Why Europe needs a travel dispersal strategy to manage overtourism
Reports highlight the impact of tourism growth in Europe, flagging chain hotels and a lack of independent options in historic hotspots.
Europe is at a crossroads in its relationship with tourism. Summer is on the horizon, international travel is back, and people are returning to their favorite destinations. As post-pandemic travel confidence booms, so are concerns about the negative impacts of overtourism.
Overtourism — where too many guests visit too few locations, typically at the same time — is an inherently European challenge. But while images of tourists packed into Las Ramblas and Saint Mark’s Square have sadly become synonymous with summer travel here, there is little consensus on what is driving the overtourism phenomenon, or how best to fix it.
As more guests prepare to head to Europe, the region needs a tourism strategy that embraces dispersal and helps cities combat the over-intensification of tourism in historic hotspots, while spreading the benefits of tourism to places and neighborhoods that have not previously benefitted.
In recent weeks, two reports have been shared that shed new light on the impact of tourism growth in Europe: one report [1] from Booking.com highlights a “boom” in hotel growth and erosion of independent properties; the other from Airbnb highlights how the platform is helping disperse guests and benefits to communities with no hotels.
Combined, these reports provide a comprehensive picture of what’s driving overtourism in Europe — and a potential way forward.
In a new report, Booking.com highlights how Europe is at the beginning of a “chainification” of its hotel industry — starting with France and the U.K. – as the market prominence of chain hotels pushes “relentlessly upwards”, which the report states is coming at the cost of independently owned competitors.
As the debate on how to manage overtourism in Europe continues, Booking.com’s report explains how just four international hotel chains are behind almost half of all new hotel construction projects in Europe. A closer look at these figures shows Europe currently has a construction pipeline of over 1,700 hotels and 260,000 rooms, with a record 524 projects at early planning stage. [2] A stated 49 percent of this construction is driven by Accor, Marriott, IHG and Hilton, with hotel chains generally making up 64 percent of all investments for construction projects.
