Decryption. Overtourism: quotas, Airbnb restrictions... how the response is being organized in certain cities
Stomping around a monument stormed by crowds, not being able to put down your towel on a crowded beach, queuing for hours to visit a museum... These are inconveniences we've all experienced, and for good reason: 95% of tourist flows are concentrated in 5% of the planet. At certain times of the year, cities like Venice, Barcelona , Lisbon, or Athens are saturated with visitors. Villages are not immune to the phenomenon, like Zaanse Schans in the Netherlands, which saw 2.6 million visitors last year.
France, the world's leading tourist destination , is not spared, with 80% of tourists concentrated in 20% of the country. "According to our ranking published in June, Cannes, Nice and Annecy, Antibes, Paris, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, and Marseille appear to be the cities most affected by overtourism," says Jérôme Devouge, founder of the website Ville de rêve. "This overtourism is leading to a 'Disneylandization' of certain cities, which have lost their soul, since they have fewer and fewer inhabitants," emphasizes Frédéric Thomas, associate professor at the Institute for Research and Advanced Studies in Tourism at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Impose taxes on visitorsBut a response is being organized to combat this tourist saturation. Some cities have implemented a tourist tax policy. Like Venice , where day visitors must pay five euros (and even 10 euros if they book less than four days in advance) on busy days (54 days in 2025) to access the historic center. A system that isn't very convincing, according to Frédéric Thomas: "These pricing strategies simply create unequal access to certain sites."
Another measure to curb the number of tourists: the introduction of visitor quotas. Since 2023, on the Île-de-Bréhat (Côtes-d'Armor), a municipal decree has limited attendance to 4,700 people between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., Monday to Friday in summer (this year from July 28 to August 22). "The Marseille National Park has also implemented a mandatory and free reservation system during the peak season. A very effective and fair system for limiting the number of visitors," says Jérôme Devouge. Frédéric Thomas shares this opinion: "The quota solution for access to tourist sites is the best because it is fair. It generally discourages tourists from returning to the site a second time."
Some cities prone to overtourism have also put a brake on cruise ship traffic. This is what Venice has done, where cruise ships have been banned from the city center since 2019. In the Greek islands of Santorini and Mykonos, a 20-euro tax from June 1 to September 30 is now applied to all cruise ship passengers who wish to enter.
Another lever to pull, and not the least: stricter regulation of furnished tourist rentals. "Because the excess supply of accommodation has favored the increase in tourist demand. Hence the idea of limiting tourist reception to spread overnight stays over much wider areas. The only downside: this does not prevent tourists from coming for the day," explains Frédéric Thomas. In Athens, it is no longer possible to register new accommodations on short-term rental platforms for at least one year. For its part, in May, the Spanish government ordered the removal of nearly 66,000 listings on Airbnb, deeming them illegal, particularly in Madrid and Barcelona. And Barcelona wants to implement a ban on short-term seasonal rentals within the next five years.
The hunt for key boxes
They are a symbol of the expansion of short-term furnished tourist accommodation: key boxes have multiplied like hotcakes in recent years, in the most visited cities. A system that allows the owners of these accommodations to leave their keys with travelers without having to meet them in person.
Some cities have taken steps to ban these receptacles, which are proliferating in public spaces. Paris, for example, issued a decree last January banning key boxes attached to street furniture (poles, streetlights, electrical cabinets, benches, bicycle lyres, etc.). Owners have 15 days to remove them. After this deadline, the object is automatically removed and destroyed by municipal agents. The same applies in Marseille, Avignon, Annecy, etc. This measure is generally accompanied by other measures to better regulate short-term tourist rentals (limiting rental durations, hunting down illegal rentals, etc.).
Some destinations have also eased off on communications to avoid attracting even more crowds. "More and more tourist offices are no longer promoting themselves in the media or social networks. And some don't hesitate to contact influencers to ask them to remove photos of their destination," notes Jérôme Devouge. Travelers are also encouraged to come during less crowded periods. But are they really ready to play the game?
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Anger among local residents, Airbnb regulation: Annecy faces overtourism
Its lake, mountains, narrow streets, and canals overlooked by colorful facades act like a magnet. Described as the Little Venice of the Alps, Annecy (Haute-Savoie) attracts three million visitors a year. The postcard is a dream. Since Covid, attendance at this highly publicized destination has exploded. So much so that this French gem is commonly accused of overtourism, like cities like Barcelona. Moreover, the same signs displaying the residents' fed-up attitude have sprung up on the facades of the old town, as in the Catalan capital. Protest movements, led by the Association for the Preservation of the Old Town and the Defense of its Residents, have emerged. In early August, the Pont des Amours, an iconic photo spot where lovers' padlocks flourish every year, was renamed the Pont du Désamour .
Annecy now attracts visitors year-round, and in summer and on sunny May long weekends, it's a victim of its own success. Difficult traffic, saturated parking, housing problems, the proliferation of Airbnb-type furnished tourist accommodations, and the disappearance of historic businesses in favor of small restaurants... these issues are the concerns of residents and are making their way into the discourse of local politicians. This has led to the new regulations regulating furnished tourist accommodation in Greater Annecy, in effect since June 1, aimed at reducing their number by establishing quotas by zone. Not without its share of problems.
Attracting tourists to other placesAnnecy is particularly affected by the problem of tourist concentration in the 0.5 km² area between the old town and the shopping streets of the city center. The Lake Annecy tourist office has also already decided to no longer run direct advertising campaigns for the destination. The aim is to relieve congestion in the city and attract tourists to other equally Instagrammable gems within a 15- to 20-minute radius (Fier Gorges, Glières Plateau, etc.). The challenge is to channel the flow, rather than reduce the crowds, as 5,500 jobs depend on accommodation and leisure activities.
Jennifer Parisot
Le Progres
