Some places get overwhelmed by the influx of tourists every summer. The consequences are numerous. Discover the European cities to avoid during the high season.
Summer holidays and its tourists, by the thousands. Every year, they travel to the four corners of the planet to cities where the number of inhabitants explodes. An overcrowding that sometimes generates a “fed up” among the locals, who regularly take action to try to limit mass tourism, some even deciding to leave the city permanently.
Among all the popular summer destinations, some are more prone to a surge of tourists than others. A list of towns to avoid has even been drawn up. The vacation rental search engine Holidu has reviewed the different European destinations to measure the cities that are the most stormed during the summer period. Based on data from Euromonitor International, this study analyzed the number of arrivals in 2023 in relation to the city’s population. And some of the figures are dizzying.
Especially for the first place in the ranking. The municipality concerned has, in the summer, 27 tourists for 1 inhabitant! An insane proportion, which goes to Dubrovnik. Croatian coastal city, particularly popular in the summer. The destination comes in at the top of the ranking for the second year in a row. The success of the city, which has always attracted tourists, soared after the broadcast of the series Game of Thrones. Part of the filming was done in Dubrovnik.
Second in the ranking: Rhodes, Greece. The island is mainly famous for its old town and idyllic beaches. It welcomes 26 tourists for every 1 inhabitant. Another Greek city in the ranking: Heraklion, Crete, which occupies fourth place.
Rounding out the podium are Italy and Venice. The Italian city attracts crowds every year and has around 21 tourists per inhabitant. The city has been transformed by tourism and has even been forced to legislate to try to control this annual influx. In the rest of the ranking, the city of Florence makes it into the top 5. Then come Reykjavik in Iceland, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Lisbon and Porto in Portugal and finally Dublin in Ireland. Note that the first French city in the ranking is, unsurprisingly, Paris in twelfth place, followed by Nice. The capital and the Côte d’Azur city have around 7 tourists per inhabitant in the summer.