Preface to Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing: special issue on measuring and monitoring overtourism

Striking a good balance between supply capacities and tourism demand has always been a central challenge for the stable development of tourism. The enormous growth of global tourism in recent years has led to bottlenecks and overcrowding in various destinations. Congestion, pollution, excessive prices of accommodations and commodities, bad visitor experience and even resentment or protests by the local population are among the consequences of such expansion.

Overtourism might not be the major concern of the tourism industry amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, massive declines in tourism are being recorded almost all over the world. Nevertheless, monitoring the available capacities and drivers of tourism development, as well as its dependencies, remains central to effective tourism management. Accordingly, this special issue is dedicated to the monitoring and measuring of overtourism. Four articles cover the topic by presenting different case studies.

In the case of Montreal in Canada, Khomsi, Fernandez-Aubin and Rabier address the question regarding the point at which the phenomenon of tourism overcrowding might qualify as overtourism. The authors show that although some of the core indicators, such as the number of tourists versus inhabitants, the tourism carrying capacity (TCC) and tourism pressure, signify that Montreal is physically experiencing overtourism, the phenomenon is not yet considered a general problem in the city. The research underlines the idea that the perception of overtourism is subjective despite evidence of tourism pressure and numerical indicators within the three selected case areas of the Canadian city. The degree of negative views from residents towards tourism remains localised in only one area. On top of such circumstance, the seasonality that limits the time span in which Montreal receives tourists and the shared problems between tourism and residents’ activities (e.g. road congestion) dilute the negative perception of residents on tourists. Thus, the authors of the study are led to conclude that Montreal does not suffer from overtourism as in other famous destinations, such as Venice or Dubrovnik.

Focusing on monitoring and measurement, Camatti, Bertocchi, Caric and van der Borg propose a TCC calculation model, which they have applied to the case of Dubrovnik, Croatia. The authors use the support of current mobile technology and design an effective real-time response to the carrying capacity level, which helps monitor overtourism in Dubrovnik. The study suggests ways in which a heritage tourism destination can determine the sustainable limit of tourists and visitors of different types by taking into account the maximum capacities of various subsystems (i.e. accommodation sector, food and beverage category, mobility and transportation facilities, environmental issues and waste management and cultural site). With support from a mobile application, the model enables the authors to simulate the maximum number of visitors and the composition of the visitors. Consequently, the researchers of the study are able to estimate the potential revenues without overconstraining the tourism resources and subsystems of the location. This development can provide real-time intervention to mitigate potential overtourism, facilitate decongestion policies and promote the sustainability of a destination.

Moving to an Alpine destination for a specific tourism activity, skiing, Pikkemaat, Bichler and Peters investigate the impact of perceived crowding on the satisfaction of tourists at ski resorts in Austria. As crowding represents an essential aspect in driving overtourism, the authors show that the number of tourists is not the only factor that influences perceived crowding. Instead, this perception also depends on the skill level and social behaviours of other guests. Through a mixed method approach, the authors demonstrate that the individual skill level and social behaviour of skiers moderate the effect of perceived crowding on skiers’ satisfaction. Moreover, the authors show that certain demographic factors, i.e. age, have an impact on perceived crowding and satisfaction, whilst gender only affects satisfaction. The authors highlight the importance of tourist-to-tourist encounters to understand the effects of crowding better and to derive appropriate visitor management measures.

One strategy to deal with overtourism is to promote degrowth specifically, whereby the role of various stakeholders is of particular importance. Cakar and Uzut analyse the case study of Istanbul in Turkey to investigate the role of sustainable degrowth as a response to overtourism. Through a qualitative case study with interviews of tourism key stakeholders, the authors found that demarketing and applying localhood tourism activities are key drivers behind degrowth as a response to overtourism. They conclude that whilst the current involuntary degrowth, which is characterised by uncontrollable features, tends to lead to more problems, voluntary degrowth should be pursued. This solution requires sustainable destination governance, prudent management and stakeholder involvement.

Overall, the articles in this Special Issue present an interesting mix of methods, challenges and solutions with case studies from different countries. Although the challenges that emerge in the context of overtourism are very specific to single cases, the articles show that a combination of different indicators is necessary to determine the degree of touristification or overtourism. In addition, the effective measuring and monitoring of overtourism remain to be essential factors for sustainable tourism development. We hope and trust that you enjoy reading this Special Issue and spread its content to other users.

Guest Editors

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.