Amsterdam
Amsterdam has long tried to shake off a reputation for rowdy boy-partying, drugs and sex that was blamed in part on an influx of around 20 million tourists a year.
In 2023, they launched an online campaign aimed at discouraging young British men from traveling to Amsterdam to get high and drunk, urging them, in typically Dutch blunt fashion, to “stay away” or risk arrest.
Amsterdam announced last week that it would ban the construction of new hotels and halve the number of river cruise ships in the city within five years.
The government also decided last year to ban marijuana smoking on the streets of entertainment districts.
Hallstatt and Salzburg in Austria
Hallstatt, a tiny village of just 750 people near Salzburg that bears a striking resemblance to Arendelle, the fictional kingdom from Disney’s “Frozen,” sparked controversy last year when residents erected fences to stop people taking selfies at a popular lookout point. The UNESCO World Heritage site removed the fences after a social media backlash, but has now put up signs urging visitors to stay quiet.
Residents were also protesting in support of restricting tourism in the village, which sees up to 10,000 visitors a day in high season. They want tourist numbers limited and tourist buses banned from operating in the town after 5pm.
Salzburg, not far from Hallstatt – a city famous for classical music, Hollywood films and Christmas songs – has also complained about mass tourism and the risk of “being overrun with large numbers of tourists and day trippers”.
“We only want overnight guests,” said Christine Schonhuber, the city’s tourism director. The western Austrian city has not yet taken any concrete measures, but proposals include closing some roads to car traffic and limiting the opening of souvenir shops. The city is also considering closing the city’s Mirabellplatz bus terminal to day-trip operators and allowing only buses transporting overnight guests to operate there.
Iseltwald, Switzerland
The quaint Swiss village of Iseltwald has been forced to limit tourist numbers after fans of the hit Korean Netflix show flocked to the area, sparking a backlash from local residents.
Iseltwald is often called the pearl of Lake Brienz, and for good reason: this fishing village sits on the left bank of the river and is one of the smallest communities in the canton of Bern – and locals want to keep it that way.
A photo taken on June 2, 2023 shows the village of Iseltwald on Lake Brienz in the Swiss Alps. Photo by Fabrice Cofrini/AFP
Dubrovnik
The medieval walled city of Dubrovnik in Croatia is one of the busiest in Europe, with tourist flows sometimes making it impossible to walk through its historic old town.
The Adriatic jewel has seen a surge in visitor numbers since scenes from the TV series “Game of Thrones” were filmed on its walls in 2011.
In 2023, the town of 41,000 is expected to attract 1.2 million tourists, down from the record of 1.4 million in 2019.
Last year, local authorities limited the number of cruise ships to two per day, with each ship limited to no more than 4,000 passengers on board at any one time.
It also launched an app that uses machine learning and weather forecasts to predict when the UNESCO World Heritage Old Town will be at its busiest.
