A growing number of holiday hotspots are embracing measures to regulate the number of visitors they receive every year.
Similar moves normally come after locals start lamenting their daily lives are being disrupted by huge waves of tourists taking over their cities, beaches and museums.
An unsustainable amount of visitors can also lead to the tourism sector taking over other priorities, including sustainable housing and traditional shops.
In recent weeks, people living in central Florence in Italy have raised concerns about the disappearance of workshops, some of which have been passed on from generation to generation, in favour of cheap souvenir shops and restaurants.
While the presence of too many tourists can spoil the existence of locals and have repercussions on the environment, it can also ruin the experience of other visitors.
Welcoming more tourists than a destination can manage can lead to huge disappointments for visitors, including being unable to visit areas without advance booking, incurring in overblown costs for basics like food and accommodation and finding the spot described as paradise dirty and busy due to overcrowding.
Now Express.co.uk is asking its readers whether the thought of too many tourists at a destination put them off going on holiday altogether.
Let us know your thoughts on overtourism in the poll below.
Many destinations that have either become popular overnight thanks to social media and influencers or that have always attracted visitors are fighting back against the phenomenon of over-tourism.
Since July 2022, three of the top tourist sites on the French island of Corsica started capping the number of daily visitors able to enter these areas – the Lavezzi islands, the Bavella Needles mountain ridge and the Restonica valley.
After years of protests, residents in Italy’s Venice managed to ban in 2021 large cruise ships from entering the main Giudecca Canal.
Another Italian holiday hotspot, Portofino, introduced last year fines to prevent people from stopping to take selfies in popular areas at peak time to avoid congesting the streets.
