There’s a version of European travel that lives in the imagination: empty cobblestone alleys, a table at a quiet canal-side café, a gondola ride without a hundred other gondolas in the frame. The reality, for millions of visitors arriving right now, is quite different. European countries hosted an estimated 756 million tourists in 2024, some 46 million more than in the preceding year. That number keeps climbing, and it is pressing down hardest on the continent’s most iconic cities.
The surge in visitor numbers has created a challenge known as overtourism, where too many tourists strain infrastructure, overwhelm local communities, and diminish the quality of life for residents. The United Nations World Tourism Organization defines overtourism as a situation where the influx of travellers adversely affects both locals and visitor experiences, often leading to frustration, congestion, and environmental pressure. These six cities are the clearest examples of that problem in action today.
1. Venice, Italy: The City That Never Closes (Except It Kind of Wants To)
1. Venice, Italy: The City That Never Closes (Except It Kind of Wants To) (Image Credits: Unsplash)
Venice, Italy's floating marvel, has been a prime example of overtourism for decades. The city's narrow streets and intricate canal network were never built to accommodate the legions of travellers who arrive each year. In some years, visitor numbers far exceed local residents, placing enormous pressure on infrastructure and daily life. The numbers are staggering even by European standards: reports indicate that in 2024, an average of 80,000 visitors arrived each day.
Around 1,200 residents leave every year, unable to cope with skyrocketing rents and tourist crowds. Authorities have pushed back with increasingly aggressive measures. Venice experimented with regulating day visitors by introducing a day-tripper fee. During 54 peak days in 2025, tourists spending just one day in the city were required to book and pay a levy of €5 or €10 depending on the timing of their reservation, with the aim to curb "hit-and-run" tourism that overwhelms the small historic centre. Critics argue that the day-trip levy has not significantly reduced crowds. The city feels less like a place people live in and more like a ticketed attraction where the locals are the supporting cast.
2. Barcelona, Spain: A City That Is Actively Asking You to Reconsider
2. Barcelona, Spain: A City That Is Actively Asking You to Reconsider (Image Credits: Pixabay)
The city set a new overtourism record in 2023 to 2024, when its approximately 1.6 million inhabitants received 32 million tourists. These unsustainable numbers, which demand more short-term rentals and tourist-centric businesses, have created a housing shortage and price spikes in the city center. Businesses like grocery stores and pharmacies have been priced out, leaving locals without essential services. The frustration eventually overflowed in the streets: on July 6, 2024, some 6,000 residents protested demanding reduced tourist numbers, and tourists were sprayed with water by protesters.
Barcelona's long-running overtourism tension spiked again in 2024 to 2025, with marches and symbolic actions aimed at mass visitor flows and short-stay rentals. Protesters have linked tourism growth to rising rents, pressure on public space, and a city centre geared more to visitors than residents. The city's response has been decisive. Barcelona announced plans to eliminate all tourist rentals by 2028, while inspections of tourist apartments increased sharply, with the closure of hundreds of illegal residences already ordered. The shift in tone is deliberate: at FITUR 2025, the international tourism fair, Barcelona announced a shift towards quality cultural tourists, changing its tourism slogan from "VisitBarcelona" to "This is Barcelona."
3. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Party Playground Pushback
3. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Party Playground Pushback (Image Credits: Pexels)
Amsterdam's pushback is less about beach crowds and more about daily liveability in a compact canal city. Authorities have tightened rules on the party-tourism image, and in 2024 the city said it would stop allowing new hotel construction as part of a broader effort to cap pressure. Even with controls, overnight stays have continued to rise, and residents' groups argue the city is not moving fast enough. The scale of tourist concentration here is remarkable: Amsterdam registers roughly 114,000 tourists per square kilometre, making everyday life in many neighbourhoods almost unrecognisable compared to a decade ago.
The city's financial measures have become some of the stiffest in Europe. Amsterdam increased its already high hotel tax from 7% to 12.5%, reportedly to maintain quality of life for residents. Cruise ships are also in the crosshairs: Amsterdam plans to limit cruise ships in its harbour to just 100 in 2026, down from 190 at the time of the announcement, before banning them outright by 2035. Behavioural campaigns such as "Stay Away" discourage disruptive parties, while hotels have been converted into housing or offices, and new holiday rentals and tourist shops have been prohibited. Earlier closing times for nightlife and bans on smoking cannabis on certain streets have also been introduced.
4. Prague, Czech Republic: Medieval Magic Buried Under Stag Parties
4. Prague, Czech Republic: Medieval Magic Buried Under Stag Parties (Image Credits: Pexels)
Around 8.1 million tourists visited the Czech capital in 2024, marking a 9% increase compared to the previous year. For a city of just over 1.3 million residents, that ratio is extremely lopsided. While the Czech capital is known for its rich history, stunning architecture, and buzzing nightlife, the city's booming tourism industry has become a liability for many residents who struggle to navigate through packed streets, as well as excessive noise and a loss of local culture that has made way for tourist traps. The historic centre tells the story plainly: cheap souvenir shops, phony galleries, and rip-off exchange booths line the streets, while convenience stores selling alcohol or cigarettes are a common sight, but serious grocery stores that cater to residents are few and far between.
Long branded as a cheap destination whose architectural and cultural richness mostly served as the background for cheap Euro trips and boozed-up stag parties, Prague's struggle with the negative effects of overtourism is not new. Authorities have been scrambling for solutions. Prague banned organised bar crawls, with the Czech capital no longer allowing guided bar-hopping to take place between 10 pm and 6 am. The Prague Institute of Planning and Development counted 9,000 short-term rental listings in 2024, with 56% concentrated in the Prague 1 and 2 districts. Unsurprisingly, between 2020 and 2024, Prague's central district lost around 1,300 residents.
5. Dubrovnik, Croatia: The Game of Thrones Curse
5. Dubrovnik, Croatia: The Game of Thrones Curse (Image Credits: Pixabay)
With a population of only 40,000, Dubrovnik receives up to 10,000 tourists a day in the summer. Its historic centre, a World Heritage Site, is operating at 180% of its UNESCO-recommended capacity; rubbish piles up, the noise is growing, rents are soaring, and tourist apartments are replacing traditional residents. Much of the surge traces back to the city's role as a filming location for a global television phenomenon, and the foot traffic has never fully subsided since. According to a study conducted by the University of Barcelona, roughly two-fifths of homes in the centre of Dubrovnik are now used as tourist accommodation, helping to drive up rental prices by around 250% since 2015. This has led to an exodus of 600 historical residents in the last decade.
According to a 2025 overtourism report by Wellness Retreats Magazine, Dubrovnik ranks second globally by tourist-to-resident ratio, with approximately 32 tourists for every one resident. The city has not been passive. Cruise ship visits are capped at two ships per day, each required to dock for a minimum of eight hours, with the aim to stagger passenger flows and encourage longer, more meaningful exploration rather than short, disruptive visits. From 2026, entry to the city walls and museums will only be accessible via an advanced booking system. Whether these measures will be enough to reverse the damage already done to community life remains genuinely uncertain.
6. Lisbon, Portugal: When a City Becomes Unaffordable for Its Own People
6. Lisbon, Portugal: When a City Becomes Unaffordable for Its Own People (Image Credits: Pexels)
Lisbon's tourism boom has collided with a housing crunch, and residents have pushed the short-term rental debate into formal politics. Neighbourhood campaigns demand tighter limits on local lodging lets, arguing that apartment blocks are being hollowed out as units shift from long-term homes to holiday stays. The tourist density figures are sobering: Lisbon registers roughly 85,000 tourists per square kilometre, a figure that reflects just how concentrated visitor pressure has become in the city's relatively compact historic districts. Residents in Lisbon similarly complain that wealthy tourists and short-term rental platforms have pushed housing costs beyond local reach.
As of May 2025, tourists aged 16 and over in Lisbon must pay between €6 and €11 per person per night in tourist tax. Tourist tax revenues have now become the third-largest source of income for the city, reaching over €106 million in 2024. The irony of that number is not lost on residents: the city is generating enormous revenue from the very phenomenon that is making it harder for ordinary people to live there. An explosion in short-term lets in desirable areas within city centres has seen locals who make a place great in the first place pushed to the outskirts. In many of the demonstrations in recent months, this has been a key focus for protesters, and it is something tourist boards and city councils are increasingly focused on correcting. Lisbon is still beautiful, genuinely so. It just no longer feels like it belongs entirely to the people who call it home.