While sometimes crowds are unavoidable in tourist hotspots, they can detract from a location’s ambiance, inconvenience its local population, and even harm its ecosystem. This has led some destinations to put caps on visitor numbers in a bid to keep tourism sustainable. Here are the top destinations around the world that are limiting overtourism – and how they’re achieving it.
Click or scroll through the gallery to discover the countries who'd prefer you not to visit...
With bustling cities, incredible beaches and historic architecture, it's no wonder Thailand is high on many people's wish lists. In fact the country welcomed a whopping 28 million tourists in 2023. Yet the country is keen to keep tourism sustainable, so in 2023 it announced plans to introduce a tourism tax (though when this will come into action has yet to be confirmed by the government). The 300 baht (£7/$9) fee will be collected from air travellers arriving in the country and will be used towards developing destinations, such as the Grand Palace in Bangkok (pictured), as well as taking care of tourists when health insurance doesn't cover them.
The archipelagos of French Polynesia make up a land area about the same size as Paris and London combined, but they’re spread across 130 islands in the South Pacific Ocean. These tiny isles can quickly become overwhelmed by people, which has spurred recent plans to ensure a maximum 1:1 ratio of residents to tourists. The sustainable tourism plan, which was announced in November 2022 and will apply until 2027, will mean that just 280,000 people can visit annually.
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A trailblazer when it comes to sustainable tourism, Bhutan has taken a slightly different approach to keeping visitor numbers at bay. As part of a new strategy, the nation will ask each traveller to pay a higher sustainable development fee of £79 ($100) a night – a 50% reduction from the previous rate of £158 ($200). This will be put towards various development projects, including tree planting, the maintenance of footpaths and training tourism industry workers, as well as education and healthcare in the country. Bhutan is one of the few nations on Earth that is carbon negative, meaning it offsets more emissions than it produces.
Visitors love Amsterdam’s gorgeous canals and historic architecture – but the crowds that have inundated the Dutch capital in recent years are becoming unsustainable. That’s why, in November 2022, officials announced a new plan to keep the city liveable. Measures include limits on the number of river cruises, earlier closing times for venues in the Red Light District, measures to tackle rowdy groups and a tightening of policies on holiday rentals and B&Bs.
With its jewel-bright waters, pristine sands and swaying palm trees, the Philippine island of Boracay is the definition of a tropical paradise. Yet it’s in danger of being swallowed up by crowds. To tackle growing visitor numbers, the local government required visitors to register with the Municipal Tourism Office until 2023, which meant that no more than 19,215 tourists could be on the island at any time. While this policy has been lifted, visitors are still required to fill out a tourist arrival form.
Each year, hordes of people head to the Inca city of Machu Picchu. In 2021 it hosted around 448,000 visitors, while in 2019 before the pandemic a massive 1.5 million tourists descended on the sacred site. To preserve the ancient wonder, tourist numbers have been capped at 4,500 a day, and those wishing to visit must purchase an entry ticket online ahead of schedule. It’s also necessary for all travellers to attend with a tour guide, with group sizes limited to 10 people per guide.
Overtourism became such a problem in Dubrovnik that, in 2016, UNESCO announced it was at risk of losing its World Heritage Site status. So the city announced a slew of measures to clamp down on overcrowding. Now, visitor numbers coming from cruise ships are capped at 5,000 a day, the number of souvenir stands has been cut by 80% and the number of restaurant tables and chairs has been reduced by 30%.
Another destination cracking down on cruise ships is the picture-perfect island of Santorini. The Greek isle, famed for its blue-and-white buildings set on dramatic coastlines, received an enormous two million tourists in 2018, with claims there were as many as 18,000 visitors from cruise ships alone on the busiest days. To combat this, officials capped cruise passenger arrivals at 8,000 per day from 2019.
Lesser-known Greek islands to visit before the crowds catch on
More than 423 National Park System sites, covering more than 84 million acres of land, can be found across America and its territories. And while these stunning places offer a perfect opportunity for domestic and international tourists to explore the great outdoors, some are at risk of being overrun by visitors. To combat this, many popular sites have employed reservation systems to curb numbers. These include Acadia (pictured), Arches, Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Shenandoah and Zion national parks.
Travellers flock to this Spanish city for its food, sunshine and gorgeous architecture among other attributes. But the hotspot has had to put stricter regulations in place to stop its streets becoming clogged with crowds. In March 2023, it was announced that tour groups in the historic centre would be capped at 20 people, while groups in smaller areas would be limited to 15 people. The city has also banned the use of megaphones and created one-way systems on 24 of its streets and squares to keep crowds moving.
The Balearic island of Mallorca is a hotspot for tourists with many resorts and beaches that become packed in warm weather. In a bid to tackle overcrowding, the Mallorca Council has outlined a new plan, with steps including reducing the number of hotel beds to 430,000 across the entire island, as well as increasing inspections to tackle illegal holiday lets. It’s hoped that the measures will shift the focus from quantity to quality when it comes to tourism.
Few could forget the shocking image of queuing crowds at the summit of Mount Everest that went viral in May 2019. Overtourism can cause structural harm to the mountain, but it can also lead to dangerous conditions and a higher number of fatalities. To mitigate the problem, Nepal has introduced a quota system to limit the numbers travelling up the peak. Under the new rules, climbers also have to prove that they've scaled another major mountain, while operators need at least three years’ experience to offer tours.
With an enormous 90 million visitors in 2019, France is the most visited country in the world – so it’s perhaps no wonder the nation has had to take steps to curb tourism. Many towns and islands in the south, including Corsica (pictured), have introduced online reservation systems to limit numbers at important attractions.
In an unusual twist to deter visitor numbers to one of its top attractions, local authorities in Normandy, France have posted images of endless queues (like the one pictured) to stop more tourists from coming. Mont St Michel, a famous 10th-century abbey, attracted 60,000 visitors in one weekend in late May 2023, forcing those in charge to declare that the site could no longer handle peak-time crowds. "Delay your visit!" was the message, while plans for a turnstile at the foot of the landmark may be necessary in future.
Easily accessible from Sydney, the small Lord Howe Island is home to stunning natural landscapes which make it a popular escape from the mainland. Yet the destination is set on ensuring that it doesn’t become overwhelmed by tourists. That’s why no more than 400 visitors are allowed on the island at any one time – slightly above the island’s permanent population of 382.
Beautiful photos from the Australian Nature Photographer of the Year awards
Given that Antarctica is such an important destination for conservation and scientific research – as well as having a pretty extreme climate – it makes sense that there are strict regulations on tourism here. All visits must comply with the Antarctic Treaty, which stipulates that a maximum of 100 visitors can be ashore at once, while vessels, hovercraft and boats must not disturb wildlife in any way, among a variety of other guidelines. Visits can only happen if they’ve been approved in advance by the relevant national authority.
Famed for their idyllic sandy beaches, the Seychelles have seen a huge uptick in tourism in the last couple of decades. In fact, in 2018, the islands hosted around 360,000 tourists – roughly four times the country’s population. To keep tourism sustainable, the government placed a moratorium on the building of large resorts in favour of smaller, locally-run lodgings until December 2023, while there's also been talk of putting a cap on total visitor numbers.
Among the most popular attractions in China is the Forbidden City, Beijing’s former imperial palace. The more than 600-year-old World Heritage Site has been known to attract as many as 140,000 visitors daily in recent years, which spurred officials to impose a cap: since 2015, no more than 80,000 people can visit per day. The price will also be lowered during the low season, in the hope of attracting more tourists to visit while it’s quieter.
Nicknamed the ‘Venice of the North’ thanks to its charming canals, Bruges has long been a hit with tourists. But the compact city quickly becomes overwhelmed by visitors, which has led the mayor to introduce several steps to prevent so-called ‘Disneyfication’. The number of cruises allowed to dock at the city’s ports has been cut from five to two per day, with ships requested to dock on weekdays to prevent overcrowding. There is also a ban on advertising campaigns targeting day-trippers, with a focus on travellers who stay longer and invest in Bruges’ hotels, museums and attractions.
One of Europe’s most notoriously popular cities, Venice’s trademark canals and labyrinthine streets can quickly become clogged with visitors, with as many as 100,000 people visiting every day in previous years. So the city has announced new measures to limit day-trippers – from spring 2024, anyone wishing to visit must book ahead online and pay a €5 (£4.20/$5.28) fee to enter. The metropolis has also banned cruise ships from the historic centre, as the vessels are considered a leading cause of pollution and are said to be eroding the foundations of the city.
Famed for its gorgeous coastlines topped by picturesque towns, Italy’s Amalfi Coast has long been a tourist hotspot. Yet the beloved destination has lately become just as well-known for its traffic as its scenery – although a new scheme aims to curtail that. As of June 2022, during the peak season, cars with number plates ending in odd digits must only travel along the busy road between Vietri sul Mare and Positano on even-numbered dates, while even-numbered cars can only travel on odd dates.
Athens has had to lay down the law to prevent overcrowding of its celebrated historic attractions. The Acropolis, Greece’s most visited archaeological site, drew so many visitors that in September 2023, authorities capped the number of entrants at 20,000 a day, with slots available via an online booking site. However, Greek authorities aren’t stopping there. Starting in April 2024, the new booking system will also be applied to over 25 other archaeological sites across the country.
One of the latest countries to join the list of those implementing tourism restrictions, Japan reported that its visitor numbers for September 2023 had reached 96% of their pre-pandemic 2019 numbers, with the result that the tourism ministry has begun to implement an ‘overtourism prevention plan.’ The plan includes offering 11 ‘model tourist destinations,’ which have been selected by experts from a list of 62 options as alternatives to Japan’s more crowded metropolitan hotspots.
However, not all of Japan's overcrowded destinations are city centres. The lush paradise of Iriomote, in Japan's subtropical Okinawa prefecture, is a haven for flora and fauna of all kinds, including the critically endangered Iriomote wild cat. It's so gorgeous that in 2021, Iriomote was made a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site (along with other islands in the region). However, the sparsely-populated island's unspoilt beauty was threatened by hundreds of thousands of annual tourists, so in April 2023 the Okinawan government imposed a cap of 1,200 visitors per day.
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Believed to have inspired Frozen’s Arandelle, the fairy-tale city of Hallstatt, Austria was averaging 10,000 visitors a day pre-pandemic. Determined to protect the UNESCO heritage site, the city’s mayor has implemented a number of measures to reduce foot traffic, including building wooden fences to obstruct lakeside selfie backdrops, and capping the number of tour buses and cars permitted to enter the region, with the aim of reducing tourism by at least a third.
The UNESCO-listed Malaysian island of Penang has recently banned Airbnb and most other forms of short-stay holiday accommodation in a dramatic step to reduce tourism. The new policy, which was implemented in May 2023, is in accordance with an effort to curb disruptive tourism practices in response to complaints raised by locals.
In response to growing concerns over air and water pollution, Indonesia’s Minister for Tourism and Creative Economies has called for Bali to take action against the rising risk of overtourism. Bali is considered to be Indonesia’s primary tourist destination, with a pre-pandemic average of 6 million international visitors annually. With the implementation of a new tourist fee of 150,000 Indonesian rupiah per visitor, (around $10/ £7.50) Bali officials hope to achieve a "higher quality of sustainable tourism” on the island.
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