Overtourism Europe 2026: Rethinking When And How To Travel
Overtourism is wreaking havoc, especially in Europe. As climate change intensifies, travelers and destinations are rethinking how, when, and where we vacation.
Fears of overtourism in 2026 are encouraging travelers to seek out less-visited places.
Europe is the continent warming the fastest under climate change, and while other parts of the world are impacted heavily by overtourism, Europe certainly seems to have some of the most active protesters. So what happens to tourism when both combine?
After another summer when Europe was literally on fire, when France lost an area in August greater than the size of Paris to its largest fire in 75 years, and where over-tourism protests were actually organised strategically at a European level, maybe it's time to take stock, to rethink when and how we travel and look at possible solutions.
Overtourism Is Reaching Boiling Point in Europe, Literally
Europe is in its shoulder season. Historically, the moment when kids are back in school, when prices get cheaper, and when the weather becomes more pleasant, but increasingly, this is the time that people have to travel, because the summers are becoming unbearably hot in July and August. What fun is the annual holiday if you have to be up at six to see the Acropolis before the crowds and heat hit? Or if you cannot see the beach due to air pollution from nearby wildfires.
In early July, the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris was occasionally shut down as the heat reached almost 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius). At the same time, the Washington Post reported "record-setting temperatures across much of the continent" as fires raged across Spain, Greece, and Turkey.
Politico highlighted that there could be an additional 4,500 deaths over the same period due to excessive heat. Indeed, a study in Nature at the beginning of 2025 covering 854 European cities noted that deaths from heat would rise sharply in the coming years if "significant climate adaptation is not prioritized."
In Paris, the world's most visited museum, in the world's most visited city closed its doors, as staff said they were overwhelmed. While the Louvre has other issues, such as water leaks and outdated infrastructure unfit for today's temperature changes, its biggest issue is the foot traffic. 20,000 people a day want to stand in front of the Mona Lisa, and who wants to spend half a day queuing to get in under blistering heat?
Bloomberg reports that one of Europe's worst spots for overtourism is the Greek island of Zakynthos, which drew 150 times more people in 2023 than it has residents.
Additional pressure comes when holidaymakers don't conform to the norms of the country they're visiting, or misbehave in a way they wouldn't back home. Malaga used the same ad campaign this summer as in 2024, asking tourists to put on clothes and behave better, and the seaside towns of Les Sables d'Olonne and Arcachon in France have been handing out fines to tourists walking the streets when not fully clothed.
Overtourism—Who's To Blame? Everyone Else!
Overtourism has been caused by what CNN calls a perfect storm of budget airline and short-term rental proliferation to "create vast new vacation capacity, driving down prices and ushering in a new era of large-scale budget travel."
Airbnb is often seen as the catalyst, but it stated publicly over the summer that it is simply taking the heat—that 80% of guest nights in the EU are in hotels, not short-stay accommodation. Hotels hit back, saying that while that may be true, it isn't hotels that are in direct competition with the long-term rental market, which Airbnb is. The proliferation of digital nomads arriving in tourist hubs adds to the pressure.
One of the biggest issues is that the boom in budget travel means that people can travel at all times of the year, so while certain parts of the world have always been prey to overtourism at certain times of the year, it can now feel constant—ironically, brought on by climate change and the need to avoid extreme heat. Travel's two biggest problems are colliding, head-on, with no apparent winner. It's not the planet. It's not the travelers. And it isn't the locals.
The Overtourism Solution Might Be To Cherry-Pick Which Tourists Go Where
It sounds obvious that part of the problem could be solved by visiting different places, but most tourists indeed make the same stops.
In summer 2025, Visit Italy launched its '99% of Italy' campaign, trying to entice tourists to the parts of Italy that most people never visit. Other European countries have long been doing the same thing. Think France, trying to encourage the 80% of its visitors to somewhere other than the same 20% of places, like Paris, Mont St Michel, or the cliffs of Etretat.
Increasingly, cities are aiming to target the right kind of tourist for them, with the Netherlands, for instance, asking partygoers to stay away. In 2026, Japan is eliminating tax-free shopping at the point of sale, a big driver for some visitors, and two-tier pricing will become the norm at major tourist attractions; visitor prices will likely be 25% more than those paid by Japanese locals.
It's leading some travel agents to advertise the regions or cities that are the least visited, but offer something similar to the crowd pleasers. These 'destination dupes', as they are known in the industry, aim to replace frenetic Paris with Antwerp or Bruges, although these are still firm favorites in their own right. Intrepid Travel, a company that offers immersive trips for small groups, is going one step further, releasing its 2026 Not Hot list, offering ten lesser-known destinations for its clients. Places like Tiwai Island in Sierra Leone, Kyrgyz Nomad Trail in Kyrgyzstan, and Oulu in Finland.
The irony, of course, is that these places become 'discovered' and crowds rush in, eager to experience the views posted on Instagram or TikTok by early travel adopters. As Bloomberg reports, places that weren't that crowded in Europe, such as Albania, which has been up-and-coming for the past few years, now have lots of package holidaymakers from the rest of Europe. When Lisbon became too crowded, people headed to Porto, which now gets almost as many people.
Overtourism—Are Entry Fees, Bans, Caps The Answer?
The pandemic gave a dry run for how visitor bans could work in principle to save local environments and communities. Now, certain places are capping tourist numbers, with Venice's entry fee over summer 2024 and 2025 the most renowned, but other places, like Brittany and Marseille in France, are capping daily visitors too. Barcelona, Cannes, and Isafjordur in Iceland are putting in measures in 2026 to reduce the number of cruise ships allowed to berth in the harbor or the absolute number of cruise passengers to disembark. Countries like Spain are working on a more joined-up solution to overtourism at a higher level.
Ultimately, however, the answer to overtourism probably lies in travelers rethinking their vacation plans at the outset.
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