“Overtourism has been threatening the ‘Floating City’ for decades, but it’s become a challenge in other sought-after destinations during the post-COVID tourism recovery surge,” says Sue Garrett, General Manager Supply, Pricing & Marketing for Flight Centre South Africa.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) predicts that the number of worldwide tourists, which peaked at 1.5 billion in 2019, will reach 1.8 billion by 2030 – likely leading to increased pressure on highly desirable travel spots.

“Major cities and sites across the globe rely on the income tourism brings and are still keen for arrivals, but local governments and tourism boards are increasingly stepping in to futureproof their local landmarks, communities, environments, and infrastructure,” says Garrett.

Whether it’s visitor restrictions, tourist taxes, or even temporary closures, Garrett stresses the importance of staying informed of the latest overtourism measures implemented in popular destinations.

Cruise limits

The cruise industry will see new restrictions in 2025, such as docking regulations, ship size limits and daily cruise passenger caps. Some of these changes include:

• Nice, France: From 1 July 2025, cruise ships carrying more than 900 passengers (dubbed ‘floating hotels’), will be prohibited
• Belfast, Maine: As of 2025, vessels carrying more than 50 passengers will no longer be allowed to dock
• Iceland: A new per-passenger, per-day fee has been introduced, with officials anticipating 80 fewer cruise ship visits in 2025
• Amsterdam: In 2026, the number of sea cruises will be reduced from 190 to 100, with the main cruise terminal to be relocated outside the city

In response to restrictions, Garrett predicts a rise in small-ship cruises, like those operated by Oceania and Silversea and Ponant – as well as large cruise lines promoting new, unique and lesser-known ports and itineraries.

Landmarks limiting numbers

Overtourism has prompted local governments and tourism custodians to take it upon themselves to establish some form of crowd control. This has resulted in various restriction policies with time-slot systems, and even temporary closures of popular attractions. Some of these include:

• Venice, Italy: Day visitors will need to pay a €5–€10 entry fee to curb overcrowding
• Pompeii, Italy: With more than four million visitors in 2024, Pompeii will introduce a 20,000-visitor cap in 2025
• Trevi Fountain, Rome: During the 2025 Jubilee Holy Year, a reservation system will limit access to 400 visitors at a time
• Mount Fuji, Japan: Due to a surge in numbers, daily visitors during the peak season will be capped at 4,000 with a ¥2,000 ($20) entry fee
• Cliffs of Moher, Ireland: Select trails will be closed for increased safety and environmental preservation

“Overcrowding is a major issue affecting both local residents and tourists whose travel experience is compromised,” Garrett explains. “Limiting daily numbers of visitors is not a new concept, particularly across Europe, but we’re guaranteed to witness an increase in these policies to break the overtourism cycle.”

Destinations implementing ‘tourist tax’

In 2025, popular destinations are introducing new or raising existing visitor fees to regulate tourist flows and receive additional funds for infrastructure maintenance and development. Here are several be aware of before planning your 2025 travel:

• Venice, Italy: To manage visitor flow Venice will expand its tourist tax programme increasing the cost to visit the city from €5 to €10
• Thailand: A travel tax has been proposed for mid-2025. If approved, the fee is estimated to be around £6.87 for those arriving by plane
• Greece: To enhance infrastructure and promote sustainable tourism, visitors will pay a tax of €8 per day during peak season
• Azores, Portugal: As of 2025, a fee of €2 per person per night will be introduced
• Paris, France: Both a regional tax and a tourist tax will be applicable in 2025 based on the type of accommodation
• Maldives: The nation’s ‘Green Tax’ will increase to $12 per day in 2025

While the allure of famed destinations is strong, Garrett emphasises that travellers need to know which destinations they will be charged additional fees for and how much they’ll need to pay.

“Although destinations are taking action against overtourism, there’s a certain level of responsibility that lies with travellers to rethink how and where they explore, and with travel suppliers in terms of how they guide them,” she adds. 

What can you (the traveller) do?

• To help preserve the world’s most beautiful destinations, consider embracing slow travel – spend more time in fewer places (it allows you to slow down and relax and it benefits local communities)
• Adopt a ‘this-not-that’ mindset. Seek alternative destinations experiencing undertourism to ease pressure on overcrowded hotspots
• When visiting popular locations, travel during the shoulder season to avoid peak crowds and higher fees

For Garrett, mindful travel choices make a difference: “According to Murmuration, which tracks tourism’s environmental impact, 80% of travellers visit 10% of destinations. By exploring beyond the usual landmarks and being intentional with our travel, we can help safeguard these places for future generations.”

According to Airbnb it is also changing the economics of travel and tourism – now one of the largest industries on earth and representing more than 10 percent of the world’s gross domestic product – to benefit local families and communities.

Airbnb fights overcrowding and reduces mass tourism concentration

Across the eight global tourist destinations studied, at least two-thirds of all guest arrivals on Airbnb take place outside of traditional tourist areas, and 72 to 93 percent of Airbnb listings are located outside of areas that are at risk for overtourism, as a result of homes being less concentrated than hotels. This encourages geographic diversity and distribution of guest arrivals.

A first-of-its-kind global analysis of over 2.8 million Airbnb host guidebooks also shows hosts are helping fight tourist crowding through local and unique recommendations to guests. The analysis shows the median guidebook-recommended location is a 20-minute walk from the host’s listing – typically outside tourist hotspots – and two-thirds of recommended places to eat are within the same radius.

The analysis also shows that 61 percent of all Airbnb host guidebook recommendations offered around the world are only recommended by one host, meaning only the guests of that particular host are being directed to that location or activity through Airbnb.

Globally, this implies that today, one can find over 1 million individual-host guidebook recommendations that no other host recommends – a welcome antidote to standardized tourist maps that spawn what Tourtellot describes as “generic businesses”. “These generic businesses force out distinctive local shops, eateries and crafts,” says Jonathan Tourtellot, Founder of the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations.

Changing the economics of tourism to benefit locals

The vast majority of each dollar spent on Airbnb flows directly to hosts, who keep up to 97 percent of every dollar, euro or pound they charge to rent their space. Hosts then spend and reinvest their earnings in a number of ways including household expenses, rent or mortgage payments, cleaners, home improvement, healthcare and education. Relative to chain hotels, a much smaller percentage of home sharing spending is paid in fees.

This stands in stark contrast to tourism spends with hotels, where anywhere between 14 to 36 cents of each chain-hotel dollar may never reach the actual destination community. On cruise ships, data shows the only potential benefits for local communities from cruise ship accommodation spending are fuel costs and local transportation costs of shuttling day-trippers from a port to a limited number of sites.

“From the destination point of view, tourism can be plotted on a spectrum from beneficial to problematic,” says Tourtellot. “At the beneficial end, we can posit that healthy travel is good for the visitor and good for the destination—its people, environment, culture, and character. The goal, of course, is to avoid conditions that fail to do that, as in the case of ‘leakage’, when a high proportion of tourist revenue goes to the bottom line of a far-away business or corporation rather than helping the local economy.”

Airbnb and total visitor share

In a study of eight of the world’s most popular travel destinations at risk of overtourism, including Barcelona, Venice, Amsterdam and Japan, data shows that Airbnb accounts for just 7 percent of all guest arrivals, including hotel and cruise ship guests. This equates to 0.37 guests per local resident on Airbnb, compared to 5.1 tourists for every local resident – or almost 14 times more non-Airbnb than Airbnb guests.

Local examples show total tourist arrivals per local resident outnumber Airbnb guest arrivals by 73.8 to 2.2 in Venice; 51.3 to 5.2 in Queenstown, New Zealand; and 10.2 to 0.5 in Mallorca.