Overtourism: Causes, Impacts and Solution

Abstract

Tourism has been an important activity in the past. Today tourism is a high revenue generation industry in many countries. But recently, many destinations are suffering from overtourism. Overtourism is a real-life phenomenon experienced by destinations. Overtourism is defined as many tourists visiting a particular place simultaneously which has resulted in the falling or unacceptable quality of life. It is just the opposite of wellness tourism, a better place to live and a better place to visit. The term overtourism was first used on Twitter as #overtourism back in August 2012. In 2017 UNWTO ministers addressed overtourism at the World Travel Market. In the last few years, there have been anti-tourism movements in popular destinations such as Barcelona, Santorini and Copenhagen. These movements' main aim is the attention of press attraction and have led to different proposed actions by tourism decision-makers in making a policy to control overtourism. In recent years overtourism has become an important and discussed issue in media and academia. In this context, the term is still not widely defined and open to numerous discussions. This chapter aims to clarify the root causes of overtourism, the emergence of overtourism and how social media is responsible for and impacts overtourism. The methodology of this chapter is a general review literature of overtourism issues. The chapter states that the government poorly managed without a bigger political force and genuine knowledge of the government's difficulty and action are taking first in the tourism industry. This chapter identifies the social movement of overtourism raised by residents.

Citation

Dhiraj, A. and Kumar, S. (2021), "Overtourism: Causes, Impacts and Solution", Sharma, A. and Hassan, A. (Ed.) Overtourism as Destination Risk (Tourism Security-Safety and Post Conflict Destinations), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 49-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-706-520211004