Pledges, timed visits and taxes: The strategies diverting tourists from hotspots

For many people a holiday in a beautiful destination far from home is the perfect way to relax and leave behind the daily grind.

For those who live in tourist destinations, travellers bring business and work opportunities.

But when more and more people flock to the same places, the pressure on locals and their environment can become destructive.

The city of Amsterdam, known worldwide for its picturesque canals, red light district and bike lanes, has ceased to invest in traditional marketing altogether.

"Amsterdam is not trying to grow tourism. Amsterdam is trying to manage tourism," Amsterdam & Partners corporate communications specialist Mila de Heer says.

"Our aim is a visitor economy that contributes to the city, respects residents and strengthens Amsterdam's cultural, social and economic fabric.

"Visitors are welcome, but not at any cost."

The Dutch city is not alone.

In destinations around the world overtourism has aggravated residents who say they no longer benefit from an industry that is overtaking their infrastructure and contributing to a lack of affordable housing.

Now many of the world's most desirable destinations are saying no to unrestrained mass tourism — but finding the antidote is not simple.

Different strategies are being tested to limit the influx of tourists, including taxes, access restrictions and the closure of hotspots.

Not just 'a lot of tourists'

In 2025 the travel and tourism sector generated $US11 trillion ($15 trillion) and accounted for nearly 10 per cent of the global economy, according to research by the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Western Sydney University sustainable tourism professor Joseph Cheer says It is important to understand that overtourism means more than just "a lot of tourists".

"At its most basic, overtourism is when tourism growth starts to create problems at a local level," he says.

Overtourism manifests as overcrowding, loss of amenities, rapid development that communities cannot keep up with, noise, pollution, waste management issues and increased housing costs, Dr Cheer says.

He says housing in popular destinations often gets used to accommodate tourists because it is more profitable.

"In a situation where we have a housing crisis or housing affordability crisis, this locks out locals from the housing that they would otherwise have had access to," Dr Cheer says.

Accommodation and cruise ship bans

In Barcelona, Spain's most visited city by foreign tourists, authorities announced a moratorium on short-term rentals such as Airbnb to help make the city more affordable for residents.

Mayor Jaume Collboni said the city would scrap the licences of more than 10,000 apartments approved as short-term rentals by November 2028.

Housing is a pain point in Barcelona, where demonstrators have hit the streets the past two summers with water pistols to protest tourism.

Regulation of platforms such as Airbnb has proven successful, according to Dr Cheer.

"It's been able to put limits around the extent to which tourism takes place in local areas. Airbnb had a slogan: 'to live like a local'. The trouble is, no-one asked the locals whether they wanted people to live like them," he says.

The ban is part of Barcelona's wider plan to cut off tourism growth.

"The demand can't grow if there's no accommodations for [tourists]. Already this summer we're seeing that there are people who can't come because they can't find a place to stay. We're not going to respond to growing demand," the city's new sustainable tourism commissioner José Antonio Donaire told The New York Times.

The Italian city of Venice banned large cruise ships from entering its historic centre in 2021, following years of protests by locals.

The community group No Grandi Navi (No Big Ships) attracted media attention for protesting on water, waving flags from small boats.

When a cruise ship full of passengers descends upon a city, facilities and infrastructure can be put under pressure without much economic benefit, Dr Cheer says.

University of Adelaide tourism management senior lecturer Freya Higgins-Desbiolles says the cruise ship ban is a good example of a community being centred in decision-making.

"The local communities should be setting a vision of what they want for tourism in their place," she says.

Tourist taxes and minimum spends

Japan, a favourite destination for Australians, has increased a number of fees aimed at tourists and immigrants amid fears of overtourism and a surge in anti-immigration sentiment.

This includes the tripling of Japan's international tourist tax, which is attached to airfares departing Japan.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organisation, the fee will "support the maintenance of public works, critical infrastructure at airports and tourist sites, restoration of historic assets, and the creation of online tourist resources".

Closer to home, the Balinese have watched their island completely transform, with its rice paddies and agricultural land turned into villas for tourists.

Foreign visitors have almost tripled in the past 15 years. Almost seven million foreign tourists visited the island last year, more than 1.5 million of them Australian.

But the infrastructure has not kept up with the pace. The island is grappling with a waste crisis and frustrated locals blamed overdevelopment after the island was hit with deadly floods.

In 2024, Bali implemented a tourist tax. The 150,000 rupiah ($15) payment is collected at the airport, but some visitors have found its implementation confusing.

The charge goes toward conserving ecology and culture while offsetting some of the environmental damage caused by tourism.

Dr Cheer says the effectiveness of tourist taxes is debatable because they do not address the root cause of problems, and it is not always clear whether they will be used on solving the problems created by tourism.

"Tourist taxes are a very blunt instrument that doesn't really change what's happening in the tourism system," he says.

"A 5 euro tax is not going to stop someone from wanting to go to Venice. A $50 Bali entry tax is not going to deter people from going to Bali.

"It's a small drop in the pond when it comes to what they are spending overall."

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has been wary of tourism ever since it opened to visitors in 1974.

The country imposes strict parameters on international travellers, including a ban on mountaineering to preserve its peaks.

Prior to 2020, a minimum spend of US$200 ($299) per day was required of foreign nationals, as well as a US$65 ($90) daily fee.

Bhutan's reopening to the world after the pandemic saw the minimum spend requirement scrapped in favour of raising the daily "sustainable development fee" (SDF), which the government says is used to off-set carbon generated by visitors, to US$200.

In Bhutan, the government can control "who comes in and how much they spend and where they go," Dr Cheer says.

"It might work in Bhutan, but it doesn't necessarily work everywhere else."

In September 2023, in the wake of declining visitor numbers, the country cut the SDF to US$100 per day for the next four years.

Pledges and regeneration closures

In Thailand, the government closes Maya Bay, popularised by the 2000 movie The Beach, for two months every year.

The Phi Phi Islands beach was reopened in 2022 after a nearly four-year closure due to damage to its ecosystem.

The reopening has come with strict rules, including a ban on swimming, and the tourists who have attempted to wade into the turquoise waters have been fined for doing so.

Boats can no longer enter the bay, there is a daily visitor cap and a one-hour time limit for visits.

A similar approach was taken in the Philippines in 2018, when authorities closed the paradisiacal island of Boracay for six months to clean up its shores.

Results from the closure were contentious, but locals say they saw the restoration of the island to its former glory during COVID-19 lockdowns.

From an ecological point of view, closures such as that of Maya Bay and Boracay have been successful, Dr Cheer says, but some outcomes remain to be seen.

"The question remains, if you close and then when you reopen [and] it's business as usual, have you really made any progress? Are you just going one step forward and one step back constantly?" he says.

It can also be difficult for authorities to stick with closures that create ripple effects in the economy.

Even the limited return of tourists to Maya Bay has come with setbacks to the environment, leaving authorities struggling to strike a balance between preserving its ecosystem and sustaining livelihoods.

The Pacific island nation of Palau asks each tourist presenting at immigration to sign a passport pledge to act in an ecologically and culturally responsible way.

"I vow to tread lightly, act kindly and explore mindfully," the pledge reads.

"The only footprints I shall leave are those that will wash away."

Pledges can be helpful in influencing tourists to be more careful about how they visit a place, Dr Higgins-Desbiolles says, but the effect may be limited in an industry as complex as tourism.

"When we shift the focus to the tourist as the consumer, you're not actually getting to the heart of the problem and you're not making the tourism industry take responsibility," she says.

"I don't think consumer choice is actually going to have the impact that we need, because, of course, it's only the sensitive type of tourists that will be moved by that and engage in that."

The tourism industry's 'growth fetish'

In 2025 international tourist arrivals grew by four per cent, with an estimated 1.52 billion international tourists recorded globally, according to the UN World Tourism Barometer.

That growth has continued but slowed down in 2026 amid the conflict in the Middle East.

Dr Higgins-Desbiolles says the industry must deal with its "growth fetish" if it is to address problems with overtourism.

"Endless growth is not possible without damaging societies and ecology, so it's got to be managed," she says.

But Dr Higgins-Desbiolles says the industry itself should not be "at the forefront of decision-making".

"They should be a voice in it, but my view is the local people are the ones that have to live with the consequences of tourism, so it's them that should have a strong seat at the table, and often they're not represented," she says.

Amsterdam has put in place a formal "Tourism in Balance" framework, which includes a cap on overnight stays per year.

If overnight stays approach 18 million, the municipal executive must propose measures to prevent the 20 million cap from being exceeded.

The city has made progress in positioning itself as "a place of culture, creativity, neighbourhoods, innovation and local life, rather than as a permissive playground," Ms de Heer says.

"The goal is not more tourists, but better balance. Visitors who behave respectfully, spread across the city and region where appropriate, contribute to culture and local businesses, and do not add disproportionate pressure to already crowded areas."