Over-Tourism Impacts and Strategies: An Assessment of Current Strategies for Sustainable Tourism

Abstract

This article explores the effectiveness of public protests and administrative policies in reducing the impacts of overtourism by examining two cases of cities facing overtourism; Barcelona, Spain and Venice, Italy.  Total tourist visits are used as the dependent variable and compared across time with specific actions taken by local populations and their governments to reduce or mitigate overtourism.  Strategic plans for tourism in both case cities are examined and plans are compared to a recommended set of actions from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Tourism levels are explored from 2010 to 2024, which includes the pandemic period.  Quantitative analysis includes linear regressions showing strong correlations although the data does not allow useful tests of causality in many cases. The article finds that total visitor counts across most of the world had completely recovered from pandemic impacts by 2024, with strong forecast growth for future years.  Excessive tourism levels bring threats to regional infrastructure, culture, quality of life, and environmental sustainability, making solutions critical as tourism levels continue to increase.  Unfortunately, few of the actions taken within each city studied produced any significant reduction in tourist visits to the city.  The economic and social/cultural conflicts between increasing and decreasing tourism are examined, as well as the difference between mitigation strategies aimed at the effects of overtourism and overtourism itself.  Conclusions call for new approaches to limiting tourism, as well as specific additional research.