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Cited by 918Diverse Aspects of Tourism ResearchSport and Mega-Event ImpactsUrbanism, Landscape, and Tourism Studies

Is Overtourism Overused? Understanding the Impact of Tourism in a City Context

Open access
Koens, Ko, Postma, Albert, Papp, Bernadett·2018·Sustainability
DOI 10.3390/su10124384
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Abstract

In less than two years, the concept of overtourism has come to prominence as one of the most discussed issues with regards to tourism in popular media and, increasingly, academia. In spite of its popularity, the term is still not clearly delineated and remains open to multiple interpretations. The current paper aims to provide more clarity with regard to what overtourism entails by placing the concept in a historical context and presenting results from a qualitative investigation among 80 stakeholders in 13 European cities. Results highlight that overtourism describes an issue that is multidimensional and complex. Not only are the issues caused by tourism and nontourism stakeholders, but they should also be viewed in the context of wider societal and city developments. The article concludes by arguing that while the debate on overtourism has drawn attention again to the old problem of managing negative tourism impacts, it is not well conceptualized. Seven overtourism myths are identified that may inhibit a well-rounded understanding of the concept. To further a contextualized understanding of overtourism, the paper calls for researchers from other disciplines to engage with the topic to come to new insights.

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  • The Limits of Acceptable Change focuses on the maximum level of alteration that residents of a destination are willing to tolerate.

    “In light of these limitations, the concept of the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) has been proposed, which focuses on the maximum level of alteration that residents of a destination are willing to tolerate [4].”

    From Agent-Based Model Applied for the Study of Overtourism in an Urban Context (2025) · cites this paper as [4]

  • Tourist carrying capacity establishes a theoretical threshold beyond which tourism pressures become unsustainable.

    “TCC establishes a theoretical threshold beyond which tourism pressures become unsustainable; we can see this approach in Koens et al. [4], UNWTO [10], WTTC and McKin-sey&Company [15]”

    From Agent-Based Model Applied for the Study of Overtourism in an Urban Context (2025) · cites this paper as [4]

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Research works printed but not linked: 8

  1. Doxey, G. (1975, January 8–11). A causation theory of visitor–resident irritants, methodology and research inferences. The impact of tourism. Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Conference Proceedings of the Travel Research Association, San Diego, CA, USA.
  2. Nijs, V. (2017). Resident Attitudes towards Tourism; Testing the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale (RETS) in Bruges. [Master’s Thesis, MODUL University].
  3. Pearce, P.L. (2018, January 11–13). Limiting overtourism; the desirable new behaviours of the smart tourist. Proceedings of the Tourism Intelligence Forum (t-Forum) Global Exchange Conference 2018, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
  4. Wahab, S., and Pigram, J.J.J. (1997). Urban Toruism: Managing Resources and Visitors. Tourism, Development and Growth: The Challenge of Sustainability, Routledge.
  5. Page, S., and Hall, C.M. (2002). Managing Urban Tourism, Prentice Hall. [1st ed.].
  6. Nelson, B. (2002). God’s Country Or Devil’s Playground: The Best Nature Writing from the Big Bend of Texas, University of Texas Press.
  7. Milano, 2018, Overtourism, social unrest and tourismphobia. A controversial debate, PASOS Rev. Tur. Patrim. Cult., 16, 551
  8. Fyall, A., Leask, A., and Garrod, B. (2008). Managing Visitor Impacts. Managing Visitor Attractions: New Directions, Routledge.

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Authors
Koens, K., Postma, A., & Papp, B.
Affiliations
  • Breda University of Applied Sciences (NL)
  • NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences (NL)
Corresponding author
Koens, Ko
ORCID
Venue
Sustainability
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2018-11-23
Volume
10
Issue
12
Pages
4384
ISSN
2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/su10124384
OpenAlex
W2901793307
Cited by
918
References
52
Citations by year
2026: 193 · 2025: 133 · 2024: 85 · 2023: 93 · 2022: 89 · 2021: 130 · 2020: 125 · 2019: 68 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1
FWCI
198.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Breda University of Applied Sciences Portal (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Breda University of Applied Sciences Portal (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Initial work co-funded by participating cities and ETOA (-)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Sport and Mega-Event Impacts
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Urbanism, Landscape, and Tourism Studies
Keywords
overtourism, urban tourism, stakeholder perspectives, urban development, European cities, tourism management

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