City breaks are a booming business: Whereas the number of overnight stays made by tourists visiting foreign countries rose 26 percent over the past 10 years, the number of nights they spent in cities in those countries rose twice as fast. This is a good source of income for the cities concerned, but when tourist numbers get too high it becomes a problem. The biggest impacts are felt in terms of noise, congested streets, crowded restaurants, irritated local residents and the loss of local identity and culture. Just look at Venice – the city is overwhelmed by the number of visitors it receives.
The causes underlying the phenomenon of overtourism, along with potential strategies for successful urban tourism, were analyzed by the experts from Roland Berger and the Austrian Hotelier Association (ÖHV) in their study "European city tourism study 2018: Protecting your city from overtourism". The study analyzed data from 52 European cities. The key finding? "Many cities tend to focus only on attracting more and more tourists," says Vladimir Preveden, Partner at Roland Berger. "They forget to put in place a tourism strategy that reflects the interests of visitors as well as locals, and urban development as well as tourism planning."
Applying the criteria of value creation and tourism density (number of tourists in relation to inhabitants), the study authors clustered the cities in categories to reflect where they are now on the overtourism spectrum. Examination of the four German cities produced a very nuanced picture: Berlin and Munich rank among the "Shining stars" with healthy tourism and a successful relationship between urban planning and tourism development. Hamburg, on the other hand, makes it into the "Sustainable quality" category. The city boasts a first-class range of cultural offerings, hotels, restaurants and good infrastructure, yet tourist numbers are restrained – and could be increased, given the right measures, in order to better exploit the city's economic potential.
In Frankfurt, the number of overnight stays booked in the city has for years been rising at a much faster rate than the local population, while the value created by visitors has remained stubbornly low. This is no doubt partly explained by the city's heavy focus on the business segment. "When the trend moves toward cheap accommodation and you're seeing people not spending much money on visiting restaurants, museums and public amenities either, overtourism is never far behind," warns Preveden. "That very quickly has a negative impact on the city's image and turns off those visitors who are looking for a high-quality break or even a luxury vacation."
To avoid uncontrolled tourism, cities need to develop an integrated tourism strategy early on. "The strategy should first and foremost reflect the city's long-term urban development plan," says Preveden. "Only then will the two sides of the coin support each other." Cities should focus on areas like improving urban infrastructure and quality of life, while also considering environmental aspects and smart city offerings. One way of taking the strain off the city center is to revitalize less frequented areas of the city and upgrade them with new and attractive things for tourists to do.
Then there are also regulatory interventions that can control ratios like the number of hotel beds – and also the availability of private accommodation: "In today's sharing economy, things like the unregulated supply private apartments for rent has an enormous effect on the cost of staying overnight and thus on the number of tourists coming to a city," explains Roland Berger Partner Preveden. "All other attempts to curb mass tourism will be ineffective if policymakers fail to provide a clear framework in that respect."
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Amsterdam, Barcelona or London – find out which cities are on the brink of being overloaded by tourists. To avoid "overtourism", cities need a sustainable strategy.
