New laws target overtourism at popular travel destinations

By Lacey Pfalz TravelPulse Overtourism is a constant theme in the passage world and it has been growing since the pandemic Destinations that had received large numbers of tourists enjoyed a well-deserved break from the congestion during lockdowns and progress bans Then they suddenly experienced large waves of tourists returning once the world reopened TravelPulse has written a lot about overtourism highlighting how different places are creating laws to target specific problems that overtourism creates such as strain on fragile local environments or historic sites higher housing costs associated with too a multitude of short-term vacation rentals and overcrowding Overtourism also creates new trends for travelers like detour destinations and destination dupes which focus on more affordable and less-known places that provide similar experiences to other more crowded destinations Here s a big-pictures look at the changes in particular those made at places we have disclosed about in the past year or so Amsterdam Amsterdam is one of the notable destinations creating the majority laws restricting or curbing overtourism in contemporary years It gained global headlines last year when it banned new hotel construction in the city and released a plan to halve the number of cruise ships docking in Amsterdam by In July it publicized it would halve the number of large cruise ships docking in the city by and eliminate its Veemkade port by Amsterdam residents took to the streets in protest this past December complaining that the number of tourists makes parts of their city unlivable and drives up housing prices Nice France On Jan the mayor of the French city of Nice signed an order banning all cruise ships with over passengers from visiting the city a move that will likely begin this July The mayor also wants to convert the city s ports to allow smaller ships to plug into shore power when docked While no large ships were scheduled to stop at Nice this summer its schedule will welcome smaller and mid-sized ships that meet the new requirement Spain Spain made quite a meager headlines last year about overtourism Residents in destinations like Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca took to the streets by the thousands last summer to protest crowds of tourists and the ensuing housing dilemma mainly due to a great number of short-term vacation rentals Related Articles The busiest days to fly around Memorial Day in The prettiest places in the U S that you ll need a lottery permit to visit Wedding guest expedition Minimizing costs to make it work Woodbury launches a new visitors bureau and website years later How COVID- precautions still influence theme parks tourism As the second most-visited country in the world Barcelona is bound to have its run-ins with overtourism Last year new laws were created to help change that Barcelona hopes to ban short-term rentals by Alicante is banning new short-term rentals for the next two years As a deterrent Spain s federal establishment is proposing a tax on non-EU residents who purchase property in Spain Greece Greece made particular changes to combat overtourism last year too The nation increased its tourist tax to help generate funds for surroundings emergencies like wildfires which was estimated to generate an additional million euros a year The country s prime minister also noted last year that he plans to limit the number of cruise ships visiting islands like Santorini and Mykonos sometime this year There s been no word yet on when or if this will happen but other destinations have changed to limit cruise tourism so it s highly viable Athens also limited the number of visitors to the Acropolis last year to per day Travelers heading to Santorini and Mykonos by cruise ship also now pay more with a new tax designed to help preserve the islands Italy Italy is one of the majority of visited countries in the world and Venice a popular city was one of the first destinations to gain global attention for its overtourism trouble Cities across Italy are finding options to combat overtourism Venice implemented a day trip tax for travelers who don t stay the night during high-tourist days and later added a size limit for tour groups so groups can only be people maximum Rome is also considering restricting access to the Trevi Fountain due to large crowds In December the nation banned self-check-in options for accommodations including key boxes outside of short-term rentals like Airbnbs ahead of the Jubilee Year which is expected to bring millions of travelers to Rome and other parts of Italy this year Czech Republic The Czech Republic cracked down on unregistered short-term vacation rentals in major cities like Prague in September While it shouldn t impact travelers themselves it does provide more oversight for those who own short-term rentals in big cities which would address growing housing crises for residents Japan Japan has become increasingly popular post-pandemic thanks mainly due to the pandemic s halt in trip to the destination and a weaker yen that allows Americans and others to enjoy less expensive progress to Japan With that being reported the country created a meager measures over the past two years to help curb overtourism It launched a bullet train to the less-visited Fukui Prefecture to encourage a greater spread of tourism implemented impediments against tourists overcrowding certain areas while taking photos of Mount Fuji and have discussed increasing tourist taxes or fees for certain iconic attractions for their preservation Another popular excursion year will likely bring a scant more changes to combat the crowds especially in popular places National parks The National Park Foundation was given a million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc in August in part to help the national parks research and create plans to combat overtourism s negative impacts During and after the pandemic plenty of of the the bulk popular parks implemented a reservation system to limit the number of daily visitors and spread visitation more evenly Now however with the Trump administration firing an estimated national parks employees and speculation about the administration defunding them the future of the national parks has never been so uncertain Northstar Expedition Media LLC Visit at travelpulse com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC