Many popular holiday destinations are struggling from the environmental impact of huge visitor numbers. How can the issue be tackled?
Tourismis booming all over the world. In 2024 there were around 1.5 billion holiday makers, setting the second highest ever record after 2019.
From Gran Canaria to Mallorca andRome, many population destinations are now overcrowded with visitors.
Overtourismdescribes the excessive, and often simultaneous, rush of vacationers to one place. According to the UN World Tourism Organization it is usually defined as the point at which locals or visitors feel tourismhas negatively impacted the quality of lifein a region to an unacceptable degree.
All of this applies to theseven Canary Islands.The archipelago in the Atlantic, home to 2.2 million locals, hosted a total of 15.2 million visitors last year — and a new record is expected this year.
While tourism accounts for more than a third of the islands' economy, it is mainly large investors that profit, according to local groups.Rents are exploding, the environment is suffering and living space for the local population is becoming scarce as property owners capitalize on lucrative short-term rentals.
Overtourism exacerbates the existing problems of heavy tourism and often stretches infrastructure and local resources to their limit.
Noise, littering, drones flying through the air to take holiday snapshots and traffic jams are just a few of the less pleasant aspects of surges in visitors.
Landscapes are often altered by additional footpaths or new parking lots catering to tourists, disrupting the local flora and fauna.
Tourism threatens water resources, especially on islands and in warm regions as vacationers, particularly wealthy ones, generally consumemore water than locals.
Waste water is also often a problem. For example, the wastewater discharged into the sea off the popular Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca has caused underwater seagrass beds, important helpers in the fight against theclimate crisis,to shrink considerably.
Emissions from tourism increased by 65% between 1995 and 2019. Today it is today responsible for 8% to 10% of allglobal greenhouse gas emissions.Air travel is the main driver of its growing climate impact. While flying accounts for a quarter of all vacation trips, it is responsible for three quarters of tourism emissions.
Added to this are emissions from localtransportation, accommodation and leisure activities. The general rise in travel often leads to overtourism: If more people are traveling, particularly popular destinations become more crowded.
Short trips are becoming more popular. Last year, Germans alone took around 94 million short trips — an increase of almost a quarter compared to the previous year. This type of travel is particularly damaging to the climate, as the largest proportion of tourists' CO2 emissions comes from the journey to and from a destination. More short trips equals more arrivals and departures, and this means more emissions.
According to the Swiss non-profit organization fairunterwegs, air travel has a particularly influential role in driving overtourism. They say the existence of nearby airports, particularly if they are served by low-cost airlines, encourages the emergence of overtourism. Mallorca, for example, would probably not be as popular if people had to travel there by ship.
Howevercruise shipsare also criticized for exacerbating the problem. Cruise ship tourists tend to go ashore for only a few hours, putting a strain on local infrastructure and contributing relatively little to the local economy, as they are usually fully catered for on board.
And then there is the phenomenon of so-called set-jetting. The filming locations of popular TV series often experience a huge spike in visitor numbers. On Maui and Sicily, the filming locations for the first two seasons of US series "The White Lotus," the number of guests has risen by 20% since the islands appeared on-screen.
Dubrovnik in Croatia,where much of Game of Thrones was filmed, is also suffering from overtourism. And in Hallstatt,Austria,a local initiative is fighting against the impact of a tourism surge, likely driven by the picturesque town being featured in the South KoreanNetflix series"Spring Waltz."
Some cities and regions are trying to limit thenumber of travelers at certain times or altogether.
In Venice,day tourists have to pay up to €10and Lisbon charges cruise ship operators €2 for every disembarking passenger. Tenerife is restricting access to the summit of the Pico del Teide volcano to 300 visitors per day.
Paris has moved to limit the number of days per year locals can rent out their main residence via platforms such as Airbnb, while Thailand is closing the popular Similan and Surin Islands this year until autumn to allow local ecosystems to recover, and is planning to charge entrance fees in future.
In addition to access restrictions and higher taxes on overnight stays, visitor flows are also managed through digital booking systems that help avoid queues in front of monuments or museums. Some tourism hotspots are also promoting attractions outside city centers.
Copenhagenis trying a different approach by instead rewarding more climate-friendly travellers, with those arriving by train able to access free rental bikes, yoga lessons, guided tours and reduced admission prices.
This article was first published in German.