The world is moving towards more sustainable policies, as global tourism has recovered to 97% of pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, according to the World Tourism Organization’s indicators for the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2019. Over 285 million international tourists traveled from January to March 2024, an increase of around 20% compared to the first quarter of 2023.
European destinations have surpassed the 2019 level by around 1%, being the world’s top destination, recording around 120 million tourists in the first quarter of the current year, or 42% of total inbound tourism worldwide. However, the increasing tourist numbers have recently triggered anti-tourism sentiment in several European cities due to their impact on services provided to the local community, as well as their environmental effects. According to the World Tourism Organization, overtourism is defined as the impact of tourism on a destination or parts of it in excess, negatively affecting the quality of life of citizens or visitors.
European Leadership:
The European continent is the most attractive tourism destination in the world, with the two largest tourism-receiving countries being France and Spain. European countries achieved the highest tourism reception rate, with a 54% share of global tourism value in 2023, and their tourism revenues reached around $660 billion out of the total $1.5 trillion in international tourism revenues that year.
France and Spain were the two largest tourism-receiving countries in 2023, with the former achieving around 100 million tourists and the latter 85.2 million tourists. Italy ranked fourth, receiving 57.2 million tourists, after the United States, which recorded 66.5 million tourists. However, in terms of tourism revenues in 2023, the United States ranked first with $175.9 billion, followed by Spain with $92 billion, and then the United Kingdom with around $73.9 billion.
There are expectations of a full recovery of tourism movement in 2024 due to strong demand and the continued revival of the fastest-growing tourism markets such as China, India, and other key Asian markets, as well as the expected economic rebound despite the slowdown associated with several regions due to continued inflation, rising interest rates, unstable oil prices, and trade volume disruption, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund, which can be attributed to the geopolitical changes resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war and the war on the Gaza Strip.
From this perspective, tourism enhances the process of economic growth and job opportunities worldwide due to its increased contribution to the gross national product. However, with the rise in global inflation and prices and costs, the suffering of the local population has increased, who have begun to see tourism as a reason for the rise in the cost of living due to increased demand, which was reflected in the outbreak of protests against tourists over the past weeks in several Spanish cities, including Barcelona, with concerns that this contagion may spread to other European cities as long as dependence on tourist numbers and not spending rates continues.
Negative Impacts:
The recent successive disturbances in Spanish cities were not the first of their kind against tourism in European countries. The Italian city of Venice witnessed protests in 2021 against the docking of large cruise ships in the city, prompting the Italian authorities at the time to issue a decision banning the passage of large cruise ships through the Grand Canal and docking them away from the city. Although the Italian protests were due to environmental and structural concerns for Venice, the objections of Barcelona’s residents in Spain came as a result of the increase in the number of tourists and the reliance on the so-called “mass tourism” in measuring the indicators of tourism growth for countries, amid international competition to attract the largest number of tourists while reducing prices, which affected the rise in rents for the city’s residents.
It is worth noting that mass tourism is known as the movement of a large number of organized tourists to various destinations for recreational purposes, as they collectively and similarly consume tourism products, and it is often the cheapest way to spend vacations, focusing on revenues in terms of quantity, perhaps more than the quality of services. The quantitative dependence of countries on tourist numbers leads to increasing numbers beyond the absorption capacity of cities in certain seasons, thus putting pressure on their infrastructure, and therefore it turns into overtourism that affects the daily life of local residents.
It is worth noting that economic literature has been accustomed to viewing overtourism as one of the results of mass tourism, as the former arises due to tourist demand that exceeds the hosting communities’ capacity. Sometimes, the tourism revival increases the demand for resources without studying the impact on the well-being of local communities.
It can be said that there are two main reasons for the complaints about mass tourism, which may in turn lead to an excess of tourism movement in certain seasons in some European countries, as follows:
1- Environmental Impacts: A study published in 2020 indicated that tourism activities caused around 1,305 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2005, in addition to the pressure on the water resources of tourist countries due to the increase in the number of tourists, as well as the impact of cruise ships, ships, and floating hotels on biodiversity from beach erosion, the spread of harmful aquatic plants, pollution, and the discharge of untreated liquid waste. According to United Nations estimates, the construction of resorts in Italy has contributed to the disappearance of three-quarters of the sands of the Mediterranean beaches.
The estimates of the European Environment Agency, published in January 2023, confirm the suffering of Southern European countries from a water scarcity crisis, with about 30% of their population living in areas experiencing permanent water stress, and up to 70% living in areas experiencing seasonal water stress between July and September of each year, i.e., during the summer season, due to tourism practices and the increase in the numbers using water. Cyprus, Malta, Greece, Portugal, Italy, and Spain were the most water-scarce countries in the European Union in 2019, which also affects rivers in Western Europe due to the increased pressure on the consumption of fresh water.
This has prompted many hotels to recycle wastewater for cleaning purposes and impose a fee of 1 euro on water services, in addition to the use of seawater in swimming pools by hotels in Barcelona, and the imposition of fees for the docking of large ships in Venice since 2021. The city of Amsterdam plans to impose similar restrictions by 2026 to reduce air pollution.
Despite the positive impacts of tourism in general on the environment, in terms of preserving the environment, heritage, and nature reserves, developing infrastructure, improving environmentally friendly transportation, and protecting tourist areas from waste, the overtourism resulting from the increasing dependence on mass tourism is what increases environmental concerns due to congestion, and thus affects the local residents’ perception of tourism. In a study published by the specialized travel news site “Tourism Review” on July 15, 2024, 92% of the French participants in the survey, without specifying the sample size, indicated the negative effects of overtourism, represented in the sight of waste, congestion, and long waiting times. Also, 67% of the Spanish participants are hesitant about this type of tourism, and 70% of the Italian study sample do not wish to visit crowded places, believing that it affects the rise in prices, and they see that the authorities must set stricter limits in environmentally protected areas, with the need to adopt a “quota system” based on determining the number and timing of visits.
2- Social Impacts: Tourism positively affects improving the quality of life of the local community and its benefit from development and improvement processes. Tourism is a key economic activity in the European Union countries, representing 10% of their GDP, and about 2.3 million small and medium-sized enterprises operate in the tourism sector, employing an estimated 12.3 million people. Although 2023 witnessed a recovery in the total number of travel and tourism jobs in Europe from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still 5% lower than the level in 2019, as the sector directly and indirectly attracts around 36.7 million jobs in Europe in 2023, compared to 38.6 million jobs in 2019. The number of jobs is expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2024, reaching around 39.1 million jobs.
On the other hand, the negative effects lie in the seasonality of some jobs in the tourism sector, as the increased tourism demand for many real estate and basic services has led to their unavailability or rising prices compared to income levels, which has caused the current crisis in Spain, where rents in Barcelona have increased by 68% over the past ten years, with a 38% increase in the cost of buying a single home, due to the participation of the local community through temporary rentals through the Airbnb platform. Likewise, protests against tourism have doubled in the Canary Islands, the Balearics, and Malaga in Spain, in addition to the protests spreading to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, and Prague in the Czech Republic, as well as the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
There is also a growing sense of inequality among the local community due to the focus of most tourism income expenditure sources on the value chains provided to the tourist, such as transportation, accommodation, or booking and travel organizing companies, which limits the direct cash flows of tourism to the local community.
This has prompted several countries to take measures to reduce the crisis, such as stopping new licenses for renting properties through Internet platforms like Airbnb, and some cities have imposed time limits on renting properties to tourists, and the Balearic Islands (Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera) collect nightly fees ranging from 1 to 4 euros per tourist aged 16 and over. This “sustainable tourism tax” is used to promote better tourism practices and preserve the nature of the islands, and Valencia plans to take a similar action.
Tourism Policies:
The national policies of some countries may help end the problems associated with the transformation of mass tourism into overtourism, with the expectation of its spread to other cities, with the European continent hosting major sporting events such as the Olympic Games in Paris from July 26 to August 11, 2024. However, there is a need for sustainable tourism policies to manage destinations; with the aim of enhancing sustainability and inclusion, addressing external factors and the impact of the sector on resources and communities, which has been set by the World Tourism Organization in February 2024 as a framework for measuring social and environmental sustainability, and will be voted on by the United Nations General Assembly next September. These policies can be identified as follows:
1- Quality tourism instead of quantity: By relying on the highest-spending tourist, as the most attractive tourism destinations are not necessarily the most profitable, as the United States ranked first in terms of tourism revenues and third in terms of the number of tourists, compared to France, which ranked first in terms of the number of tourists and fourth in terms of revenues. Therefore, relying on attracting the highest-spending tourist will help alleviate the crisis caused by overtourism, as well as determining the value of tourism in terms of its contribution to the local community, which is increasing through the increase in the spending rate of foreign tourists within the community, which is expected to increase by 27% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the previous year, with the activation of the concept of “responsible tourism”.
2- Applying tourism quotas and developing new destinations: By working to redistribute tourists to less attractive areas, organizing the entry of individuals to archaeological and tourist sites, and imposing a maximum limit on the number of visitors, while offering competitive prices for them, and supporting the idea of advance booking, especially during peak seasons. In addition to that, developing European destinations close to the most attractive countries and linking them within unified programs. Attracting diverse markets will also contribute to the sustainability of tourism jobs and achieving balance to reduce the seasonal nature of tourism.
3- Changing performance indicators: By relying on revenue rates, in addition to how tourism contributes to reducing unemployment, committing to making air travel “carbon neutral” by 2050, applying aviation technology and the European single sky policy, in addition to relying on the number of tourist nights and stays in hotels and their contribution to investment, and the role of the tourist in enhancing local experiences, as the Netherlands, for example, in its 2030 strategy, emphasizes the need for every visitor to be a contributor to the well-being of citizens. The European Union is also working to provide its members with tools and knowledge to accelerate the transition to more competitive and sustainable tourism models.
In conclusion, tourism is important for community development, but the transformation of mass tourism into overtourism and its social and environmental impacts have led to many protests in European cities, prompting European authorities to work on developing performance indicators for the tourism sector to achieve community development, and changing the indicators to link revenues to achieving economic, social, and environmental value.
