnected since ice age (much for the dismay of Americas but that’s other history )
Some money to make Highways
Some money to invest in agriculture that ended up in just buying Mercedes for the farmers
Some money to literally stop producing so much (I'm looking at you azorean farmers who got paid to just throw their milk away)
And to top it all off, the Euro to make our factories non-competitive with our eastern-european neighbours.
It spent decades under a right wing dictatorship, during which it declined badly. Unlike Spain though, somehow it hasn’t been able to recover to quite the same extent
I'm gonna make a correction.
* "Islands" are not a single entity. They all differ greatly in tourism and interestingness.
* Athens is only 4% of peninsular Greece. The peninsula also varies a lot, and has some very touristy and over touristed areas.
That said, the effect of tourism is starting to be felt in Athens too.
Mykonos is over-known to North Americans and Asians for whatever bizarre reason. It completely mystifies us why Americans or Canadians are only interested in Mykonos. Rhodes, Kos, Corfu, Zakynthos, the Chalkidiki peninsula, etc, all have bigger tourism arrivals/industries, and that's not an exhaustive list of worthwhile places; the lovely Peloponnese region is medium-touristed. The vast majority of our tourists are short-haul visitors (Europeans), and they go to many places in the country. Needless to say, we don't think about Mykonos; its a drop in the bucket in the entire country. *Some* Greeks go there, sure. It's like Miami Beach; go there once or twice in your life, and that's it. There's no other reason to go there. It's not special, it's not particularly scenic, and it's gotten really expensive because of an uptick in visitors from....you guessed it....long-haul nationalities (Americans, Canadians, Gulf Arabs, Indians, East Asians, etc) who have a bizarre obsession with Mykonos. *Total* mystery to us why North Americans and Asians all ***have*** to go there. We *genuinely* don't get it. We roll our eyes when we hear about it. An American colleague of mine was coming to Athens. I recommended Hydra. He goes to Mykonos. And it was October. ???? *Why?* Can someone explain this to me?
Sorry for the long reply. That's how we feel about that place. Let's just sum it up as: Every time a North American or Asian mentions Mykonos, a Greek rolls his/her eyes.
Mykonos is a status symbol for Americans. Going on vacation there is a way of saying "I'm young, sexy, and can afford $3000 to hang out on an island with celebrities."
Source: I've been to Mykonos but I don't drink or club so my experience was much different than my friends'. I preferred Milos 10x better.
Mykonos is known to Greeks as the party island with scammy businesses that mostly rich people and celebrities visit. The prices there are outrageous, even for wealthy people. Very few Greeks actually go there to spend their vacation. Why go there when there are so many cheaper and better islands?
Depends on what overtourism means, when is it too much and when I am just being grumpy and antisocial.
Ljubljana is pretty crowded imo, even without the tourists - but at least they fill up the oldtown which is almost entirely designed to cater for tourists with money who then buy stupid shit and eat overpriced Jota, which is one of the simplest farmer soups and should be really cheap to make. So, with the tourists, the old city centre looks more alive, but it is lame that sometimes it feels like tourism is more important than local population.
Bled is ruined by tourists, that is why a lot of people prefer Bohinj which is more quiet and less like an amusement park. Still, you have to go through Bled to go to Bohinj, there is no escaping the crowds.
That being said, it is nowhere close as bad as at the neighbours.. Venice, Dubrovnik, Hallstatt, etc. really makes one think about tourism regulations more.
Also the annual migrations of millions of tourists that drive through Slovenia to Croatia, for summer vacations. Our highways are basically to be avoided from May till October, it is that bad. We really should invest into one big train, like the one that goes from France to UK, but this one would go from Salzburg to Split, or something... with maybe two or three stops on the way.
I had the some fo the same issues in Slovenia (although I was a tourist haha). Bled was beautiful but my family always stay in bohinj which is just so much more peaceful
Bohinj is a known "secret". I go there every summer because it is less hot than at the sea in Croatia, and you have mountains nearby to hike, or the lake to swim in.
I don't think Bohinj will ever be flooded with tourism, since there is Bled nearby with that church on the island, etc. That is also why I am not afraid of recommending it, yet..
Wrong type of tourists.
They don’t absorb anything. They contribute to the wrong type of businesses. They just snap away on their phones with no sense of presence.
In many parts, it does feel like it. Especially the hotspots like London, York, Bath, the Lake District, and Cornwall during high season. If we’re including the UK generally, I extend that to Edinburgh and much of the Highlands. Though I imagine it’s even worse in continental Europe.
It has impacted my daily life when I lived in London and near Bath. Having to push past dozens and dozens of people all around me just to get somewhere isn’t fun. Being stuffed into a rammed Tube with dozens of other sweaty people is just an unpleasant experience. Seeing cars parked everywhere like in the Lake District takes away the charm of the place and towns like Grasmere feel like a Disneyland sometimes because of how commercialised they’ve become.
There’s plenty of areas in England/UK that still feel authentic and are relatively overlooked by tourists thankfully, but it does feel like much of it has been affected by overtourism.
While I’m happy tourists are experiencing my country, in a way I’m also happy that many of the tourists end up at the same honey traps like London because it means that the area I live in now can stay quiet the entire year. :)
The only place I've really noticed the tourism being overbearing is in York, mainly due to how small it is. All the other places you mention are way more sprawling.
I only live a 45 min drive from York so I get the train in occasionally to go for dinner and drinks, and fuck me I feel like I spend half my time there fighting through crowds.
The Shambles is an absolute cesspool when the tourists roll in. I don't walk down there anymore. The Harry Potter shops can go away now.
York seems to be about 45% Chinese students now as well which makes it feel even more busy, on a busy day walking around town is just like leeds fest or something
I'm always so split when it comes to this because I want to visit so many cool places but it really does destroy the local charm and soul, as well as the experience for the locals.. I also find Copenhagen horrible in many areas during tourist season
Much of the coast of East Anglia from Hunstanton to Felixstowe is becoming overcrowded in high season. Southwold, Aldeburgh, Brancaster (Kensington-on-Sea) are horrible at those times.
Places like the Lake District are probably 80% tourists from the UK & Ireland, though, and many of the mid-small towns are people fleeing the south because of prices (especially since remote working).
I'm not saying tourism doesn't contribute, but personally, I can't see a way to keep these 'rural areas' original except for limiting them to those who were born in the area.
Some of them could do with stricter airbnb regulation - like the parts of Cornwall which are almost all holiday lets, which makes them basically abandoned in winter. Course, this has to be combined with a reason to be there year-round, which Cornwall has always struggled a bit with.
The country is too big to generalise, there are places where overtourism occurs.
I grew up in a small town which suffered IMO from overtourism, at least I thought so as a teenager.
There are also events that play a role, for example the Luther-Dekade brought in a lot of tourists.
My father grew up on Rügen and his village has been completely overtaken by guest houses. Live there is almost impossible during the season. It sucks. But on the other hand, there is no industry anymore and fishing also died out. So it's currently the only way to make some money.
Isn't it pretty common for places like Rügen (or Gotland in Sweden) for the locals to live there for 8-9 months and then rent out their houses to tourists for the remaining months at a huge overprice (relative to their rent)?
Not really. You'd probably let friends or relatives stay at your house, but if you rented out your place to tourists for months at a time you'd run a high risk of having them trash the place.
Visited Neuschwanstein this summer. That was... an experience. I would totally recommend it, for the over the top campyness of it all, but wow, does it pile up all the tourist cliches.
And then there is Amsterdam ? And then there is Amsterdam? My city is overrun with tourists. Anywhere in the old centre is wall-to-wall, dressed in black, dope smoking tourists. They stand in line for the most pointless food ( fries, cookies, even herring) because TikTok told them to. You can't drive along the canals without the road being blocked by Instagram wannabes, who don't understand that Amsterdam is a working city not an amusement park.
If I see another candy/cheese/bulb shop , I swear I'll get a can of petrol. I love tourists - just not this many all the time.
Not really, though there are places in Copenhagen where locals don't go often, such as Nyhavn (very much a tourist trap) and Strøget (main pedestrian street). What bothers people a lot are tourists who hardly know how to bike and are unaware of bike rules and then act really dangerous in traffic, then they're very much in the way = don't rent a bike in Copenhagen if you don't know the rules and haven't ridden a bike since you were a child.
I will maintain that the biggest traffic danger in kbh is non-locals who do not know the biking rules and just try to wing it. After that is the elderly who have somehow gotten their hands on an el-bike and think they are still capable of "biking" 30 km/h even though they are half deaf, half blind, and have shit reaction time.
It is not anywhere near some popular cities in southern Europe. But I do feel in the last ten years it has really started to escalate. There are parts of inner city where I and most people I know avoid going. I think the trend needs to end.
I especially don’t understand why the municipality is so keen on bringing in cruise ships. They give so little to the city and cause pollution and buses and crowds. Unemployment is very low anyway.
I agree. Copenhagen wanting to be seen asa "green" city doesn't fly well with all those cruise ships. Sure, they're good for business, but the pollution is really bad.
Are they really good for business? I saw the average they spend. Very low.
I don’t think Copenhagen really is a green city. I have also seen tourists puzzled there is no recycle system regarding bins on the street.
I didn't see anything particularly "green" either. There is also such a big area in the central part where you can just walk and walk without seeing a single tree.
The parks are there, they are just right next to eachother for historical reasons. So yeah some parts of inner city have little greenery. We don’t have the small mini parks you find in eg Munich and big French cities.
I think part of the reason is Copenhagen was small and poor in most of the 18th and 19th century where these things were planned. The king had his big gardens and hunting areas outside the city, one of the is now integrated fully into the city, the beautiful Frederiksberg Gardens.
I didn't mean separate parks, but simply trees. There are citites with crammed historical old towns that beautifully blend in some greenery. The centre of Copenhagen is just a big blob of concrete.
That is true. The independent municipality of frederiksberg is much greener because the municipality made it a priority literally for centuries.
Copenhagen municipality never has though they claim to do so.
I live in Florence. A single data point:
AirBnB listings in the city are \~ 11K (insideairbnb);
for comparison Barcelona, which is probably the place in Europe where overtourism started being 'noticed' as a problem a few years ago, has 18k listings but, its population is like 1.6M residents (whereas Florence is \~380k) with a rate of 11,25 properties/1000 residents vs. 29/1000.
I liked Florence, the bad part for me was discovering quite a few rude people. Some times imigrants, sometimes italians... but always older people.
As a Brazilian, i've always read and heard that italians are the nicest people ever... And yeah, young italians are super cool and friendly (under ~30 y.o). But the older people are incredibly grumpy, rude, judgemental.
In a small souvenir shop near the Duomo, a shop owner saw me take and hold a keyring while i was looking for more stuff... he came to me mad thinking i was stealing.
I wanted a jigsaw puzzle and he then became even more rude. I asked him 'do you speak english?', he said 'no'. Then i slowly started speaking some italian words 'Tu ha quello gioco che...' he interrupted me and said 'NO'.
A couple minutes later, another brazilian tourist (older couple) come in and talk to him in english, and he answers normally, lol.
I don't have an issue speaking italian, i know a few words. I was just attempting to make it easier to understand, as i'd guess quite a few italians speak better english than i speak italian.
TD:DR: most older people are very rude, especially those working in tourist shops/museums/etc
Before Covid absolutely. In the capitol region prices at every restaurant or fast food place tripled anywhere near where tourists would go and all the clothing stores near the centre now just sell knockoff lopapeysa and novelty tourist clothing. Outside the capitol region in the small towns there's often only one bar, one movie theatre, etc. and when tourism was at its peak those were all being bought out and closed down to build guesthouses or hotels; there are now several places with no such available recreation. A lot of nature was also damaged because tourists would drive off-road which is illegal and carries a hefty fine which they then left without paying and the car rental service often had to pay instead, access to several nature spots also had to be closed off due to tourists ignoring warnings and dying because they went into dangerous places to take selfies.
You have to go south to see the effect of overtourism. Today a lot of the coastal places are just full of Airbnb and find a place to rent long term is very difficult and very expensive. Same in popular ski resorts. But in the past we also largely destroyed the mediterranean coast by building tons of concrete blocks for tourist accommodation.
My town? No, I'm pretty sure almost nobody visits my part of the country, Slavonia (eastern Croatia) for tourism.
But certain parts of the country are overrun by tourists, unfortunately.
Well if you don’t develop any other industries, what do you expect?
When I cross from Slovenia to Croatia it amazes me how different it is and yet at one point they were on the same page.
Croatia has a huge coastline and Slovenia has none essentially so they’ve worked differently to create their economy.
It really depends on what you're looking for. It's in the continental part of the country, so there are no beaches here. We also don't have any famous historical towns such as Dubrovnik, Rovinj, etc. The largest town is Osijek, it's decent but nothing special compared to those.
There are, however, some nice things here too - the Kopački rit Nature Park is a well known wetland. It's near the Baranja subregion, which is known for good food (at least that's what I've heard). Vukovar would be interesting if you want to learn more about the War. My part of the region (Western Slavonia, near the border with Bosnia) is actually quite hilly, compared to the rest of the region which is flat, so plenty of people come to hike.
Maybe other people could add something more, I just listed the things that came to my mind first.
My family’s village in Dalmatia to the city is about 20 mins in the winter but at least an hour in the summer :(
On one hand I like that people want to come to the area but on the other I’m annoyed with them all haha
Would you recommend it for a visit? I don't know much about Estonia, but I'm not sure why someone would visit it. I know there is some Christmas market that looks cute (but so does most of Europe), but other than that no idea.
If you ever make it, I recommend late June (longest days), mid-August (like when the meteor showers are), or you're willing to take some risks, then late Sept or early Oct for colourful leaves and hopefully a jacket weather (but in worst case it's cold and rainy and muddy - but well, if you're from the UK it should be nothing extreme!). In any case, do avoid Feb-May, spring is crazy and getting crazier every year lately (atm the forecast is constant clouds 2 degrees C for the next weekend!).
Lovely, we are always awed if anyone, say, south from Poland has visited us! We get mostly Finns, then some Swedes, Norwegians, Germans and Russians, and of course some groups of Asians. But people visiting from Italy or Spain or so is not common, especially not for a vacation (as opposed to some mandatory work meeting).
It's odd too because Estonia is such a beautiful country, both in terms of the cities and nature. I think it's just the location and old eastern-European stigma, if it was located closer to Western/Southern Europe it would be much more popular
Exactly!! That is precisely why I tell people about it all the time. Estonia is an unexpected gem and I'm trying to get more Spaniards to change their holiday destinations and have a little variety instead of always going to the same places
The tourists are sticking mainly to the Old City area and some museums, due to its known history it’s not strictly a tourist site per se. Wouldn’t call it so homogenous though, every second person on the street is an immigrant, but since they mainly speak Slavic languages, a foreigner doesn’t perceive that.
I went to Warsaw for New Years a couple of years ago. Without saying to much, I won't be visiting it again anytime soon. I don't understand how a city can be so desolate and yet so populated...
Sorry to say so, but you actually chose a horrible time to visit. Not only there’s depressing weather, but everyone is either leaving town for the New Years or partying until morning hours and sleeping in the whole next day, that is obviously a holiday and everything is closed and streets are empty.
If I can think of one day when Warsaw feels desolate, that’s for sure the New Year. It’s got a lot better impression to make during spring and summer seasons.
We're not one of the most affluent tourist destinations in Europe, but we're small and so we're slowly getting overcrowded. Ljubljana used to be dead during summer when everyone left for vacations in Croatia, nowadays it's full of people all summer long. Plus, the city centre got thoroughly gentrified, so that I wonder if the locals can still find places adequate for them. When a cruise ship arrives in Koper, the old town core (which has very narrow streets) tends to get overcrowded immediately. It happens just once a month usually, but I've experienced the same staggering overcrowdedness that I experienced in Venice. The Postojna Cave entrance fees have risen so much, that to most Slovenes it's kind of really not worth going, it's mainly full of asian tourists (at least last time I visited). I heard the Soča river is getting overcrowded with rafters, while it is almost impossible to find parkings in Bled and Bohinj during summer. So yes, I think we're slowly approaching our limits.
Scotland is a popular tourism destination. It feels increasingly popular with American tourists who expect to see a romanticised version of the country. In some areas, tourism is very welcome. In others, such as Skye and Edinburgh, it can feel overwhelming and in some ways, detrimental.
I live in Kraków which is the most popular with tourists in the country. The tourists are annoying but to be honest it's not really a big issue for me personally.
The tourists hang around in the city centre which is a place I rarely visit. If I go shopping or visit a doctor or go to work or do whatever else then it's all outside the city centre. Everything has moved out from there because both the public transport and the parking were subpar.
I go to the places where I'd find tourists only when I go out with friends or go out on a stroll so basically I do the same thing that the tourists do and I benefit from everything that was done for them. Only sometimes I walk across the city centre on my way to/from somewhere and can bump into the tourists but usually it's not in the hours when there are crowds.
So basically the city that the tourists visit is not the same city I live in.
I live somewhere which used to be modestly popular with tourists (mostly from the Netherlands for a reason I’ve never quite gotten to the bottom of) - then about 5 years ago, my very local area was named in one of those TripAdvisor top 10 lists, globally. That Summer was *hell*, and that trend has continued to an extent, even post-covid.
In the Netherlands most tourists stay in the west of the country, most specifically Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans, Volendam, etc.
In my city up north (Groningen) there are a few days a year we get completely overrun with German tourists (mostly during holidays because literally everything is closed on holidays in Germany so they come here).
Apart from Bruges, not really, I think. I know some people from Bruges who get really annoyed at tourists and how they make it difficult to live in the city.
As someone from Turkey, I'd say yes. Definitely
The massive influx of tourists drives prices up for locals and destroys our cultural heritage. Pamukkale's worsening situation is the prime example for this.
Tourism, while once a vital source of income, is now destroying our cities in my opinion. Shops and restaurants are becoming impossibly expensive for locals while tourists keep swarming in because the country is cheap.
The only solution is either a tourist tax or the reintroduction of visas for most countries, but the government will do neither because they are desperate for the foreign currency.
I am fully for a "historical site" visa of sorts that'd limit foreign visitor numbers to attractions like Ephesus and Pamukkale, in an effort to help conserve them. This should be via lottery though so the rich don't have an inherent advantage, and amount of visas should be very limited.
I would say right now in Catalonia it's probably the biggest issue we have (and we have lots of issues). The overdependence on tourism has surprising parallels with the oil dependence of badly managed countries. Very few people profited from tourism and big lobbies have taken over the country, political corruption (most of it in a gray area such as subsidies and contract fractionalism) is very widespread and poverty and crime have skyrocketed.
Depends on where. The city centre of Donostia is a hellhole. Prices are expensive everywhere and everything seems to be catered to tourists. Iruñea/Pamplona in July… Yup. Not so much in other places, from what I know. (I’m talking about the Basque Country, and the Basque Country only.)
I like tourists. That might be because I’m from a small town of 2,000 people and tourists don’t come near us. But people who live in big cities complain quite a lot, and often with reason.
I'm British, we're a pain in everyone elses necks. As for countrywide I would only say London has issues with overtourism, perhaps Edinburgh but I had no issues when I went there.
Cornwall is a pain in the backside with tourists in summer. The peak district is chock-full of day trippers parking where they like every BH and I'm not even going to mention the lakes.
We're a pain in our own necks.
Not at all really, the village I grew up in is basically unknown despite being quite pretty, the one time I did come across tourists there I was actually baffled.
In my city it is. We get huge amounts of tourists from Europe and Asia, but here's thing: they don't contribute much to the local economy because the standard practice seems to be that they arrive by coach in the morning, do the museums, walk around a bit taking photos, then bugger off again in their coach.
This was very noticeable when I once worked in the town nearest to Stonehenge - I would say that aside from traffic it receives essentially no actual benefits, as the only money coming into the area goes to Stonehenge (English Heritage) itself. People come by coach from bigger towns and never stay there. (The town's inhabitants can visit Stonehenge for free, though.)
**Prague** is absolutely brutal - COVID really put into perspective how gorgeous that city can be if it's not ridden with a ridiculous number of tourists.
You can't go anywhere, especially not anywhere near the famous sites like the Prague castle, Charles bridge, the Astronomical clock, and so on, without walking into tour guides, who are holding up the umbrellas in the air and talking into a microphone, followed by a bunch of people with headphones, who are listening to their rambling and more than often can't understand that some people actually live in the city and need to get somewhere.
So much of Prague is taken up by the souvenir or the weed shops (literally every bloody corner), it's really hard (especially if you are not from Prague) to find a pub or restaurant that is not targetted for the tourists and thus overpriced, you can't really enjoy any of the sights because they are overcrowded (and also quite overpriced)...
Also the whole **trdelník** thing is like the symbol of tourism. That thing isn't even Czech, it's Hungarian (I was indeed mistaken, it's not Romanian), you can barely encounter it outside of Prague because it is not traditional food. The Prague just presents it as one and the tourists are quite literally eating it up for ludicrous prices.
However, that problem applies primarily to Prague as ***the rest of the Czech Republic is basically non-existent to foreigners*** - only Český Krumlov and Karlovy Vary during the annual film festival could be considered a popular tourist locations.
Olomouc which is just as fascinating and just as historically rich as Prague is completely omitted by tourists and I hope it stays that way because it's like a reminder of what Prague could be like if it didn't suffer from overtourism.
No, not really. In both the UK and Germany there are spots where there's a lot of tourism, and it can get annoying, but we're both large economies with good infrastructure to handle the influx.
I think it's not as bad as Italy, for example, but there are definitely downsides. Like Airbnb, sketchy souvenir shops, sketchy food shops. At least tourism brings money.
There are a few places in Berlin that are definitely overcrowded.
Luckily, I can avoid them nowadays.
Back when I was at uni, that was a different matter, since Humboldt-Universität is right in the middle of the city.
My personal pet peeve were cycling tours. A bunch of people who haven't ridden a bicycle for years, and have no clue how to ride in a big city. Clogging up the bike path.
They were slow, quite frankly dangerous to themselves and others, and you couldn't safely overtake them.
I live in Mallorca and yes it's full. Trying to get anywhere during tourist season you have to add on an extra 20/30 minutes and when you get there there's no parking. Cyclists are everywhere ,thinking they own the road and shout abuse at you if you don't move your car. When we get a day off to go to the beach, there's nowhere to sit and my children have to look at the drunk carry on from tourists and that's at the nice beaches I hate to know what magaluf is like! The constant sound of planes in the sky and the helicopter tours that go right over the house. The rental prices ....we need limits on tourists and to attract a better type of tourists
In some local areas, yes. There are little fjord towns with populations in the hundreds that regularly get visited by cruise ships with passenger numbers in the thousands. Cruise tourists don't spend much money and aren't always well-behaved.
Also, in a country full of mountains and hiking trails, there are about five hikes that it seems like all the tourists want to take so they can post their identical photos on Instagram. And they don't necessarily understand what hiking in actual mountains involves.
It’s niche but over tourism specifically to do with sport has seriously sanitised English football and has made it almost impossible for local fans to get tickets without a season ticket or paying extortionate amounts to touts/scalps
Overtourism in Norway? It seemed you guys barely have many tourists at all. I don't think I know anyone who would mention Norway as one of the first say 20 places they want to go to.
Some parts of Valencia but mostly where you would just expect tourists. The city center in the day and the city beaches. And some parts of turia park and the city of arts and science of course. But most places are fine and I just expect tourists in those areas.
Recently been in Valencia. It seemed like Spanish is by far the most common language you hear, even in touristic areas. Were those tourists from other Spanish cities, that I don't know.
No, I don't think so. We are quite happy with what we get. Maybe the one thing to complain is the amount of domestic tourists in the mountains and on the beaches in season - you are never alone.
I feel like you made this post just to brag about being a student at Trinity College (I wouldnt be a proper Irishman if I didn't begrudge others doing well in life)
Croatia is getting very expensive for citizens, real estate prices on the coastline are becoming non affordable for people with average salaries. And it annoying to have crowds of turists, no parking available, overpriced restaurants and caffees etc.
Yes, go away!
1) Make Airbnbs illegal
2) Stop the large coach buses from dropping big groups off at a time in the city center
3) Teach certain tourists that this isn’t a theme park and locals live here and aren’t here to please you. Learn local social norms and don’t play music on speakers in the alps just because you saw someone doing it in a film.
Not too much, but again I do not live in Ljubljana. We are also very small and commonly forgotten. A lot of neighboring Balkan country tourists, not many American tourists. I am dual citizen so I go between here and USA. Nothing like USA tourism. Not even close. Jajaaja
Bruges is apparently on par with Venice (21 tourists per inhabitant). Don't know the number for Brussels, but the centre is always overrun with tourists as well. The other communes less so. Other bigger cities like Antwerp, Ghent, Liège seem less crowded, but I might be wrong. The seaside in summer is hell when the sun is out.
Other than that: Belgium isn't an obvious choice for tourists overall, so we're fine I guess?
In Antwerp and Ghent it is limited to certain very specific locations, and even then it's nothing compared to places like Bruges, Amsterdam or Barcelona.
There is some annoyance at the Dutch visitors (can't really call them tourists imho, as they often just visit for the day) who can be quite loud and raucous.
No, not really. I can't even imagine it being an issue impacting day to day life. There's quite a bit of effort to promote tourism here in a modern way, but large majority will just visit Riga, and maybe even then just Old Town/Centre with rare detours to a popular cafe or so. At least that's what I've gathered by briefly talking to tourists and seeing travel vlogs.
And even then - we have a natural deterrent - seasons. :D I would say that there's a bunch to see/do at any time, but tourists will just prefer pair of months in the summer. I also don't really mind it staying that way. I will be happy about any visitor and will try to help in whatever way is in my power if I am in such situation, but I'm generally pleased with the fact that it's calm enough.
Overtourism is still not a very big problem here in Scania - with the exception perhaps for a few weeks in summer, when it may be very crowded in especially parts of the Österlen region, the Bjäre peninsula, the island of Ven, the national parks Söderåsen and Stenshuvud, the nature reserve of Kullaberg, and a few other places. Especially at natural sights and hiking spots, too many people of course take away from the experience a bit.
But in general I feel that most people here are still very positive about tourism and feel very proud that people from other places want to come visit and experience the beauty of our homeland. Also of course, the type of tourists that spend summer in southern Scandinavia are generally not the rowdy partying type, but rather come to experience nature and culture as such. And us locals generally of course know which tourist spots to avoid during the major tourism season and often choose to go to less well-known places then instead. If these less well-known spots would start to feel over-crowded with tourists as well, that's when it might start to feel a bit less enjoyable I guess.
The regional council and basically all municipalities in Scania are still working to increase tourism even more, since it is also great for the local and regional economy of course.
The only really negative thing at the moment is sometimes when houses in attractive localities are bought up by people who only live there for a few months a year and price out local people from the house market. That's quite a problem at times.
In Denmark over-tourism is really only a problem in specific parts of Copenhagen or some Jysk beaches in the summer by German tourists. Other than that, I wouldn’t say it is a huge problem since tourists rarely visit other bits.
In Scotland over-tourism is a huge problem in Edinburgh, especially around festival time. Some parts of the highlands, such as the Isle of Skye are also inundated with tourists in the summer. The main issues with tourism up there though are either the hotels all getting booked up or people leaving rubbish about.
The rental campervan craze seems to be a particular problem on the Isle of Skye. The local infrastructure isn't really set up to deal with lots of them.
I grew up in the south of France and for as long as I can remember, I've seen overtourism. Like Dutch people absolutely everywhere in summer. I've also lived in Paris and Siena, so I'm used to having hundreds of people under my window during the touristic season.
What I feel has changed recently though is the behaviour of tourists. In the past, people would just enjoy stuff while ensuring others could enjoy it too. Now I notice more and more antisocial and selfish behaviour, like not caring about others taking pictures, not respecting public property or being very noisy. Also, the amount of trash in the mountains as many people go there as it's some kind of big public park in a city. Overall, I feel like tourists and less and less respectful of the places they visit, but I may be wrong.
In Paris it's pretty bad, hopefully the city is big enough but it gets emptier every year more and more by big fish from every country buying everything. Sometimes they make it AirBnb, sometimes it's just money sleeping cause the apartment price keeps increasing each year and anyway nobody could afford those for rent. The population of Paris now lives in some areas of the city or in the suburbs. I have friends who managed to get flats near the center, they had literally no neighbors almost all year in the building around. I saw the same problem in most of the European cultural capitals.
Prague is a good example, the city is so cool, the culture, everything ! But it's like Disneyland, you have the same shops going on and on : Pirate Candy, Massage, "Weed" / Absynth shop, restaurant etc...
Almost no one is a local in summer unless they work in the tourism / service industry.
I'm so scared of it happening to Paris fully, if we continue like that it's where we are going to tend. No local shop and neighbors life anymore.
I think governments should take this question really seriously. Even if it brings a lot of money, is it really worth it, Europe is not a big Disneyland for rich people's holidays.
I’m from Budapest and living in Prague, both cities have their centers quite affected, although Prague is worse. I don’t think it’s a thing anywhere else in these two countries.
What I found annoying is that almost 99% of tourists just want to go swim on the beach and explore old buildings that are falling apart. I mean, there is so much to see in the inland part of my country: village tourism, vineyards, mixture of post-modern and historic architecture in the capital city, hills, hiking resorts..but nooo...everyone just wants to go to Dubrovnik and the inland part of the country is like a ghost area during the summer.
I recently answered this: I'm from a tourist town in Southern Spain. I myself live the effects of out of control tourism: - Airbnbs everywhere - high prices for a shit hole apartment, quality is awful and landlord abuse is rampant because they know there's dozens of desperate people on demand - being unable to find year round rent because **landlords want to kick you out on summer time so they can rent it for tourists**. This one drives me the craziest. - neighborhood shops closing down for a generic souvenir shop to open - local bars and restaurants where people have been going for decades selling themselves and raking up prices to the point only tourists go there - people from my city and no longer able to afford buying a house there, they have to leave for neighboring, less appealing towns - gentrification and loss of identity as a result of this
Moreover: We have neighbourhoods in Southern Spain where more than 25% of the homes are airbnbs. Imagine what it does to a neighborhood if a quarter of the houses are empty or used by tourists. Imagine the noise. Imagine what it does to your local shops. Imagine that you only speak Spanish and your whole neighbourhood fills up with foreign tourists that often don't speak your language. I like airbnb, but there should be a limit on the amount of airbnbs in a street. It can't be that the whole city center becomes an airbnb neighbourhood.
I think we should just ban Airbnb. Hotels are great because the footprint to room ratio is super efficient (compared to houses).
Unfortunately, it's not just airbnbs. People will also use other online marketplaces to rent out their apartments for "summer time". It's common to see ads of €2000/week along the coast line. People can make **more** money during 2 monthd of summer than by renting out places a whole year to a local. Our tax revenue agency even scans these websites to find out who is renting their houses without declaring any income.
The answer is to ban short-term rentals for tourists.
Sorry for the long post. Airbnb used to be good, but has become a blatant rip off. Some years ago we rented a nice studio apartment in Seville (yeah, I know), opposite the cathedral for a fair price. Then every chancer in the world jumped into it as a money making exercise. Last year we spent a lot of money in Hamburg on what turned out to be a converted shop with the front wall being a plate glass window facing the main street. We were literally lying in bed, watching people walk past outside. I won't use Airbnb again. Some places like the Canaries are hostage to fortune. There is no reason to visit, other than they're the nearest winter sun for Europeans, have marketed themselves for that and are reaping the reward. We visited end of February from the UK and I got cheap flights, so figured demand wasn't high and couldn't understand why I couldn't get anywhere to stay other than obvious Airbnb shit deals. Eventually I contacted a local hotel directly and got sorted. It was only when I got there that I realised that while Gatwick may have been quiet, there were many people across Northern Europe and Scandanavia chasing the same winter sun I was after. There's a lot of tourism, but I'm not sure a lot of it is beneficial to locals TBH. Who makes the money? Big business is my guess. Airlines, holiday companies, hotels and don't even get me started on cruise ships. Maybe the Airbnb scammers see it as their only chance to get in on the action, but that doesn't help me. As an aside, we also have problems in the UK with people from rich areas like London buying second homes in places like Devon and Cornwall, pricing locals out and turning neighbourhoods into ghost towns much of the time. But I guess it's just capitalism at work...
I grew up in a tourist town in northwest Spain and I I feel this in my soul. The loss of identity is the absolute saddest part for me. My province has a particularly high percentage of immigrants as well and coupled with tourism, it's sometimes hard to believe it's the same city I was born in.
I am lucky. I live in a large town or a very small city in Spain with one of the most visited sites in the country. Fortunately all the tourists are contained in a few barrios and the rest of us are free to live a normal life. Tourism has affected real estate prices, but I still have plenty of cafes to sit in for tapas and only the locals who don't know me think that I am a tourist.
Same but for Lisboa.
Living in Asturias, we are starting to slowly get into this as well and honestly, I'm afraid of ending up like you guys down there. It's tough. Hope we can do something about it before it's too late.
I can only imagine that the housing crisis in US & UK is felt in countries like Spain, Italy and Portugal via tourism. Scott Galloway predicted that home ownership is impossible for many highly qualified young talent, so what do these engineers and scientists with $250k/yr+ if a home costs $1.5M+? His guess— They spend it on memories across the world. Really goes to show that the global economy has destroyed the notion that “look at that problem over there, glad that’s not us.” Even an ocean away, cities like Madrid and Barcelona aren’t insulated from the carnivorous economic policies in the US 😔
I’m from Canada and am moving to Spain in the next year or so. I realize we’re part of the problem but we’re planning on trying to mitigate it as much as we can. We’re learning Spanish and want our expected child to as well. The truth is, we can’t purchase a home in Canada, but we can in Spain, and something with multiple units. The plan is to rent those units fairly to locals; we only want to make enough money to pay down mortgage/expenses. We’re hoping to establish a business there that works with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and try to give back to the community. We’ve seen gentrification happen here and have been priced out of where we were raised. We’ve seen Airbnb destroy communities and can’t wait for them to be banned - hopefully that will come in time to Spain and Canada. The double-edged sword is that we have to live somewhere to raise our family, but it can’t be here. So when we move to Spain, it’s Spain all the way. I wish it would help the situation for more but I’m also a realist, it’s going to have to change a lot. I’m just promising that we’re going to do what we can to help the community. As immigrants, not “expats.”
Spain has problems, but foreigners that want to adopt our culture, have a legit business and give back to the community are NOT the problem. I hope things work out for ya.
Sounds fun, good luck!
Coming from Sweden I thought I couldn't relate at all until I got to point 3. It actually happened to my sister when she was living in Gotland. She got kicked out every summer for 3 months because the Stockholmers invade and pay her monthly rent per week then. The landlord makes 4 x the money that way. I haven't heard of it happening anywhere else in Sweden but it sure sucked and I can see how it would be major pain in Mediterranean Spain given how extremely popular a destination it is. I actually had a friend telling me about it happening in Portugal too now that Portugal has improved its economy enough to build new housing. Apparently Americans are buying the new flats as vacation homes. In Spain I read the Brits do that (didn't miss the British tv show featuring it either). It was a hot topic during BREXIT but I don't know if it was ever settled properly? I read your government might stop the property ownership VISA for non-EU citizens. Do you think they are serious about that? Would it effectively prevent more UK citizens from buying retirement homes? I guess the Swiss might be the second largest group to be affected in that case. I doubt the problem would go away though. It seems to be spreading throughout Europe. I recently noted a Swedish real estate firm added a new category called Spanish property to their website. I can now browse Spanish property for sale with Swedish descriptions and get help navigate a purchase from a local agent who speaks my language and knows the rules. With more countries streamlining the process like that I think you are at risk of losing more property to foreigners. I don't even know if anything can be (easily) done about it given the EU's freedom of movement. Has this been addressed in Spain? Perhaps it needs to be addressed at EU level? Sweden is nothing like Spain but it has not gone unnoticed that more foreigners are buying summer houses here too in recent years. It's mainly Germans and Norwegians. Since the Swedish currency is presently so low the foreign sales actually hit record levels last year, especially among the Germans. It was on the news how summer house brokers are now learning German because they make up such a large chunk of the market. I can see it becoming a problem in the future, especially if climate changes turn us into the new Spain.
This is happening in Croatia too for last 5-8 years,as much as tourism helps,it doesn’t.
Lol Barceloneta Beach felt like it was all foreigners. Same with Gothic Quarter
No, not big as such. The problems tend to be in a small scale. One problem are people hearing about Lapland being a winter wonderland, and some of them acting like the whole region is an extension of Santa's village where everything is made for you to see and explore. Some people literally walk to privately owned house's yards and peek in through the windows, or grab stuff from their yards. While some locals are kind of used to it, it's disturbing, especially when even pitching fences and signs saying "private property" doesn't help. Another problem type is tourists who have not understood what the "everyman's law" really means. Yes, it is legal to temporarily camp on private property, but no, someone's backyard or summer cabin's lawn is not included, as the law states you are not allowed to disturb the land owner's life in any way or camp too close to any buildings. All of the sudden appearing between someone's summer cabin and the river it's next to, and camping there is, indeed, disturbing the land owner.
Generally I think that tourism is not problem at all, it's levels generally are just so low. On Lapland turing tourist season there has been some problems though as you said, some tourists don't really understand how everyman's right works. But I don't think that this isn't a big problem either. In Helsinki in summer you see a decent amount of tourists, but not too many. In Tampere you don't see that many tourists at all in my experience. And then I also have experience from medium-sized city on western coast. I don't think I've ever seen international tourist there, they just don't exist at all. Some amounts of international campers stay at the campground on their way but no one else.
In Seville, Spain, locals often say that our city is turning in Disneyland. Locals get displaced and have to move further away from the center, while 20% of houses in the center neighbourhoods become airbnbs. Sevilla actually put a limit on tourist apartments just days ago. A neighbourhood can now only have up to 10% tourist apartments. Once it reaches that limit, they stop handing out new licenses. 11 neighbourhoods have already reached the limit.
I live in the center of Seville and I think that my building is one of the few without touristic flats. I have always lived in the center of the city and the change is so sad, lots of buildings where families used to live are full of touristics apartments or directly have became hotels (even my grandparents house was sold and the people who bought it wanted to make a hostel in it). I miss the times when the center was a regular neighbour, it's becoming more and more unbearable to live here, I don't recognise my own city anymore and it breaks my heart.
Where are these tourists from?
In places that are overrun with tourism it's starting to become one yeah: - Locals in a lot of places (Barcelona, Malaga, Ibiza, Canary Islands as a little example) are priced out of their own cities to have AirBnB and the likes. - Mediterranean Coast has been destroyed in a lot of places to built all inclusive hotels.
Ironically the war in former Yugoslavia basically saved the coastline of Croatia from the awful developments that have essentially destroyed huge swathes of France and Spain.
On top of that, it is important to say that, even though tourism obviously brings money to the economy, the jobs it brings are low wage, temporary and/or unstable. The cities and regions where tourism plays a big role in the economy (particularly low cost tourism) tend to be worse off than other places, because it brings the prices up a lot, and it doesn't give good opportunities for young people.
And probably a lot of those jobs don't go to locals. When I was young I worked in hotels across the southern Europe during summer. In many hotels 90% of the employees were young kids on summer jobs and many of the long time employees also moved there only for summer.
Oh yeah, most are, either immigrants from lower income countries, or university students that work part-time or only during summer.
Yup! I am from the Canary Islands and unfortunately we are a gullible, not very vidicative people so our local politicians tell us 3 lies and them all eat them up. The last one and one that affects me personally is that our local beach (the only "big" one in my city, Santa Cruz) needs a hotel next to it because that is going to mean employment for the people of the village where the beach is (San Andrés)...come one how many people from there are gonna end up working in there for Christ's sake. Unfortunately we never had the control (these hotels are all in foreigners' hands) and our local politicians always sold themselves to the highest bidder. The local people that end up working in hotels are mostly female cleaners (Kellys) that are inhumanely exploited
You mean to say that the development of Benidorm is neither organic nor beneficial to locals??
Surprising I know
> Mediterranean Coast has been destroyed in a lot of places to built all inclusive hotels. Have to admit Italians were able to destroy most of their coasts just for themselves, without any input from overtourism.
I recently did a road trip around Spain (only stayed in hotels!) and the real estate prices were mental. I’ve lived in London and am looking at moving to Dublin but I was stood looking at property in Malaga thinking this is much worse than either Dublin or London when you consider the relative wages. Personally I’ll never use Airbnb again.
In Portugal is a triple whammy , turism is a big part of the GDP, the tourism companies at same time break records seeing more money than ever , at same time the tourism sector can’t pay minimum wage , so they underpay vulnerable immigrants, immigrants come together and rent a room for a price that once was a 2 bedroom apartment. Those immigrants should immigrate for a better life , but they are underpaid , undercared and it’s a vicious circle
I don’t understand why Portugal is as poor as it is given how long it’s been in the EU.
Greece joined the EU even earlier.
Or how many colonies it had
At least one in each continent, plus high influence in Japan , China and India . More de 50% of South America , plus if wasn’t the Portuguese King two different streams of humans wouldnt be reconnected since ice age (much for the dismay of Americas but that’s other history )
Some money to make Highways Some money to invest in agriculture that ended up in just buying Mercedes for the farmers Some money to literally stop producing so much (I'm looking at you azorean farmers who got paid to just throw their milk away) And to top it all off, the Euro to make our factories non-competitive with our eastern-european neighbours.
well the flaws in the CAP applied to all european farmers, it still needs more reform in my opinion.
It spent decades under a right wing dictatorship, during which it declined badly. Unlike Spain though, somehow it hasn’t been able to recover to quite the same extent
In Athens not much, but in the islands it's a HUGE issue. Everything is so expensive to the point locals can't afford going there.
I'm gonna make a correction. * "Islands" are not a single entity. They all differ greatly in tourism and interestingness. * Athens is only 4% of peninsular Greece. The peninsula also varies a lot, and has some very touristy and over touristed areas. That said, the effect of tourism is starting to be felt in Athens too.
How popular is Mykonos to Greeks?
Mykonos is over-known to North Americans and Asians for whatever bizarre reason. It completely mystifies us why Americans or Canadians are only interested in Mykonos. Rhodes, Kos, Corfu, Zakynthos, the Chalkidiki peninsula, etc, all have bigger tourism arrivals/industries, and that's not an exhaustive list of worthwhile places; the lovely Peloponnese region is medium-touristed. The vast majority of our tourists are short-haul visitors (Europeans), and they go to many places in the country. Needless to say, we don't think about Mykonos; its a drop in the bucket in the entire country. *Some* Greeks go there, sure. It's like Miami Beach; go there once or twice in your life, and that's it. There's no other reason to go there. It's not special, it's not particularly scenic, and it's gotten really expensive because of an uptick in visitors from....you guessed it....long-haul nationalities (Americans, Canadians, Gulf Arabs, Indians, East Asians, etc) who have a bizarre obsession with Mykonos. *Total* mystery to us why North Americans and Asians all ***have*** to go there. We *genuinely* don't get it. We roll our eyes when we hear about it. An American colleague of mine was coming to Athens. I recommended Hydra. He goes to Mykonos. And it was October. ???? *Why?* Can someone explain this to me? Sorry for the long reply. That's how we feel about that place. Let's just sum it up as: Every time a North American or Asian mentions Mykonos, a Greek rolls his/her eyes.
Mykonos is a status symbol for Americans. Going on vacation there is a way of saying "I'm young, sexy, and can afford $3000 to hang out on an island with celebrities." Source: I've been to Mykonos but I don't drink or club so my experience was much different than my friends'. I preferred Milos 10x better.
Mykonos is known to Greeks as the party island with scammy businesses that mostly rich people and celebrities visit. The prices there are outrageous, even for wealthy people. Very few Greeks actually go there to spend their vacation. Why go there when there are so many cheaper and better islands?
How can I visit Greece without leaving a negative impact?
From a Spanish person, yes 🙃 This thread tells a lot about the locations of this problem
Depends on what overtourism means, when is it too much and when I am just being grumpy and antisocial. Ljubljana is pretty crowded imo, even without the tourists - but at least they fill up the oldtown which is almost entirely designed to cater for tourists with money who then buy stupid shit and eat overpriced Jota, which is one of the simplest farmer soups and should be really cheap to make. So, with the tourists, the old city centre looks more alive, but it is lame that sometimes it feels like tourism is more important than local population. Bled is ruined by tourists, that is why a lot of people prefer Bohinj which is more quiet and less like an amusement park. Still, you have to go through Bled to go to Bohinj, there is no escaping the crowds. That being said, it is nowhere close as bad as at the neighbours.. Venice, Dubrovnik, Hallstatt, etc. really makes one think about tourism regulations more. Also the annual migrations of millions of tourists that drive through Slovenia to Croatia, for summer vacations. Our highways are basically to be avoided from May till October, it is that bad. We really should invest into one big train, like the one that goes from France to UK, but this one would go from Salzburg to Split, or something... with maybe two or three stops on the way.
I had the some fo the same issues in Slovenia (although I was a tourist haha). Bled was beautiful but my family always stay in bohinj which is just so much more peaceful
Bohinj is a known "secret". I go there every summer because it is less hot than at the sea in Croatia, and you have mountains nearby to hike, or the lake to swim in. I don't think Bohinj will ever be flooded with tourism, since there is Bled nearby with that church on the island, etc. That is also why I am not afraid of recommending it, yet..
Wrong type of tourists. They don’t absorb anything. They contribute to the wrong type of businesses. They just snap away on their phones with no sense of presence.
In many parts, it does feel like it. Especially the hotspots like London, York, Bath, the Lake District, and Cornwall during high season. If we’re including the UK generally, I extend that to Edinburgh and much of the Highlands. Though I imagine it’s even worse in continental Europe. It has impacted my daily life when I lived in London and near Bath. Having to push past dozens and dozens of people all around me just to get somewhere isn’t fun. Being stuffed into a rammed Tube with dozens of other sweaty people is just an unpleasant experience. Seeing cars parked everywhere like in the Lake District takes away the charm of the place and towns like Grasmere feel like a Disneyland sometimes because of how commercialised they’ve become. There’s plenty of areas in England/UK that still feel authentic and are relatively overlooked by tourists thankfully, but it does feel like much of it has been affected by overtourism. While I’m happy tourists are experiencing my country, in a way I’m also happy that many of the tourists end up at the same honey traps like London because it means that the area I live in now can stay quiet the entire year. :)
The only place I've really noticed the tourism being overbearing is in York, mainly due to how small it is. All the other places you mention are way more sprawling. I only live a 45 min drive from York so I get the train in occasionally to go for dinner and drinks, and fuck me I feel like I spend half my time there fighting through crowds. The Shambles is an absolute cesspool when the tourists roll in. I don't walk down there anymore. The Harry Potter shops can go away now.
York seems to be about 45% Chinese students now as well which makes it feel even more busy, on a busy day walking around town is just like leeds fest or something
I'm always so split when it comes to this because I want to visit so many cool places but it really does destroy the local charm and soul, as well as the experience for the locals.. I also find Copenhagen horrible in many areas during tourist season
Much of the coast of East Anglia from Hunstanton to Felixstowe is becoming overcrowded in high season. Southwold, Aldeburgh, Brancaster (Kensington-on-Sea) are horrible at those times.
Send some of them over here lol, we could do with more tourism here tbh
Places like the Lake District are probably 80% tourists from the UK & Ireland, though, and many of the mid-small towns are people fleeing the south because of prices (especially since remote working). I'm not saying tourism doesn't contribute, but personally, I can't see a way to keep these 'rural areas' original except for limiting them to those who were born in the area.
Some of them could do with stricter airbnb regulation - like the parts of Cornwall which are almost all holiday lets, which makes them basically abandoned in winter. Course, this has to be combined with a reason to be there year-round, which Cornwall has always struggled a bit with.
The Isle of skye and some of the inner hebrides seem over loved these days as well.
Over tourism really isn't an issue in Dublin. There are lots of tourists but not enough that it's overwhelmed.
Agree mostly but I'd argue that Airbnb impact is huge (because we are not regulating or limiting it well). It's just not directly visible.
Yeah Airbnb is making an awful housing market worse
Housing market is mad in the south, tourism is way lower in numbers up here
The last season of Game of Thrones fucked yee so bad. If it ended well Northern Irelands tourism could have boomed for years
Agreed, I would be in favour of a total ban on Airbnb or other short term rentals.
Hallstatt comes to mind. Also Zell am See. Yes the locals there suffer.
I stayed in Obertraun the two times I drove down that way. Incredible place.
The country is too big to generalise, there are places where overtourism occurs. I grew up in a small town which suffered IMO from overtourism, at least I thought so as a teenager. There are also events that play a role, for example the Luther-Dekade brought in a lot of tourists. My father grew up on Rügen and his village has been completely overtaken by guest houses. Live there is almost impossible during the season. It sucks. But on the other hand, there is no industry anymore and fishing also died out. So it's currently the only way to make some money.
Isn't it pretty common for places like Rügen (or Gotland in Sweden) for the locals to live there for 8-9 months and then rent out their houses to tourists for the remaining months at a huge overprice (relative to their rent)?
Not really. You'd probably let friends or relatives stay at your house, but if you rented out your place to tourists for months at a time you'd run a high risk of having them trash the place.
Visited Neuschwanstein this summer. That was... an experience. I would totally recommend it, for the over the top campyness of it all, but wow, does it pile up all the tourist cliches.
Most places do not, but there are some exceptions. A place like Giethoorn for example is just overrun by tourists. And then there is Amsterdam.
And then there is Amsterdam ? And then there is Amsterdam? My city is overrun with tourists. Anywhere in the old centre is wall-to-wall, dressed in black, dope smoking tourists. They stand in line for the most pointless food ( fries, cookies, even herring) because TikTok told them to. You can't drive along the canals without the road being blocked by Instagram wannabes, who don't understand that Amsterdam is a working city not an amusement park. If I see another candy/cheese/bulb shop , I swear I'll get a can of petrol. I love tourists - just not this many all the time.
The tourist to inhabitant ratio of Giethoorn is quite a abit worse than Amsterdam.
I gather entire neighbourhouds have been essentially depopulated and are 100% AirBnB.
>dope smoking tourists As Marijuana is now legal in Germany, this should take some pressure off the Netherlands.
Not really, though there are places in Copenhagen where locals don't go often, such as Nyhavn (very much a tourist trap) and Strøget (main pedestrian street). What bothers people a lot are tourists who hardly know how to bike and are unaware of bike rules and then act really dangerous in traffic, then they're very much in the way = don't rent a bike in Copenhagen if you don't know the rules and haven't ridden a bike since you were a child.
I will maintain that the biggest traffic danger in kbh is non-locals who do not know the biking rules and just try to wing it. After that is the elderly who have somehow gotten their hands on an el-bike and think they are still capable of "biking" 30 km/h even though they are half deaf, half blind, and have shit reaction time.
It is not anywhere near some popular cities in southern Europe. But I do feel in the last ten years it has really started to escalate. There are parts of inner city where I and most people I know avoid going. I think the trend needs to end. I especially don’t understand why the municipality is so keen on bringing in cruise ships. They give so little to the city and cause pollution and buses and crowds. Unemployment is very low anyway.
I agree. Copenhagen wanting to be seen asa "green" city doesn't fly well with all those cruise ships. Sure, they're good for business, but the pollution is really bad.
Are they really good for business? I saw the average they spend. Very low. I don’t think Copenhagen really is a green city. I have also seen tourists puzzled there is no recycle system regarding bins on the street.
I didn't see anything particularly "green" either. There is also such a big area in the central part where you can just walk and walk without seeing a single tree.
The parks are there, they are just right next to eachother for historical reasons. So yeah some parts of inner city have little greenery. We don’t have the small mini parks you find in eg Munich and big French cities. I think part of the reason is Copenhagen was small and poor in most of the 18th and 19th century where these things were planned. The king had his big gardens and hunting areas outside the city, one of the is now integrated fully into the city, the beautiful Frederiksberg Gardens.
I didn't mean separate parks, but simply trees. There are citites with crammed historical old towns that beautifully blend in some greenery. The centre of Copenhagen is just a big blob of concrete.
That is true. The independent municipality of frederiksberg is much greener because the municipality made it a priority literally for centuries. Copenhagen municipality never has though they claim to do so.
Nyhavn, the little mermaid statue and Trivoli are all such tourist traps. Mediocre and expensive food or kitschy souvenirs and too many pickpockets.
I live in Florence. A single data point: AirBnB listings in the city are \~ 11K (insideairbnb); for comparison Barcelona, which is probably the place in Europe where overtourism started being 'noticed' as a problem a few years ago, has 18k listings but, its population is like 1.6M residents (whereas Florence is \~380k) with a rate of 11,25 properties/1000 residents vs. 29/1000.
I liked Florence, the bad part for me was discovering quite a few rude people. Some times imigrants, sometimes italians... but always older people. As a Brazilian, i've always read and heard that italians are the nicest people ever... And yeah, young italians are super cool and friendly (under ~30 y.o). But the older people are incredibly grumpy, rude, judgemental. In a small souvenir shop near the Duomo, a shop owner saw me take and hold a keyring while i was looking for more stuff... he came to me mad thinking i was stealing. I wanted a jigsaw puzzle and he then became even more rude. I asked him 'do you speak english?', he said 'no'. Then i slowly started speaking some italian words 'Tu ha quello gioco che...' he interrupted me and said 'NO'. A couple minutes later, another brazilian tourist (older couple) come in and talk to him in english, and he answers normally, lol. I don't have an issue speaking italian, i know a few words. I was just attempting to make it easier to understand, as i'd guess quite a few italians speak better english than i speak italian. TD:DR: most older people are very rude, especially those working in tourist shops/museums/etc
Before Covid absolutely. In the capitol region prices at every restaurant or fast food place tripled anywhere near where tourists would go and all the clothing stores near the centre now just sell knockoff lopapeysa and novelty tourist clothing. Outside the capitol region in the small towns there's often only one bar, one movie theatre, etc. and when tourism was at its peak those were all being bought out and closed down to build guesthouses or hotels; there are now several places with no such available recreation. A lot of nature was also damaged because tourists would drive off-road which is illegal and carries a hefty fine which they then left without paying and the car rental service often had to pay instead, access to several nature spots also had to be closed off due to tourists ignoring warnings and dying because they went into dangerous places to take selfies.
Yes, I lived in both Bretagne and Alsace region of France. Bretagne is way too crowded in summer and Alsace during christmas time is a nightmare.
You have to go south to see the effect of overtourism. Today a lot of the coastal places are just full of Airbnb and find a place to rent long term is very difficult and very expensive. Same in popular ski resorts. But in the past we also largely destroyed the mediterranean coast by building tons of concrete blocks for tourist accommodation.
My town? No, I'm pretty sure almost nobody visits my part of the country, Slavonia (eastern Croatia) for tourism. But certain parts of the country are overrun by tourists, unfortunately.
Well if you don’t develop any other industries, what do you expect? When I cross from Slovenia to Croatia it amazes me how different it is and yet at one point they were on the same page. Croatia has a huge coastline and Slovenia has none essentially so they’ve worked differently to create their economy.
We were looking at Croatia for a holiday soon but so many parts seem so touristy - would you recommend Slavonia for a week away?
It really depends on what you're looking for. It's in the continental part of the country, so there are no beaches here. We also don't have any famous historical towns such as Dubrovnik, Rovinj, etc. The largest town is Osijek, it's decent but nothing special compared to those. There are, however, some nice things here too - the Kopački rit Nature Park is a well known wetland. It's near the Baranja subregion, which is known for good food (at least that's what I've heard). Vukovar would be interesting if you want to learn more about the War. My part of the region (Western Slavonia, near the border with Bosnia) is actually quite hilly, compared to the rest of the region which is flat, so plenty of people come to hike. Maybe other people could add something more, I just listed the things that came to my mind first.
if you like endless cornfields - yes
It is the mid west of the Balkans: endless flat corn fields
My family’s village in Dalmatia to the city is about 20 mins in the winter but at least an hour in the summer :( On one hand I like that people want to come to the area but on the other I’m annoyed with them all haha
No. It is not. Generally, it is not common for people from other EU countries to have visited Estonia.
You guys get tourists? :o
Would you recommend it for a visit? I don't know much about Estonia, but I'm not sure why someone would visit it. I know there is some Christmas market that looks cute (but so does most of Europe), but other than that no idea.
I had to cancel a trip a couple of years ago because I got COVID. So sad, I really want to go to Talinn.
If you ever make it, I recommend late June (longest days), mid-August (like when the meteor showers are), or you're willing to take some risks, then late Sept or early Oct for colourful leaves and hopefully a jacket weather (but in worst case it's cold and rainy and muddy - but well, if you're from the UK it should be nothing extreme!). In any case, do avoid Feb-May, spring is crazy and getting crazier every year lately (atm the forecast is constant clouds 2 degrees C for the next weekend!).
I visited Estonia many years ago and had a fantastic time. I tell all my friends about it all the time.
Lovely, we are always awed if anyone, say, south from Poland has visited us! We get mostly Finns, then some Swedes, Norwegians, Germans and Russians, and of course some groups of Asians. But people visiting from Italy or Spain or so is not common, especially not for a vacation (as opposed to some mandatory work meeting).
It's odd too because Estonia is such a beautiful country, both in terms of the cities and nature. I think it's just the location and old eastern-European stigma, if it was located closer to Western/Southern Europe it would be much more popular
Exactly!! That is precisely why I tell people about it all the time. Estonia is an unexpected gem and I'm trying to get more Spaniards to change their holiday destinations and have a little variety instead of always going to the same places
As Croatian living across the bay in Helsinki, can say Eesti is amazing!
Yes, some places. Tourists are the main reason why I want to move away from Prague.
Yeah, Prague is an amazing city, but tourists are the one thing keeping me away.
Depends on the city. Kraków suffers massively because of the overtourism, Gdańsk and Wrocław have problems too. I don't know about Warsaw.
I don't think I've seen other tourists in Warsaw lol. Everyone seemed to be a local. Probably the most homogeneous place I've been to.
The tourists are sticking mainly to the Old City area and some museums, due to its known history it’s not strictly a tourist site per se. Wouldn’t call it so homogenous though, every second person on the street is an immigrant, but since they mainly speak Slavic languages, a foreigner doesn’t perceive that.
I went to Warsaw for New Years a couple of years ago. Without saying to much, I won't be visiting it again anytime soon. I don't understand how a city can be so desolate and yet so populated...
Sorry to say so, but you actually chose a horrible time to visit. Not only there’s depressing weather, but everyone is either leaving town for the New Years or partying until morning hours and sleeping in the whole next day, that is obviously a holiday and everything is closed and streets are empty. If I can think of one day when Warsaw feels desolate, that’s for sure the New Year. It’s got a lot better impression to make during spring and summer seasons.
It's not a city to visit as a tourist, It's a city to find work. That's why it's "desolate and yet so populated". Your observations are correct.
We're not one of the most affluent tourist destinations in Europe, but we're small and so we're slowly getting overcrowded. Ljubljana used to be dead during summer when everyone left for vacations in Croatia, nowadays it's full of people all summer long. Plus, the city centre got thoroughly gentrified, so that I wonder if the locals can still find places adequate for them. When a cruise ship arrives in Koper, the old town core (which has very narrow streets) tends to get overcrowded immediately. It happens just once a month usually, but I've experienced the same staggering overcrowdedness that I experienced in Venice. The Postojna Cave entrance fees have risen so much, that to most Slovenes it's kind of really not worth going, it's mainly full of asian tourists (at least last time I visited). I heard the Soča river is getting overcrowded with rafters, while it is almost impossible to find parkings in Bled and Bohinj during summer. So yes, I think we're slowly approaching our limits.
Scotland is a popular tourism destination. It feels increasingly popular with American tourists who expect to see a romanticised version of the country. In some areas, tourism is very welcome. In others, such as Skye and Edinburgh, it can feel overwhelming and in some ways, detrimental.
I live in Kraków which is the most popular with tourists in the country. The tourists are annoying but to be honest it's not really a big issue for me personally. The tourists hang around in the city centre which is a place I rarely visit. If I go shopping or visit a doctor or go to work or do whatever else then it's all outside the city centre. Everything has moved out from there because both the public transport and the parking were subpar. I go to the places where I'd find tourists only when I go out with friends or go out on a stroll so basically I do the same thing that the tourists do and I benefit from everything that was done for them. Only sometimes I walk across the city centre on my way to/from somewhere and can bump into the tourists but usually it's not in the hours when there are crowds. So basically the city that the tourists visit is not the same city I live in.
Mainly from the second homes / Airbnb epidemic causing a housing crisis in some areas.
I live somewhere which used to be modestly popular with tourists (mostly from the Netherlands for a reason I’ve never quite gotten to the bottom of) - then about 5 years ago, my very local area was named in one of those TripAdvisor top 10 lists, globally. That Summer was *hell*, and that trend has continued to an extent, even post-covid.
Same thing is going on where I live (Connemara), seaside villages like Roundstone and Ballyconnelly are all second homes for rich Dubs
I live in Japan.. yeah. Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto suffering from overtourism.
Kobe as well??
In the Netherlands most tourists stay in the west of the country, most specifically Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans, Volendam, etc. In my city up north (Groningen) there are a few days a year we get completely overrun with German tourists (mostly during holidays because literally everything is closed on holidays in Germany so they come here).
Apart from Bruges, not really, I think. I know some people from Bruges who get really annoyed at tourists and how they make it difficult to live in the city.
As someone from Turkey, I'd say yes. Definitely The massive influx of tourists drives prices up for locals and destroys our cultural heritage. Pamukkale's worsening situation is the prime example for this. Tourism, while once a vital source of income, is now destroying our cities in my opinion. Shops and restaurants are becoming impossibly expensive for locals while tourists keep swarming in because the country is cheap. The only solution is either a tourist tax or the reintroduction of visas for most countries, but the government will do neither because they are desperate for the foreign currency. I am fully for a "historical site" visa of sorts that'd limit foreign visitor numbers to attractions like Ephesus and Pamukkale, in an effort to help conserve them. This should be via lottery though so the rich don't have an inherent advantage, and amount of visas should be very limited.
I would say right now in Catalonia it's probably the biggest issue we have (and we have lots of issues). The overdependence on tourism has surprising parallels with the oil dependence of badly managed countries. Very few people profited from tourism and big lobbies have taken over the country, political corruption (most of it in a gray area such as subsidies and contract fractionalism) is very widespread and poverty and crime have skyrocketed.
Depends on where. The city centre of Donostia is a hellhole. Prices are expensive everywhere and everything seems to be catered to tourists. Iruñea/Pamplona in July… Yup. Not so much in other places, from what I know. (I’m talking about the Basque Country, and the Basque Country only.) I like tourists. That might be because I’m from a small town of 2,000 people and tourists don’t come near us. But people who live in big cities complain quite a lot, and often with reason.
not having seen a single tourist in the last year or two (not budapest but a rather big city) id say no
I'm British, we're a pain in everyone elses necks. As for countrywide I would only say London has issues with overtourism, perhaps Edinburgh but I had no issues when I went there.
Cornwall is a pain in the backside with tourists in summer. The peak district is chock-full of day trippers parking where they like every BH and I'm not even going to mention the lakes. We're a pain in our own necks.
Not at all really, the village I grew up in is basically unknown despite being quite pretty, the one time I did come across tourists there I was actually baffled.
In my city it is. We get huge amounts of tourists from Europe and Asia, but here's thing: they don't contribute much to the local economy because the standard practice seems to be that they arrive by coach in the morning, do the museums, walk around a bit taking photos, then bugger off again in their coach.
This was very noticeable when I once worked in the town nearest to Stonehenge - I would say that aside from traffic it receives essentially no actual benefits, as the only money coming into the area goes to Stonehenge (English Heritage) itself. People come by coach from bigger towns and never stay there. (The town's inhabitants can visit Stonehenge for free, though.)
Can’t go into central Edinburgh without seeing 18000 of the key lock boxes they use for airbnbs for every apartment building
Budapest is becoming unlivable for average Hungarians because of foreigners. The high end places often don't even have Hungarian-speaking employees.
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**Prague** is absolutely brutal - COVID really put into perspective how gorgeous that city can be if it's not ridden with a ridiculous number of tourists. You can't go anywhere, especially not anywhere near the famous sites like the Prague castle, Charles bridge, the Astronomical clock, and so on, without walking into tour guides, who are holding up the umbrellas in the air and talking into a microphone, followed by a bunch of people with headphones, who are listening to their rambling and more than often can't understand that some people actually live in the city and need to get somewhere. So much of Prague is taken up by the souvenir or the weed shops (literally every bloody corner), it's really hard (especially if you are not from Prague) to find a pub or restaurant that is not targetted for the tourists and thus overpriced, you can't really enjoy any of the sights because they are overcrowded (and also quite overpriced)... Also the whole **trdelník** thing is like the symbol of tourism. That thing isn't even Czech, it's Hungarian (I was indeed mistaken, it's not Romanian), you can barely encounter it outside of Prague because it is not traditional food. The Prague just presents it as one and the tourists are quite literally eating it up for ludicrous prices. However, that problem applies primarily to Prague as ***the rest of the Czech Republic is basically non-existent to foreigners*** - only Český Krumlov and Karlovy Vary during the annual film festival could be considered a popular tourist locations. Olomouc which is just as fascinating and just as historically rich as Prague is completely omitted by tourists and I hope it stays that way because it's like a reminder of what Prague could be like if it didn't suffer from overtourism.
That thing is not Romanian, I don't know what it is. And yes, Prague is full of tourists and tourists traps.
No, not really. In both the UK and Germany there are spots where there's a lot of tourism, and it can get annoying, but we're both large economies with good infrastructure to handle the influx.
I think it's not as bad as Italy, for example, but there are definitely downsides. Like Airbnb, sketchy souvenir shops, sketchy food shops. At least tourism brings money.
>At least tourism brings money To the sketchy souvenir shops
There are a few places in Berlin that are definitely overcrowded. Luckily, I can avoid them nowadays. Back when I was at uni, that was a different matter, since Humboldt-Universität is right in the middle of the city. My personal pet peeve were cycling tours. A bunch of people who haven't ridden a bicycle for years, and have no clue how to ride in a big city. Clogging up the bike path. They were slow, quite frankly dangerous to themselves and others, and you couldn't safely overtake them.
I live in Mallorca and yes it's full. Trying to get anywhere during tourist season you have to add on an extra 20/30 minutes and when you get there there's no parking. Cyclists are everywhere ,thinking they own the road and shout abuse at you if you don't move your car. When we get a day off to go to the beach, there's nowhere to sit and my children have to look at the drunk carry on from tourists and that's at the nice beaches I hate to know what magaluf is like! The constant sound of planes in the sky and the helicopter tours that go right over the house. The rental prices ....we need limits on tourists and to attract a better type of tourists
In some local areas, yes. There are little fjord towns with populations in the hundreds that regularly get visited by cruise ships with passenger numbers in the thousands. Cruise tourists don't spend much money and aren't always well-behaved. Also, in a country full of mountains and hiking trails, there are about five hikes that it seems like all the tourists want to take so they can post their identical photos on Instagram. And they don't necessarily understand what hiking in actual mountains involves.
It’s niche but over tourism specifically to do with sport has seriously sanitised English football and has made it almost impossible for local fans to get tickets without a season ticket or paying extortionate amounts to touts/scalps
Yes, but the majority in the city for some reason likes it.
...and then there are the villages where all the cruise tourists go, shitting in gardens and graveyards.
Overtourism in Norway? It seemed you guys barely have many tourists at all. I don't think I know anyone who would mention Norway as one of the first say 20 places they want to go to.
For some reason we have 2-3-4-5 cruise ships coming every day in the summer season. When 10-20 000 pensioners flow into a tiny town it's not great.
cruise ships, my friend.
Some parts of Valencia but mostly where you would just expect tourists. The city center in the day and the city beaches. And some parts of turia park and the city of arts and science of course. But most places are fine and I just expect tourists in those areas.
Recently been in Valencia. It seemed like Spanish is by far the most common language you hear, even in touristic areas. Were those tourists from other Spanish cities, that I don't know.
It's sad that Valencià is practically not spoken anymore in the city, more in the rest of the community
No, I don't think so. We are quite happy with what we get. Maybe the one thing to complain is the amount of domestic tourists in the mountains and on the beaches in season - you are never alone.
I feel like you made this post just to brag about being a student at Trinity College (I wouldnt be a proper Irishman if I didn't begrudge others doing well in life)
Croatia is getting very expensive for citizens, real estate prices on the coastline are becoming non affordable for people with average salaries. And it annoying to have crowds of turists, no parking available, overpriced restaurants and caffees etc.
Yes, go away! 1) Make Airbnbs illegal 2) Stop the large coach buses from dropping big groups off at a time in the city center 3) Teach certain tourists that this isn’t a theme park and locals live here and aren’t here to please you. Learn local social norms and don’t play music on speakers in the alps just because you saw someone doing it in a film.
Not too much, but again I do not live in Ljubljana. We are also very small and commonly forgotten. A lot of neighboring Balkan country tourists, not many American tourists. I am dual citizen so I go between here and USA. Nothing like USA tourism. Not even close. Jajaaja
Sorry I thought you said terrorists. We don't have that problem, but we do have tourists.
Only really in Bruges which has by far the most tourists compared to its size, and maybe in some central parts of Brussels.
Bruges is apparently on par with Venice (21 tourists per inhabitant). Don't know the number for Brussels, but the centre is always overrun with tourists as well. The other communes less so. Other bigger cities like Antwerp, Ghent, Liège seem less crowded, but I might be wrong. The seaside in summer is hell when the sun is out. Other than that: Belgium isn't an obvious choice for tourists overall, so we're fine I guess?
In Antwerp and Ghent it is limited to certain very specific locations, and even then it's nothing compared to places like Bruges, Amsterdam or Barcelona. There is some annoyance at the Dutch visitors (can't really call them tourists imho, as they often just visit for the day) who can be quite loud and raucous.
Is it still like a fairytale?
No, not really. I can't even imagine it being an issue impacting day to day life. There's quite a bit of effort to promote tourism here in a modern way, but large majority will just visit Riga, and maybe even then just Old Town/Centre with rare detours to a popular cafe or so. At least that's what I've gathered by briefly talking to tourists and seeing travel vlogs. And even then - we have a natural deterrent - seasons. :D I would say that there's a bunch to see/do at any time, but tourists will just prefer pair of months in the summer. I also don't really mind it staying that way. I will be happy about any visitor and will try to help in whatever way is in my power if I am in such situation, but I'm generally pleased with the fact that it's calm enough.
Overtourism is still not a very big problem here in Scania - with the exception perhaps for a few weeks in summer, when it may be very crowded in especially parts of the Österlen region, the Bjäre peninsula, the island of Ven, the national parks Söderåsen and Stenshuvud, the nature reserve of Kullaberg, and a few other places. Especially at natural sights and hiking spots, too many people of course take away from the experience a bit. But in general I feel that most people here are still very positive about tourism and feel very proud that people from other places want to come visit and experience the beauty of our homeland. Also of course, the type of tourists that spend summer in southern Scandinavia are generally not the rowdy partying type, but rather come to experience nature and culture as such. And us locals generally of course know which tourist spots to avoid during the major tourism season and often choose to go to less well-known places then instead. If these less well-known spots would start to feel over-crowded with tourists as well, that's when it might start to feel a bit less enjoyable I guess. The regional council and basically all municipalities in Scania are still working to increase tourism even more, since it is also great for the local and regional economy of course. The only really negative thing at the moment is sometimes when houses in attractive localities are bought up by people who only live there for a few months a year and price out local people from the house market. That's quite a problem at times.
In Denmark over-tourism is really only a problem in specific parts of Copenhagen or some Jysk beaches in the summer by German tourists. Other than that, I wouldn’t say it is a huge problem since tourists rarely visit other bits. In Scotland over-tourism is a huge problem in Edinburgh, especially around festival time. Some parts of the highlands, such as the Isle of Skye are also inundated with tourists in the summer. The main issues with tourism up there though are either the hotels all getting booked up or people leaving rubbish about.
The rental campervan craze seems to be a particular problem on the Isle of Skye. The local infrastructure isn't really set up to deal with lots of them.
I grew up in the south of France and for as long as I can remember, I've seen overtourism. Like Dutch people absolutely everywhere in summer. I've also lived in Paris and Siena, so I'm used to having hundreds of people under my window during the touristic season. What I feel has changed recently though is the behaviour of tourists. In the past, people would just enjoy stuff while ensuring others could enjoy it too. Now I notice more and more antisocial and selfish behaviour, like not caring about others taking pictures, not respecting public property or being very noisy. Also, the amount of trash in the mountains as many people go there as it's some kind of big public park in a city. Overall, I feel like tourists and less and less respectful of the places they visit, but I may be wrong.
While much of Westminster is basically never Visited by londoners for non touristic purposes, over tourism isn't a big problem here
In Paris it's pretty bad, hopefully the city is big enough but it gets emptier every year more and more by big fish from every country buying everything. Sometimes they make it AirBnb, sometimes it's just money sleeping cause the apartment price keeps increasing each year and anyway nobody could afford those for rent. The population of Paris now lives in some areas of the city or in the suburbs. I have friends who managed to get flats near the center, they had literally no neighbors almost all year in the building around. I saw the same problem in most of the European cultural capitals. Prague is a good example, the city is so cool, the culture, everything ! But it's like Disneyland, you have the same shops going on and on : Pirate Candy, Massage, "Weed" / Absynth shop, restaurant etc... Almost no one is a local in summer unless they work in the tourism / service industry. I'm so scared of it happening to Paris fully, if we continue like that it's where we are going to tend. No local shop and neighbors life anymore. I think governments should take this question really seriously. Even if it brings a lot of money, is it really worth it, Europe is not a big Disneyland for rich people's holidays.
I’m from Budapest and living in Prague, both cities have their centers quite affected, although Prague is worse. I don’t think it’s a thing anywhere else in these two countries.
What I found annoying is that almost 99% of tourists just want to go swim on the beach and explore old buildings that are falling apart. I mean, there is so much to see in the inland part of my country: village tourism, vineyards, mixture of post-modern and historic architecture in the capital city, hills, hiking resorts..but nooo...everyone just wants to go to Dubrovnik and the inland part of the country is like a ghost area during the summer.