Clever ideas to ease overtourism - but will they appeal to the masses?

You know what tourists are over? Overtourism. It's been the talk of the industry for quite a few years, and as we come into the European summer season, expect it to be in the news once more. We may again see locals spraying visitors with water pistols, crowds holding up protest signs as cruise ships dock, and towns building wooden fences to block the view from selfie-seeking crowds.

With travel growing 4 per cent in 2025 according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (and accounting for about 10 per cent of the global economy), there are now more places feeling the pinch.

The annual 'No List' put together by travel guide Fodor's to highlight the problem has this year included the alpine region of Jungfrau in Switzerland and the Montmartre neighbourhood in Paris as new examples of overtourism. But, of course, it's the usual destinations that will be particularly busy this summer - sunny islands like Tenerife and Santorini, iconic cities like Amsterdam and Dubrovnik, and picturesque towns like Hallstatt and along the Amalfi Coast.

That's why Aussie tour company Intrepid this week launched a new concept: Uncommon Day Trips. In three of the world's busiest tourism cities, local guides have put together itineraries away from the hotspots, exploring alternative experiences in ways that help the neighbourhoods. In Barcelona, the tour visits community spaces like a shared garden, market and rambla. In Venice, you do a chocolate tasting workshop at a women-owned artisanal shop. While in Paris, you can try fresh pastries at a neighbourhood market while seeing the Eiffel Tower from uncommon vantage points.

It may be easy to blame tour companies for some of the problems with overtourism, and those little tour guide flags you see crowds following at the main sights do make an easy target for some of the frustration (even from smug independent travellers who don't realise they are also causing the issues). But many of these operators are also trying to offer solutions. Another interesting example is Globus, which is expanding its 'Escapes' range with another seven European routes this year, including Poland and southern Portugal. These tours only run in the off-season from November to March and offer discounts of up to 20 per cent for "hotter deals, cooler temperatures, smaller crowds".

Obviously, promotions like these help tour companies, boosting their sales during quieter periods. But they also help local communities. In fact, encouraging off-season travel was one of the main topics at a high-level meeting of European Union tourism ministers last month. Rather than leave it only to local authorities, EU nations are now talking collectively about how to put caps on high-pressure areas and shift visitors to lesser-known destinations across the continent.

But like the queue to see the Colosseum in Rome, bureaucracy moves slowly. Which is why many local destinations are bringing in their own initiatives to manage tourists. For the past two years, Copenhagen has run a program in the summer called CopenPay that rewards visitors for good deeds. Prove to the citizenM hotel that you walked 5000 steps in a day and get a free coffee; catch public transport or arrive by bike to Mothsgarden and get free entry to the museum; collect rubbish from the city's harbour and you'll get a free boat ride with GoBoat; and dozens more offers that encourage you to stay longer, eat organic, and even donate clothing.

Copenhagen's initiative has inspired other European cities that are rolling out their own programs this year aimed at encouraging responsible tourism. For one month this summer, many of Berlin's attractions have offers like discounts for using public transport, vouchers for helping on clean-up days, or free walking tours if you check water fountains are working along the way. Even easier, another German city, Bremen, gives overnight visitors a goodie bag of vouchers and gifts from local businesses if they arrive by train, rather than driving (reducing cars filling the streets).

These programs are carrots, rather than the sticks we've mainly seen previously in attempts to control overtourism: the Acropolis in Athens implementing a strict limit on daily visitors; Florence banning self-check-in keyboxes to try to reduce unregulated apartment rentals; and increased entry fees to hiking trails on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Barcelona even forced Google Maps to remove a public bus route that goes to Park Guell because locals were having trouble getting on!