Tourism is booming all over the world. There were about 1.5 billion holiday manufacturers in 2024, setting the second highest record after 2019.
From Gran Carnaria to Mallorca and Rome, many population destinations are now crowded with visitors.
Overtorism excessive, and often, rush of holidays at one place. For the United Nations World Tourism Organization, it is usually defined as a point on which local people or visitors feel that tourism has negatively understood the quality of life in an area for unacceptable degrees.
All this applies to seven canary islands. The Islands in the Atlantic, the houses of 2.2 million local people, hosted a total of 15.2 million visitors last year – and expected to be a new record this year.
While the tourism islands are responsible for more than one third of the economy, they are primarily large investors that provide benefits according to local groups. Rets are exploding, the environment is afflicted and the living space for the local population is getting rare because the property owners invest capital on attractive short -term rent.
How does overtorism affect the environment?
The overturism increases the existing problems of heavy tourism and often spreads infrastructure and local resources to their limits.
Drone and traffic jams flying through air to take noise, dustbin, holiday snapshot are some of some less pleasant aspects of increase in visitors.
The landscapes are older than catering for tourists from additional pavements or new parking sites, which disrupt local flora and organisms.
Tourism threatens water resources, specificly on islands and as holidays in warm areas, especially rich, consume normal intake compared to local people.
Waste water is such a problem. For example, the underwater cigras beds due to wastewater in the sea away from Mallorca’s popular Spanish Belleric Island, have been significantly reduced to important assistants in the fight against climate crisis.
Is the climate promoting crisis?
Between 1995 and 2019, tourism emissions increased by 65%. Today today all global greenhouse is responsible for 8% of gas emissions. The AAIR travel is the main driver of its growing climate effect. While flying to a quarter of all holiday trips, it is responsible for three quarter tourism emissions.
It has been added to local transport, housing and leisure activities. The normal growth in travel often leads to overturism: if more people are traveling, especially popular destinations become more crowded.
Short trips are becoming more popular. Last year, the Germans alone made about 94 million short trips – an increase of about a quarter of the previous year. This type of journey is particularly harmful to climate, as the biggest proportion of tourists’ CO2 emissions comes from travel and a destination. More short trips are equal to more arrival and departure, and it means more emissions.
What is the cause of overtorism?
According to the Swiss non-profit organization Fair Metro, there is a particularly effective role in running the overturism of air travel. They say that the surrounding airports exist, especially if they are served by low-cost airlines, encourages the emergence of overtorism. For example, Mallorca, perhaps not as popular if people have to travel there by ship.
However, cruise is very criticized to increase the problem of ships. Cruise ship tourists go donkeys for only a few hours, pressurize the local infrastructure and make relative contribution to the local economy, as they are usually fully fulfilled to the board.
And then the so -called set is the occurrence of jetting. Filming places of the popular TV series often experience a huge spike in visitor numbers. On Mau and Sicily, the filming location for the first two sessions of the US series “The White Lotus”, the number of guests has increased by 20%, which appeared the island on-screen.
In Croatia, Dabrovnik, where most of the game of Thrones was filmed, was therefore suffering from overtorism. And in Hallstat, Austria, a local initiative is fighting against the impact of a tourism growth, which is likely to be operated by the picturesque city operated in the South Korean Netflix series “Spring Waltz”.
Can overturism be stopped?
Some cities and regions are trying to limit the number of time or completely passengers.
In Venice, tourists of the day have to pay up to € 10 and for each disintegrated passenger for Lisbon Charge Cruise Ship Operators € 2. Taneurf is restricting access to the peak of the pico del tid volcanic for 300 visitors through the day.
Paris has moved to limit the number of days per year, locals can hire their main residence through the discovery of platforms as AirBNB, while Thailand is closing the popular Similan and Surin Islands this year, until the autumn of autumn is fixed, and plans to charge in future.
In addition to overnight staying restrictions and access to high taxes, visitor flows are managed through the digital booking system that help escape from the front of monuments or museums. Some tourism hotspots are promoting attraction outside the centers of the city.
Copenhagen is trying a different approach rather than rewarding passengers suited to more climate, in which people arriving by train are able to reduce free rental bikes, yoga lessons, directed tourism and admission prices.
This article was first published in German.
