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INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF OVER TOURISM ON
DESTINATION SUSTAINABILITY: A GLOBAL CASE STUDY
Ulmasova Bahora Asrorovna
MA student of Silk Road International University
of Tourism and Cultural Heritage
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14059992
1.Abstract
Over tourism has a significant impact on tourism industry and
improvement of the destination. And issues caused by overcrowding are major
problem for the most popular and most visited countries nowadays. This
research explores the effects of overcrowding on sustainability of destination in
the globe.
In this study quantitative data method, with different kind of Literature reviews
from reliable sources such as Google scholar, research Gate, Scopus and others
were used to analyze how tourism congestion influence on tourism industry. By
examining data about several countries around the world, such as, Amsterdam,
Italy and Greece which faced to over tourism and this research gives some
recommendations for developing the quality of sustainable travel services and
some ways to avoid over tourism.
Key words:
Over tourism, Sustainability, Travel services, Amsterdam,
Italy, Greece
2. Introduction
Over tourism has a strong negative impact on the quality of life of people
and guests’ experiences in a destination. The growth of tourism is depending on
many factors, such as tourists flow into a destination, environmental
sustainability of a country, political stability and others.
Firstly, overcrowding can cause to lack of accommodation facilities and lack of
resources, besides that it can damage the environment because of wasting many
resources or products in that destination. And the main reasons of tourism
congestion in tourists’ destinations can be the number of increasing social media
advertisements and not to promote small cities and country sides of those
places.
Mobility is the first reason because nowadays it is impossible do not find
popular tourist destinations on social media and it can lead many visitors to
these countries. And the second one is promoting only city centers to attract
many visitors with improving the quality of tourism products, while not
promoting urban places. That is why most of popular city centers are so busy
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with people. And all of these reasons led to cultural erosion and social
disruption.
As a consequence of visiting many tourists in a destination, it can lead the
damaging of natural ecosystems, and it will be one of the serious issues for
future sustainability. By analyzing the impacts of this problem among the most
developed countries around the world, this research aims to explain what kind
of actions and ways, government can take for keeping their tourism industry
stable.
2.1 Objectives of the research
The objectives of study are followings:
1.
To examine how over tourism effects on tourism industry in a global scale.
2.
To analyze several steps and strategies to reduce the negative influences
of overcrowding in developed countries.
3.
To focus on understanding environmental and economic impacts of over
tourism.
4.
To give some recommendations and suggestions to improve the quality of
tourism sustainability.
2.2 Literature review
According to the scholar Goodwin (2017:1), over tourism is “both visitors and
local residents feel that there are so many visitors and it influence its effect on
quality of guests’ experience and local people’s life”. It can lead to crowdedness
and lack of capacity in a specific tourism destination. Without doubt, tourism is
one of the main aspects to understand cultural exchanges and help to
understand cross-cultural communications, but sometimes it shows its
detrimental implications in social life of residents, pollution, cultural
deterioration, and increasing the cost of living in a specific area (Roberts, Renda
& Pinto, 2022).
Besides that, it is very crucial to improve the skill of government policies and to
design management equipment for minimizing the negative effects before its
influence (Gonza-Iez Reverte,2022). One of the main problems with
overcrowding can lead to increase the cost of living which is negatively related
to the individuals’ quality of life. According to the many researchers of this field,
it is highlighted that, many countries will come across to this problem in next
years (Butter,2018).
Although excessive tourism has detrimental impacts, however, it also has
positive effects on local tourism. It can give them several economic
opportunities (Annar et. al, 2019). Haspers (2019) said that, tourism industry
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plays a crucial role in Europe, because of its assistance on economy growth,
however, it has both adverse social and physical consequences.
3. Approach
This study collects the information from the reliable sources according to the
previous literature reviews such as Google Scholar, Scopus, Research Gate and
etc. Data collection method includes analysis of secondary sources such as
reports and country documents about tourist arrivals in the most visited
destinations around the world. The study focuses on to connect with the
environmental, social, economic effects of overcrowding in these developed
countries and it explores the strategies, tactics and ways which government try
to reduce the mass tourism.
4.Outcomes
This research explored that over tourism has negative effects on
improvement of different factors of destination. Such as, it influences
culture of state, social life, natural environment, quality of life and etc.
The research highlighted that, it is very important to protect the cultural
heritages, natural areas, to promote sustainable tourism, eco-tourism, and
country sides for improving their tourism industry as city centers.
Besides that, it is also crucial that to bring the community, government,
stakeholders, tour operators or others to protect both cultural and
environmental sites of a country. Because, they help to reduce the negative
effects of over tourism with their assistance and organizations,
stakeholders, and others can manage this issue.
5. Discussions
This research mainly focusses on the condition of popular city center during the
overcrowding and how it affects their quality of life and tourism sphere. Top
most visited destinations which came across to over tourism during 2023
around the world. They are followings:
1.
Italy (Rome) --- total number of tourist arrivals were equal to 445.3
million during 2023, 35 million tourists in Rome, 2023, 9% over 2022, 32
million.
2.
Barcelona --- attracts 9,2 million tourists, while 12 million visitors came to
the Catalan.
3.
Amsterdam--- 20 million tourists visited (according to the Research &
Statistics unit), population equal to 1000 000.
4.
Paris--- 36,9 million in 2023.
5.
Venice--- 5.5 million in 2023.
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6.
Bali--- 5,273,258 thousand visitors in 2023.
7.
Athens--- hosted to 7 million tourists in 2023.
8.
Miami--- 26.5 million visitors in 2022.
9.
Dubrovnik--- 1,244,159 tourist arrivals, and 3,885,431 overnight stays in
2023.
10.
Mallorca --- with 12.2 million visitors in 2023.
Italy, Greece and Amsterdam are on of the most top 10 visited countries in the
globe. The Dutch metropolis damaged a lot from over tourism in 2019 because
the number of travelers were equal 22 million while its total number of
populations was equal to 900 000. Most of the countries above try to solve the
issue and set some rules and regulations.
For instance, Barcelona started to increase the tourist tax from 2023 due to the
tourism congestion. Besides that, from this year Bali also try to increase price of
tourist tax. In Venice, tourists group sizes and arrival of large cruise ships
limited because of the protection of this historical city.
4 most tourist overcrowded countries Greece, Turkey, Italy and Amsterdam are
facing some challenges, because those countries streets, beaches, and attractions
are almost covered with people in the spring and summer peak. And now all of
those 4 countries started to promote their sustainable tourism, eco-systems, set
up some regulations and rules for safety of their country and some of them
reduce range of tourism types which can lead to damage the environment such
as cruise ships.
And I think it will help them to stabilize the condition of tourism sphere. Mostly
European countries hosted many tourists from different part of the world. It will
help them to grow the GDP of country, but it can be harmful for cities and
residents as well.
This chart shows the number of tourist arrivals all over the world from 1980 to
2030. Europe is always the most visited place, and most of counties which faced
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with overcrowded are in Europe as well. Countries of Asia and Pacific in the 2
nd
place by the total number of tourist arrivals.
6.Recommendations
It is highly recommended that to make a different type of tourism products in
these countries help to reduce over tourism in one place. They have to promote
country sides’ tourism places, attract tourists in a different part of the countries.
They have to promote sustainable tourism; they have to support eco-tourism in
those countries. Besides that, it is very important to develop the quality of
education and training skills of tour operators, employees of tourism industry,
inasmuch as it helps to improve the quality of tourism industry.
7. Conclusion
In a conclusion, it is very important to know, and to understand about over-
tourism and its impacts on nations’ growth. To improve tourism industry is the
best choice for increasing the GDP of a country, but it has some disadvantages
which might be harmful for environment, for culture, for citizens, and for
tourists themselves. For reducing this kind of problems, both visitors and local
residents, all stakeholders, communities, organizations and government should
try together for solving all problems. Overall, this study highlighted the role of
managing tourism in a right way and to promote a responsible travel
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