For years, Dubrovnik in Croatia has been a child of a poster for album, with summer visitors significantly exceeds the local population, and the municipal government repeatedly introduce measures to reduce the size and impact of the floods of tourists that change the historic center into crowded parking many selfie-cappers.
However, you would never know about the negative effects of so many visitors from the recent triumphant announcement of the Croatian Tourism Ministry, which notes that the arrivals to the city increased by 9 percent in 2024 compared to 2023. The Minister of Tourism, Tonci Glavin, was quoted.
If the year was 2024 a year in which concerns about crossing reached a critical mass in places around the world, protests caused Amsterdam to Canary Islandsand start new regulations from Iceland on IndonesiaIt was also a year in which it turned out how complicated tourism reduction, as soon as it relaxes, can be.
This year, even more places will be taken by measures, but evidence of how – or even, whether – can be limited, they remain rare. Competitive economic interests have a way to prevent attempts to stop a tourist tide.
“The hard truth is that as soon as Uhrustina arrived,” said Rachel Dodds, a professor of tourism management to Toronto Metropolitan University, “it is extremely difficult to return the clock back.”
Long -term problem
Already in 2010, tourism experts noted that some targets are approaching or exceeding their load capacity. In the middle of the last decade, cities like Amsterdam and Barcelona began to take preliminary steps to alleviate the impact of tourism on infrastructure, housing, the environment and quality of life.
But only after the pandemic, when “traveling revenge” brought more visitors to several destinations, the efforts to apply brakes have expanded more widespread.
This year, travelers will feel the effects of this effort. New legislation regulating Airbnbs and other short -term leases in force France, Czech Republic and Greecewhere there is also a 24.5 % increase in foreign visitors in 2024 increased tax – Up to 20 euros a day – for passengers on the cruise islands of Santorini and Mykonos.
Ports of Ibiza, Spain, on Juneau, Alaska, They reduce the number of cruise ships that can anchor at the same time, and in the case of Juneau they decrease by the number of passengers every day. Bruge, Belgium, stopped the new construction of the hotel and Amsterdam, After storing a similar measure in 2024, it merely found that some accommodation used a gap in November, in November passed another measure that prevents them from adding other rooms or beds to their offer.
In Italy, tourists in Pompeii will be limited to 20,000 a day and new legislation in Florence It can prevent tourists from using golf trolleys to the tool around.
New Zealand will require visitors to pay tourist tax of 100 New Zealand dollars or about $ 57 – about three times higher than it was most of the last year while Galápagos Islands doubled its fee to $ 200. There is a mountain town in Japan Ginzan onsen He recently joined Mount Fuji and some streets in Kyoto to limit tourist numbers. And in South Korea the authorities imposed a ban on walking in a historic neighborhood Soul dampen tourist excesses.
Will the regulations work?
“The main problem is that for many, for many years we use the mining model of tourism, which says” numbers at all costs, “said Marina Novelli, director Sustainable Research Center for Sustainable Touring and Tourism at the University of Nottingham. “Now we are in a situation where all these things are being performed, such as limiting numbers and tourist taxes as a reactive strategy.”
Whether these strategies will work is to be seen. The evidence is spotted and suggests that the measure takes a long time for it to have an effect. For example, Barcelona introduced its first tourist tax in 2012, began to reduce short -term rent in 2015 and in 2017 limited the new construction of the hotel. Nevertheless, tourists arrived in record numbers in the first period of 2024. It was only at the end. The year when the annual arrivals showed a slight decline of 0.7 percent compared to 2023. In Amsterdam, which began to focus on the overload in 2016, the arrivals in 2026 are expected to rise to 26 million.
Restriction numbers are not always the primary goal. For example, a short -term lease is often represented as a resolution of housing deficiency, while tourist taxes can be intended to balance tensions that can exceed resources.
“Some places like New Zealand and Hawaii are trying to do it more as a regenerative or steward measure,” said Mrs. Dodds. “While in others, like Venice, it is repressive, slapping tax and thinking that people would convince them not to come.”
Established in the amount of roughly equivalent coffee and Cornetto, the Venetian fee of 5 euros, introduced last year, was hardly reflective. Venice seems to have reached the same conclusion: this year the rate will double to 10 euros.
Will it have a bigger impact? According to Ko Cense, professor of urban tourism at Injelland University for applied science, no one knows. “I can tell you for sure that 5 euros will not work,” he said. “But we don’t have enough data to know how high it must be.”
Other measures in Venice also received a short. The city recently began to divert cruise ships from its historic center. Although the initiative can reduce the environmental damage, it had no recognizable impact on the number of passengers. In the autumn of 2024 Venice predicted a 9 % increase per year compared to 2023 thanks to the newly “distributed” ports.
Restrictions on passengers in one area can actually direct the enthusiasm to another. “It’s like a water bed,” said Mr. Koens. “By distributing people into other places you potentially increase problems with zeal.”
New York City began to promote the existing ban on short -term rentals last year. Measures that some experts correlate with a 7 % increase in hotel rates in 2024 in the previous year sent tourists to the surrounding areas where the rent are legal. According to Airdna’s analytical website, New Jersey has become the fastest growing market for Airbnb demand in the United States. However, this seems to have reduced the number of tourists to New York itself – The city expects to break its previous record 66.6 million in 2019 by 1.4 million in 2025.
Dubrovnik and Copenhagen and resistance to limits
The biggest obstacle in solving altitude can be a lack of consensus, that it is actually a problem. As a source of income and employment – a record $ 1.6 trillion in $ 2024 has generated tourism worldwide – traveling is an economic growth engine.
Due to this role, most attempts to reduce tourism are faced with the opposition – witness to the recent decision to cancel Bali Planned moratorium During the new construction of the hotel.
Mato Frankovic, mayor of Dubrovnik, experienced this resistance. After reducing the number of cruise ships, it reduced the rent in the Old Town and reduced the number of tables and chairs in outdoor cafes by 30 percent and the number of souvenirs by 70 percent, international and local businesses. “The opposition said I was going to destroy the city,” Mr. Frankovic said.
He persisted. This year the city will reduce the number of taxis; Introducing applications that regulate the arrivals to bus buses and direct visitors to alternative websites at the time of the tip; And to enable national legislation that requires owners of apartments in multiple buildings to receive approval from 80 percent of other people before they can rent their apartment.
Yet even if the municipal or regional authorities are determined to make changes, they may be against the national government that favors economic growth.
Take Copenhagen. In 2024, the city council approved the tourist tax “as a nice way to prevent us from ending up as Barcelona,” said Rasmus Steeenberger, member of the Municipal Government. The National Government – which is currently expanding the Copenhagen Airport and recently announced a plan to increase the income from tourism to 200 billion species per year (about $ 28 billion) out of 152 billion species, rejected the proposed tour by 2030.
Finding a real solution
Such a conflict is why many experts believe that deeper changes are needed.
Mrs. Dodds of Toronto Metropolitan University said the solution requires a re -evaluation of the definition of success. “The UN tourism is still measuring the success of the number of incoming, which basically maintains exaggeration problems,” she said. “So the conversation must be, how do we change the metrics of success?”
There are indications that new metrics appear. Brugges and Norway last year pulled out advertising campaigns of tourism, and some companies on cruise and tour voluntarily scratched Santorini and Mykonos from their itinerary for 2025 and 2026.
But with international arrivals globally is expected Grows at 12.4 minutesTV year 2025 at their level in 2019 seems to be expanded. “I’m not sure there is a solution,” said Mrs. Novelli of the University of Nottingham. “If they’re not people who take responsibility and say,” You know what? “I don’t have to see Venice. I won’t go.”
Watch the New York Times Travel on Instagram and Sign up for our weekly newsletter If you want to get professional travel tips smarter and inspiration for your next holiday. Dream of future escape or just traveling from a chair? Look at our 52 places to go in 2025.