Overtourism

Let us first have a look at what the tourism figures for 2025 are telling us. As shown below, while average revenue per tourist is improving from 2023 to 2025, it is still below the 2019 levels.

Furthermore, the above indicates that as we received a bit over 1.4 million tourists in the first five months of 2025, which normally constitutes around 35% to 36% of all tourists for the year, it seems ever more likely that we will get more than 4 million (possibly 4.1 million) tourists in 2025. Last year we had 3.6 million tourists. From 2019 we have increased tourist arrivals by 54%, but real income from tourism has increased by 51%.

All these figures lead me to the subject of overtourism. One only needs to have a cursory look at various recent social media posts and media reports to realise that even in Malta, especially in the summer months, local residents are also suffering from various elements of overtourism, especially that linked to youths coming over to Malta, who normally are low-budget tourists that bring with them various high risks.

Overtourism is precisely defined as a situation where an excessive number of visitors descends upon a destination, overwhelming its capacity for sustainable management. This imbalance leads to a cascade of negative consequences, including severe overcrowding, environmental degradation, noise pollution, strained public infrastructure, a reduced quality of life for inhabitants and an ultimately diminished visitor experience. More generally, it happens when tourism exceeds essential thresholds – whether physical, ecological, social, economic, psychological or political – beyond which negative impacts begin to emerge. This phenomenon is an urgent challenge for many of the world’s most cherished travel destinations, metaphorically described as “loving a destination to death”. The precise threshold for “too many” visitors is not universal; it is highly dynamic and influenced by a destination’s unique infrastructure, natural resource availability, environmental resilience, physical space and the perceptions of its community.

Overtourism presents a profound paradox: an economic success story that simultaneously generates significant social and environmental distress. While tourism undeniably contributes substantial revenue and creates employment opportunities, fostering an improved local economy and enhanced cultural events, the distribution of these benefits is often highly inequitable. Local residents (in Malta’s case foreign workers) frequently find themselves relegated to low-wage jobs within the tourism sector, while a disproportionate share of profits accrues to investors, some of which could even be large multinational corporations. This economic imbalance is compounded by a significant financial burden: residents, through local taxes, often bear the cost of maintaining and upgrading public infrastructure that is heavily utilised, and often degraded, by the sheer volume of tourists.

This creates a situation where the social, environmental and financial costs of mass tourism are effectively externalised onto the local population, while the economic gains are privatised or concentrated elsewhere. Such an imbalance fundamentally erodes the social contract between the tourism industry and the communities it impacts. The very qualities that initially attracted visitors – a destination’s authenticity, its vibrant local culture – are slowly eroded by the unchecked pursuit of visitor numbers. Understanding this fractured social contract is paramount for developing effective, equitable and sustainable solutions that prioritise the well-being of both residents and the destination itself.

The various manifestations of overtourism are not isolated problems but rather form a complex, interconnected web, often creating a self-reinforcing negative feedback loop. For example, the sheer volume of tourist arrivals directly contributes to visible overcrowding and congestion. This concentrated demand, particularly for accommodation, stimulates the rapid proliferation of short-term rental accommodation options, which in turn drives up housing costs and leads to the friction with local residents.

Concurrently, the large influx of visitors puts significant pressure on public infrastructure, such as transportation networks, waste management, drainage systems, healthcare services and energy distribution. This strain contributes to environmental degradation. Ultimately, this environmental damage, combined with pervasive overcrowding, diminishes the authentic visitor experience itself, potentially harming the destination’s long-term appeal and economic viability. This systemic interconnectedness means that effectively addressing overtourism necessitates holistic, rather than piecemeal solutions, that recognise and disrupt these reinforcing negative feedback loops.

The escalating overtourism phenomena is not attributable to a single factor but rather a confluence of powerful economic, social and technological forces that have collectively amplified visitor numbers to unsustainable levels. These include:

• Cheap flights: The widespread availability and increasing affordability of low-cost air flights has fundamentally democratised international travel. This accessibility has drastically expanded the sheer volume of people able to travel globally each year, making, what was once a luxury, accessible to a far broader demographic. The resulting surge in visitor numbers places immense pressure on popular destinations.
• Social media and “Instagrammable hotspots”: Social media platforms play a pivotal role in shaping travel trends and concentrating demand. The pervasive desire to visit and capture images at “Instagrammable hotspots” creates intense, localised demand, often leading to overcrowding at specific, already popular sites. This trend often encourages a more superficial, short-stay form of tourism focused on photo opportunities rather than deeper cultural immersion.
• Cultural tourism and mass media influence: A growing trend in contemporary tourism is the influence of mass culture, where individuals select destinations primarily based on their portrayal in social media, by influencers, or in television programmes and films (often termed “film tourism”). While seemingly benign, this can lead to “real disasters” when delicate ecosystems or small, unprepared communities, are suddenly inundated by hordes of visitors seeking to replicate media experiences.
• Seasonal concentration: A significant contributor to overtourism is the overwhelming tendency for tourists to swarm popular destinations during specific peak seasons, particularly the summer months. This seasonal concentration creates extreme and uneven demand for housing, public services and natural resources like water, severely exacerbating overcrowding and strain during these limited periods. In Malta efforts have been done to spread tourist numbers across shoulder months, to diversify tourism in Malta and fight seasonality.
• Ease of travel planning using technology: The increasing simplicity, speed and efficiency of planning complex international travel itineraries using technological tools contribute to the rising number of visitors. Technology can optimise routes, identify deals, and streamline bookings, making spontaneous or last-minute trips to popular sites far more feasible and encouraging greater travel frequency.
• The role of online short-term rental platforms (like Airbnb): The rapid proliferation of online platforms like Airbnb is widely cited by local residents and some analysts as a direct cause of rising housing prices and rentals. However, the exact impact of these platforms versus traditional hotels remains a significant and contentious debate. Airbnb contends that hotels account for nearly 80% of guest nights in the EU and are overwhelmingly concentrated in city centres, arguing that restrictions on short-term rentals exacerbate overtourism in central areas and drive up hotel prices. Conversely, critics, including the hotel industry, strongly counter that vacation rentals have surged by 135% in a decade without adequate regulation, exceeding destinations’ capacity, while hotels are subject to strict urban planning and regulatory oversight.

Underlying all these factors is the fundamental reality of exponential global travel growth. More than 1.4 billion people are travelling globally each year, a number projected to exceed 2 billion by 2030. This sheer volume, coupled with a disproportionate concentration of these travellers on a limited number of highly popular tourist destinations, inevitably leads to overcrowding and severe strain on resources and infrastructure.

Having a look at what has been done so far at addressing overtourism, it seems clear that to address overtourism a multi-faceted and integrated approach is needed, which includes policy interventions, strategic destination management, and a concerted effort to foster responsible tourism practices. Some of these are listed below.

• Policy and regulatory interventions: Some governments and local authorities across Europe are implementing a range of legislative and regulatory measures to mitigate the impacts of overtourism:
• Tourist taxes and access fees: A common and increasingly adopted solution involves imposing a small fee, typically a few euros per night, added to hotel or short-term rental bills. Venice has pioneered an “access tax” that applies to anyone entering the city, including day-trippers, specifically to manage daily visitor numbers. Paris notably increased its tourist tax by 200% in 2024, with the generated funds explicitly earmarked for enhancing public transportation. Amsterdam has raised its tourist tax to 12.5% of accommodation costs, making it the highest rate in Europe. Cities like Lisbon and Athens also impose tourist taxes, often specifically targeting cruise ship passengers. Even England is poised to follow suit with tourist taxes in areas such as Southwark and Brent, aiming to fund community safety, cleanliness and infrastructure improvements. The revenue generated from these taxes is intended to enhance the quality of life for both visitors and locals and to combat the negative effects of overtourism. While beneficial for generating revenue for infrastructure and services, tourism taxes are generally “not an effective means of deterring tourism”, as a small extra fee may be negligible for a tourist’s overall travel budget. However, they are increasingly recognised as “indispensable instruments for tourism management and sustainability” by providing crucial, dedicated funding.
• Short-Term rental regulations: Cities are implementing increasingly stringent measures to curb the impact of short-term rentals on housing availability and affordability. Madrid, for instance, ordered the withdrawal of thousands of Airbnb properties found to be violating local regulations. Barcelona has announced an ambitious plan to phase out all 10,000 licensed short-term rental apartments by 2028. Valencia is taking strong action against non-compliant landlords, including cutting off water and electricity and imposing significant fines, potentially up to €600,000. Budapest has gone further by outright banning all short-term rentals. Edinburgh has also tightened its regulations on short-term rentals.
• Visitor caps and group limits: To manage crowd density at specific attractions and mitigate disturbances, Athens has imposed a quota limiting the number of daily visitors to the Acropolis to 20,000. Venice has restricted travel groups to a maximum of 25 people and banned the use of loudspeakers for tour guides.
• Urban planning and infrastructure management: Various European cities are adopting proactive urban planning measures to control tourism development. Amsterdam has implemented a ban on the construction of new hotels, allowing new, more sustainable buildings only if another existing structure closes and without exceeding the previous property’s room numbers. Amsterdam has also banned buses weighing over 7.5 tons from entering its city centre. Paris has begun limiting tourist buses to reduce congestion around popular attractions.

Overtourism represents a multifaceted crisis, a direct consequence of unchecked tourism growth that has profoundly overwhelmed destinations and led to significant environmental, social, and in some instances economic strains. It is a critical challenge that demands immediate and sustained attention, particularly given the projected continued exponential growth in global travel.

Moving forward, it is very likely that on an international level the approach to tourism must undergo a fundamental transition from a volume-driven model to one centred on sustainability, resilience, and equitable benefit-sharing. This requires a holistic and integrated strategy encompassing smart and adaptable policy interventions, proactive destination management and diversification, and a concerted, continent-wide effort to foster responsible tourism practices among all stakeholders – from individual travellers to local communities and industry giants. Even the tourism industry in Malta needs to move forward in this direction as per targets set in the Malta Vision 2050.