*You love to travel, want to live like a local and to find something “authentic.” That’s just how some of our most-beloved cities ended up overwhelmed by tourists. Now they’re fighting back.*
*Madison Darbyshire for Bloomberg News*
Last summer a French tabloid sting operation uncovered that Americans (or at least journalists posing as Americans) were being charged up to 50% more than Parisians in some of the city’s most touristy cafes.
It was an affront to those who believe in a tourist’s inalienable right to live like a local. For decades, the biggest trend in travel has been to discover wondrous, affordable places that feel like a secret — even if you heard about them from guidebooks, Anthony Bourdain or TikTok. But Parisians, who spent the summer of 2025 protesting the “Disneyfication” of their city, seemed to shrug.
What if the cafes were doing the right thing? On Jan. 20, the United Nations announced that international tourist arrivals hit 1.52 billion in 2025, almost 4% higher than the pre-pandemic high watermark of 2019. More than half of those arrivals were in Europe. With cities already buckling under the strain of tourism, some are searching for ways to make it more sustainable. Charging tourists 50% more for their croque monsieur may not be a rip-off, but part of the solution.
Overtourism is not new, but it has become particularly acute since Covid-19 spurred “revenge travel” and a rebound for airline and cruise ship operators. In increasingly uncertain times, Europe — always a popular destination — has been particularly affected.
The continent is “the last safe haven in the world where people feel comfortable,” says Stefan Gössling, a business and economics professor at Sweden’s Linnaeus University, who studies overtourism. “Safety is high, there is a set of laws that applies to everyone. It’s just a very good region to go on holiday.”
Europe’s main tourist destinations are also victims of their own success: 43% of Germans have been to Italy at least three times, with a similar percentage planning to go within three years, according to the Italian tourism board. Paris is always a good idea, and so on.
Visitors have flocked to cities, lured by tech platforms surfacing cheap accommodations, the mini-break culture and social media feeds full of aesthetic hotspots. Museums and ruins have decades of practice with crowd control, but places that were once lower-profile or catered mostly to locals are struggling. When visitors seek to recreate photos they see online, they engage “very superficially” with the city, says Aurora Pedro Pinto, the administrator of Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal — billed as the “most beautiful bookstore in the world” — which receives 1.2 million visitors per year.
“The problem is not too many tourists,” she says. “It’s too little cultural depth.”
Raise the tourist taxes and use the money to clean and regulate tourism
Money is money, catering to the locals might make them feel better but it isnt always the best thing to do for the economy if they dont generate as much income as tourists do.
It’s funny they mention Livraria Lello. The store instituted a €5 entrance fee and the place is still packed, with lines all day. Maybe €10 or €20 to get their fill on Instagram.
The tax on Ubers needs to go up considerably too. Every other car in the center has a TVDE sticker. If you’re only charging €4 so someone’s fat ass doesn’t have to walk up the hill, you get a traffic mess.
I honestly hate that government considers constant tourist growth always as a good thing. I’m not against tourism per se, but every thing has its limits. Our road capacity is not enough even for ourselves and what, are we gonna invest in more roads just to see 100% tourism growth over the years?
It’d be much better to prioritize high added value industries over tourism, which is low added value industry, it takes lots of investments and ROI is not very high. Also, most people employed in tourism seem to be on minimal wage, nowadays those often are migrant workers who don’t speak our language. Also, things are so overpriced. Went to Ljubljana for Advent and i thought it’d be fun time… well, i paid like 5euros for a cup of tea, and 10 euros for a handful of almonds.
And the worst thing of all is…AIRBNB. People are struggling to find a place to live, but there’s no lack of apartments on Airbnb site! I hate it with all my heart, really.
“I’m Shocked! Shocked To Find That Gambling Is Going On In Here.”
Tourists being overcharged have happened since a very long time ago. In some places are three prices or more, one for locals, one for national tourists and one for foreigners…
Personally, I never get the hate for tourism/tourists.
People choose to spend their hard won savings and leave days to visit, get to know and admire your country, people and culture, while also significantly contributing to your country’s economy, and then leave, and you hate that?
Like I get things like overtourism, the environmental impact factor, rising rents due to planforms like airbnb (That should definitely be further regulated). But in my country for example, there are entire regions that are thriving thanks to tourism, where without it they were bound to be pretty much abandoned.
It’s a case where the pros, heavily outweigh the cons.
Supply = demand.
Raise the price to lower the demand.
Simple fix: Make homeownership affordable again. This will eat into people’s disposable income, reduce tourism, and strengthen the local economy
We are all tourists, and those who aren’t, would be if they could be
There are too many tourists.
ABSOLUTELY.
But is raising prices a solution? Because that will just filter the tourists.
It will just prevent less affluent tourists from visiting.
Is THAT THE GOAL?
Truth is we should try to promote “local” tourism. Meaning enjoying leisure not far from home.
Let’s imagine NewYorkers travelling to catskill or Atlantic city, and same would go for anybody else.
I mean, tourists?
Who else should pay for tourism?
either use quotas or increase prices, plus reign in the mess that airbnb has become.
problem is that business loves the money, politics loves the taxes, but its the citizens that suffer.
with the above points you could reduce the masses of tourists, even while increasing tax income. we dont have to abolish tourism, but decreasing it a good bit during the stronger seasons seems doable.
With so many holiday plans to the US rightfully being cancelled, I would expect things to to be more crowded across Europe this year.
Tourism will probably be one of the main incomes for Europe in the future. Compared to the rest of the world, we are aging and not really focusing on industry. Greece is a mini-example of what awaits Europe. It’s not so bad, but we have a lot of things the world wants to check out and can make a living off it.
I think tourism needs to be approached proactively. It will increase in Europe, wich means more much-needed jobs and income, but at the same time infrastructure and regulations need to be strengthened to take into account the extra strain.
I also enjoy cheap flights. If tourism trickles out, Ryanair and Co. would cut back on routes.
The world? More like the nice EU cities.
The country should take ownership and manage the tourist inflow. You cannot expect money flowing in all year for your restaurants, shops, etc. and then shout at tourists or throw water on them. The country must strike a balance between tourist revenue and the local’s wishes. Make a tourist inflow quota per year which could manage the number of tourists at a given time and will help ease local’s annoyance.
The wealthy. Wealth taxes. The solution to literally every single problem is definancialization and wealth taxes.
I’ve been told everyone is too broke living paycheck to paycheck, but somehow it’s also drowning in people with disposable income to travel the world?
A strong tourism industry is a trap, I hope European countries realise it sooner or later. There is no added value, no innovation in tourism.
Go in Winter and Early Spring with bad weather. I went to Austria and Germany in mid March and while it was cold and often rainy, it wasn’t crowded and the locals were fine. People want to go in an Instagram nice weather world. Don’t go in the summer or December and you will be fine.
Tourists already are by supporting the tourism and hospitality sector. Many places have a tourist tax too.
There needs to be a solution instead of “ugh tourists bad, tourists go home”
People make the world go round, they might live in not so ideal places compared to where they are visiting to make batteries and equipment, extract fuel and minerals, and when they go to those “beautiful well preserved places” once in 10 years, they get sprits with water while having their coffee……
Tourists aren’t a monolith, they are not a subclass of people, they are everyday people that just happens to be from someplace else.
I’ve been in rome in October… and you could barely walk through the streets it was so crowded. Same in prague last year
>There seems little chance of convincing *Emily in Paris* viewers that the French countryside might be as charming as Le Marais
While it probably wouldn’t cater to the same market, there might be something to be explored here. But it’s up to the country’s authorities to make it attractive. I live near the French border and I love to visit the country. I really want to discover many things outside of the larger cities but I often stumble on the same issue in France (and some other countries): accessing many tourist attractions is really unpractical without a car. Public transport is often poor outside in more rural areas. So they lose a tourist like me. (It’s obviously simply an example, the issue might be different for other people.)
Enforce the businesses gaining from tourism pay their part. These are the ones causing the problems. AirBnB, cruises, discounter travel agencies.
26 comments
*You love to travel, want to live like a local and to find something “authentic.” That’s just how some of our most-beloved cities ended up overwhelmed by tourists. Now they’re fighting back.*
*Madison Darbyshire for Bloomberg News*
Last summer a French tabloid sting operation uncovered that Americans (or at least journalists posing as Americans) were being charged up to 50% more than Parisians in some of the city’s most touristy cafes.
It was an affront to those who believe in a tourist’s inalienable right to live like a local. For decades, the biggest trend in travel has been to discover wondrous, affordable places that feel like a secret — even if you heard about them from guidebooks, Anthony Bourdain or TikTok. But Parisians, who spent the summer of 2025 protesting the “Disneyfication” of their city, seemed to shrug.
What if the cafes were doing the right thing? On Jan. 20, the United Nations announced that international tourist arrivals hit 1.52 billion in 2025, almost 4% higher than the pre-pandemic high watermark of 2019. More than half of those arrivals were in Europe. With cities already buckling under the strain of tourism, some are searching for ways to make it more sustainable. Charging tourists 50% more for their croque monsieur may not be a rip-off, but part of the solution.
Overtourism is not new, but it has become particularly acute since Covid-19 spurred “revenge travel” and a rebound for airline and cruise ship operators. In increasingly uncertain times, Europe — always a popular destination — has been particularly affected.
The continent is “the last safe haven in the world where people feel comfortable,” says Stefan Gössling, a business and economics professor at Sweden’s Linnaeus University, who studies overtourism. “Safety is high, there is a set of laws that applies to everyone. It’s just a very good region to go on holiday.”
Europe’s main tourist destinations are also victims of their own success: 43% of Germans have been to Italy at least three times, with a similar percentage planning to go within three years, according to the Italian tourism board. Paris is always a good idea, and so on.
Visitors have flocked to cities, lured by tech platforms surfacing cheap accommodations, the mini-break culture and social media feeds full of aesthetic hotspots. Museums and ruins have decades of practice with crowd control, but places that were once lower-profile or catered mostly to locals are struggling. When visitors seek to recreate photos they see online, they engage “very superficially” with the city, says Aurora Pedro Pinto, the administrator of Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal — billed as the “most beautiful bookstore in the world” — which receives 1.2 million visitors per year.
“The problem is not too many tourists,” she says. “It’s too little cultural depth.”
[Read the full essay here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-23/how-governments-visitors-can-combat-barcelona-paris-venice-overtourism?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2OTE2MDA4MywiZXhwIjoxNzY5NzY0ODgzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUOUI3T1ZLR0NURkwwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJEMzU0MUJFQjhBQUY0QkUwQkFBOUQzNkI3QjlCRjI4OCJ9.O80f4V0N8qCptYlGviRHsznSoxsDRV6ntF2Vhfubn0k)
Raise the tourist taxes and use the money to clean and regulate tourism
Money is money, catering to the locals might make them feel better but it isnt always the best thing to do for the economy if they dont generate as much income as tourists do.
It’s funny they mention Livraria Lello. The store instituted a €5 entrance fee and the place is still packed, with lines all day. Maybe €10 or €20 to get their fill on Instagram.
The tax on Ubers needs to go up considerably too. Every other car in the center has a TVDE sticker. If you’re only charging €4 so someone’s fat ass doesn’t have to walk up the hill, you get a traffic mess.
I honestly hate that government considers constant tourist growth always as a good thing. I’m not against tourism per se, but every thing has its limits. Our road capacity is not enough even for ourselves and what, are we gonna invest in more roads just to see 100% tourism growth over the years?
It’d be much better to prioritize high added value industries over tourism, which is low added value industry, it takes lots of investments and ROI is not very high. Also, most people employed in tourism seem to be on minimal wage, nowadays those often are migrant workers who don’t speak our language. Also, things are so overpriced. Went to Ljubljana for Advent and i thought it’d be fun time… well, i paid like 5euros for a cup of tea, and 10 euros for a handful of almonds.
And the worst thing of all is…AIRBNB. People are struggling to find a place to live, but there’s no lack of apartments on Airbnb site! I hate it with all my heart, really.
“I’m Shocked! Shocked To Find That Gambling Is Going On In Here.”
Tourists being overcharged have happened since a very long time ago. In some places are three prices or more, one for locals, one for national tourists and one for foreigners…
Personally, I never get the hate for tourism/tourists.
People choose to spend their hard won savings and leave days to visit, get to know and admire your country, people and culture, while also significantly contributing to your country’s economy, and then leave, and you hate that?
Like I get things like overtourism, the environmental impact factor, rising rents due to planforms like airbnb (That should definitely be further regulated). But in my country for example, there are entire regions that are thriving thanks to tourism, where without it they were bound to be pretty much abandoned.
It’s a case where the pros, heavily outweigh the cons.
Supply = demand.
Raise the price to lower the demand.
Simple fix: Make homeownership affordable again. This will eat into people’s disposable income, reduce tourism, and strengthen the local economy
We are all tourists, and those who aren’t, would be if they could be
There are too many tourists.
ABSOLUTELY.
But is raising prices a solution? Because that will just filter the tourists.
It will just prevent less affluent tourists from visiting.
Is THAT THE GOAL?
Truth is we should try to promote “local” tourism. Meaning enjoying leisure not far from home.
Let’s imagine NewYorkers travelling to catskill or Atlantic city, and same would go for anybody else.
I mean, tourists?
Who else should pay for tourism?
either use quotas or increase prices, plus reign in the mess that airbnb has become.
problem is that business loves the money, politics loves the taxes, but its the citizens that suffer.
with the above points you could reduce the masses of tourists, even while increasing tax income. we dont have to abolish tourism, but decreasing it a good bit during the stronger seasons seems doable.
With so many holiday plans to the US rightfully being cancelled, I would expect things to to be more crowded across Europe this year.
Tourism will probably be one of the main incomes for Europe in the future. Compared to the rest of the world, we are aging and not really focusing on industry. Greece is a mini-example of what awaits Europe. It’s not so bad, but we have a lot of things the world wants to check out and can make a living off it.
I think tourism needs to be approached proactively. It will increase in Europe, wich means more much-needed jobs and income, but at the same time infrastructure and regulations need to be strengthened to take into account the extra strain.
I also enjoy cheap flights. If tourism trickles out, Ryanair and Co. would cut back on routes.
The world? More like the nice EU cities.
The country should take ownership and manage the tourist inflow. You cannot expect money flowing in all year for your restaurants, shops, etc. and then shout at tourists or throw water on them. The country must strike a balance between tourist revenue and the local’s wishes. Make a tourist inflow quota per year which could manage the number of tourists at a given time and will help ease local’s annoyance.
The wealthy. Wealth taxes. The solution to literally every single problem is definancialization and wealth taxes.
I’ve been told everyone is too broke living paycheck to paycheck, but somehow it’s also drowning in people with disposable income to travel the world?
A strong tourism industry is a trap, I hope European countries realise it sooner or later. There is no added value, no innovation in tourism.
Go in Winter and Early Spring with bad weather. I went to Austria and Germany in mid March and while it was cold and often rainy, it wasn’t crowded and the locals were fine. People want to go in an Instagram nice weather world. Don’t go in the summer or December and you will be fine.
Tourists already are by supporting the tourism and hospitality sector. Many places have a tourist tax too.
There needs to be a solution instead of “ugh tourists bad, tourists go home”
People make the world go round, they might live in not so ideal places compared to where they are visiting to make batteries and equipment, extract fuel and minerals, and when they go to those “beautiful well preserved places” once in 10 years, they get sprits with water while having their coffee……
Tourists aren’t a monolith, they are not a subclass of people, they are everyday people that just happens to be from someplace else.
I’ve been in rome in October… and you could barely walk through the streets it was so crowded. Same in prague last year
>There seems little chance of convincing *Emily in Paris* viewers that the French countryside might be as charming as Le Marais
While it probably wouldn’t cater to the same market, there might be something to be explored here. But it’s up to the country’s authorities to make it attractive. I live near the French border and I love to visit the country. I really want to discover many things outside of the larger cities but I often stumble on the same issue in France (and some other countries): accessing many tourist attractions is really unpractical without a car. Public transport is often poor outside in more rural areas. So they lose a tourist like me. (It’s obviously simply an example, the issue might be different for other people.)
Enforce the businesses gaining from tourism pay their part. These are the ones causing the problems. AirBnB, cruises, discounter travel agencies.