Ihe government plan for the regulation of tourist flows, mid-June, rightly raises the stakes and the effects of frequentation suffered and not regulated at the origin of dysfunctions, in time and space. He hardly speaks of “overtourism”, but it is by highlighting overtourism that the media have generally reported on it, because the word appeals and the theme is seasonal.
In recent years, the expression has resurfaced: in 2023, with reports in Italy on the paths of the Cinque Terre, where sandals and flip-flops are prohibited, in Portofino, where the mayor had the grotesque idea of establishing two “red areas” where the pedestrian will be forbidden to stop, or even in the old town of Dubrovnik, in Croatia, where suitcases on wheels are prohibited. Consider a sample of places whose (too?) high attendance results from the conjunction of a globalized desire and the democratization of tourism on a planet populated by eight billion people.
A planet where information circulates quickly, everywhere; a world where all it takes is a South Korean Netflix series showing a romantic scene on a pontoon on Lake Brienz, Switzerland, for the tranquil village of Iseltwald to be overrun by thousands of Asian tourists, forcing local authorities to install an access turnstile for 5 Swiss francs [soit 5,20 euros]. It is not a question here of denying the negative effects of overtourism when it is characterized, but the word is often used wrongly and through, because it is an area where confusion reigns and is skilfully maintained.
Quota policy
It is first necessary to distinguish the metropolises, where the majority of the population does not live from tourism and does not support tourist intrusions in the space of its daily life, by the development of temporary rentals; similarly, short alcoholic breaks, bachelor parties or bachelor parties in Amsterdam, Prague or Budapest, make certain neighborhoods unlivable: it is then the acceptability of tourism that is at stake, but there is solutions to these problems when we want to tackle them head-on.
In closed and fragile places, where excessive attendance can degrade what motivates visitors to come (the Calanque de Sugiton, near Marseille, or The Lord’s Supperpainted by Leonardo da Vinci, in a Milanese convent), we know how to manage this type of situation, by a policy of quotas making it possible to combine conservation and satisfactory conditions of visit.
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