“Tourist” became a slur in 2024.
Climbing visitor numbers, spurred by post-pandemic “revenge travel,” resulted in record-high tourist totals in almost every major hotspot—whether that’s Portugal or Spain. Suffice it to say that tourism has not just rebounded, it has outstripped the pre-pandemic figures.
That’s not the only thing that has changed: There was a notable shift in residents' attitudes toward tourists in cities that host millions a year. Locals in Barcelona took to the streets, spraying water pistols at innocent visitors, and protests gripped parts of Mallorca. In Scandinavia, flight shaming became more widespread. Meanwhile, some Londoners found a creative way to deliberately lead tourists to underwhelming restaurants, fearing they would crowd into the city’s hidden gems if not.
City councils have taken matters into their own hands by instituting daily visitor caps. Short-term rentals were also on the kill list this year as Budapest voted to ban them in October, and parts of Athens decided to stop issuing new short-term rental licenses starting next year.
“The tide is turning and local councils/governments are taking back control, some going by the book, others through more informal/guerrilla tactics,” Caroline Bremner, senior head of travel research at data analytics firm Euromonitor International, told Fortune. Although 2024 marks an inflection point in overtourism, with a record $1.9 billion in tourism spending, the trend was long in the making, she added.
Tourism will not only be harder but also cost more. Take Venice, for example. This year, it launched a €5-a-day fee for day-trippers, which will extend into 2025.
In short, tourism will never be the same again.
What’s triggering the pushback?
Much of the recent backlash from locals is because tourism is coming at the cost of a lower quality of life and spiking housing costs. With an uptick in the number of properties dedicated to hospitality, the market for rentals has shrunk, causing home prices to increase.
“The protests that have unfolded over the past 12 months are the result of an abject failure to communicate the genuine benefits of tourism to ordinary people. In many cases, tourism has been unfairly scapegoated for long-standing issues, like the persistent housing crisis,” said Alex Penadés, the CMO at Spanish property management firm Avantio.
Some of what we see today can be explained by tourist study models, such as the Irritation Index (or “Irridex”), in which locals’ attitudes toward tourism change gradually as the number of visitors increases, diminishing the quality of life.
“The main reason is the places that are experiencing overtourism are places that didn’t take measures to prevent it happening years and years ago,” says Richard Butler, emeritus professor in hospitality and tourism management at the University of Strathclyde, told Fortune in August. “Tourism is a mixed blessing. It does bring all the money, it does bring disturbance.”
It’s a tough place to be for these cities because villainizing the very industry that’s become a key economic driver and employment generator can be tricky. About 10% of the European Union’s GDP comes from tourism, although that figure is higher in some cities. Tourism revenues in 2024 are on track to eclipse that of 2023.
Still, the status quo is clearly not working, as more arrivals don’t always mean more money for local economies. Government policies and managing city capacities are ultimately what make tourism viable. Pushback seen from locals this year could just be the tip of the iceberg, and if things don’t change, they may feel even more dour in the coming year.
What might 2025 hold for tourism?
Penadés thinks 2025 will be “the year of gatekeeping in travel.”
“Travelers may make more of an effort to steer clear of viral hotspots that have become synonymous with heated protests in recent months, instead choosing locations where they can avoid the crowds and the stigma of contributing to the ‘overtourism’ problem,” he said.
Avoiding cities that become overwhelmed with tourists during the peak holiday season could be the new secret weapon for vacation planners. Kathy McCabe, a travel expert who hosts a TV series called Dream of Italy, said this also points to a broader pivot that’s underway in response to the cloud of overtourism looming over cities.
“This trend toward intentional travel reflects a broader industry pivot—one that looks to balance tourism’s economic benefits with the urgent need to protect iconic sites at risk of being permanently damaged by overtourism,” she told Fortune.
Travelers, tourism boards, and individual communities are responsible for dispersing tourists beyond a few iconic cities. According to Skyscanner, a travel aggregator, the barrier to opening the door to under-visited cities and tapping tourism’s economic benefits is that potential tourists aren’t always aware of enough things to do or how to get around.
By making that information accessible, countries like Greece can increase tourist footfall while limiting tourism's negative impacts on communities.
“2025 is set to mark a new dawn,” Euromonitor’s Bremner said.
