Last updated: 12:10 PM ET, Wed September 16, 2026
The travel industry has spent the last decade making strides to tackle overtourism. The issue came to the sector's forefront in 2017 when resident protests erupted in congested European cities like Venice and Barcelona. Since then, various destinations and tourism organizations have put measures in place to change that negative trajectory. Mass visitation, as the EHL Research article "In Search of Solutions to Overtourism" states, risks destroying destinations for future tourism.
So, new initiatives are intended to alleviate the strain that large visitor volumes put on resources, local infrastructure, waste management and natural habitats. Increasingly, governments are stepping in to affect those changes. "This is the great awakening that needs to take place, that governments need to understand — tourism is a sector that needs management," said Randy Durband, CEO of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, speaking on Squawk Box Asia.
The most obvious means of addressing the issue is limiting visitor numbers. Machu Picchu, Peru has already done this, capping visitors to about 2,500 daily and Hallstatt, Austria, a UNESCO World Heritage village with a population of less than 800, is seeking provincial approval for a reservation-based daily cap of 5,000 visitors. But curbing tourism numbers is just one tactic for managing any destination's tourism capacity. To reverse the course of overtourism, government agencies must also have the support and participation of all travel "industry stakeholders.
Educating Clients
That includes travel advisors who have so much sway over where and when their clients vacation. "It's our job to educate clients about why it's important to choose locally owned accommodations and tours guided by local residents and to give options to our clients that support that model," said Nicole Anderson, travel advisor with Adventuresome Nicole.
In fact, creating advocacy and awareness campaigns is one of the strategies suggested in the World Economic Forum article "What is Overtourism and How Can We Overcome It?" Travel advisors can let clients know how overtourism will impact their travel experience. They can also make clients aware of new accommodation taxes levied in destinations like Amsterdam and Hawaii or new visitor entrance fees in Bali and Venice. Travel advisors can also steer clients toward low-density time periods when clients can better enjoy their experience without battling through crowds.
A Changing Approach to Popular Destinations
Ms. Jerrol Golden, travel advisor with Golden Travel Co., an independent affiliate of Santa Barbara Travel Bureau, recently had a client who wanted to visit Mont-Saint-Michel, France. She advised them to spend the night so they could enjoy the quiet evening and early morning hours before tour buses arrive. "They got to experience the magic of this extraordinary place without the daytime crowds, and then move on," she explained.
The industry, too, recognizes that redirecting visitors to popular destinations during low season can be an effective tool for diminishing overtourism with economic benefits for local communities. Cruise Europe, a trade network of ports and destinations in Northern and Atlantic Europe, promotes off-season itineraries to mitigate peak season visitor traffic. "Even the time of year that clients travel can make a huge difference with overtourism," said Anderson. "During off season, there aren't as many people and clients can have a more authentic and less crowded experience."
Clients who want to visit sought-after destinations in high season can still diminish the impact of overtourism by exploring the neighborhoods outside of main tourism zones. For example, a trip to New York City could include a day learning about Brooklyn's brownstones. "It's also important to remember that it's not just destinations that are off-the-beaten-path, but also experiences," Anderson added.
Sustainability and Overtourism
Of course, overtourism also leads to sustainability issues. Yet, according to the Phocuswright article "Do Travelers Connect Overtourism and Sustainability?", just 13 to 21% of travelers across markets understand that sustainable travel includes visiting less popular or off-the-beaten path destinations. Although, most travelers will readily grasp the relationship between overtourism and sustainability thanks to decades of public messaging around everyday actions like recycling and reducing plastic waste. They just "need a push during the trip-planning and booking phases."
Sustainable travel encompasses a wide range of initiatives and actions. To understand which aspects will best resonate with an individual client or client group, take a look at this TravelPulse article on purposeful travel or this article from the non-profit Sustainable Travel International, "Striking a Balance: Overtourism Solutions that Embrace Regenerative Travel and Reduce Tourism's Burden".
Social Media Influence
However, not all clients will need to be prodded toward the road less traveled. Those with the proverbial well-stamped passport are clear candidates for "hidden gem" travel experiences. So are avid social media users, particularly Millennial and Gen Z travelers with a social media presence. The aforementioned EHL Research article cites that 75% of travelers choose destinations based on social media inspiration. This phenomenon has furthered overtourism to iconic destinations and flooded newer destinations like Croatia with visitors. However, it has also had the opposite effect. Earlier this year, Fast Company dedicated a full article to the topic: "Gen Z Travelers Want Destinations That Haven't Been Spoiled by Instagram." As these two generations are increasingly reliant on technology for destination ideas, they are also searching for under-the-radar locales where they hope to lay their own trailblazing claim, with the hashtag #hiddengems now up as much as 50%.
Denise Mackey, co-founder of LLocalz, a travel agency specializing in Europe, is already taking advantage of this social media shift with the weekly series "Places We'd Send Our Friends." Mackey described the series as opening travelers' eyes to other places, destinations and experiences that might not be as well known, but that travelers might thoroughly enjoy. She continued, "one of our specialties at LLocalz is helping travelers experience places that are a little more off the beaten path and that travelers might never have found on their own."
Delivering Enhanced Value to Clients
The LLocalz team is based in the U.S., but all European-born. So, when they recommend Austrian alternatives to Hallstatt, or southern Germany gems such as Lake Constance — which borders Austria, France and Switzerland — these are based entirely on lived experiences. This insider knowledge increases their value with clients, with many returning from these under-the-radar trips thanking the LLocalz team for "letting them in on a special place that they would never have found just searching the Internet."
Even travel advisors who weren't raised in other countries can deliver this same value to clients. Tour operators are increasingly adding highly localized trips to their offerings. "Partnering with suppliers that are on the ground really makes it easier for clients to understand and realize that different places are going to be just that: different," said Anderson. "Accommodations might look a little different and having a local guide can make it so much easier for clients to better understand cultural nuances and feel more comfortable."
SIDEBAR: Intrepid Travel Announces Its Annual Not Hot List for 2027
For nearly a decade, Intrepid Travel has been bucking an industry trend. Instead of forecasting the world's most popular destinations for the year ahead, Intrepid names its picks for 10 lesser-known destinations that are open for tourism business. The latest list includes: Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada; Dili, Timor-Leste; Mestia, Georgia; Alonnisos, Greece; and Pekoe Trail, Sri Lanka, featuring both alternatives to magnet destinations and lesser-known locales that are tourism ready.
"The Not Hot List is about shining a light on destinations that have something genuinely special to offer, are ready to welcome more travelers, and can benefit from tourism," said Leigh Barnes, Intrepid Travel's president of Americas and board chair of The Intrepid Foundation.
The selected destinations had to meet three criteria: the destination is less visited than comparable destinations; it has established infrastructure to support more tourism; and its infrastructure continues to grow. The list was compiled with input from Intrepid experts across 36 countries, tourism boards, local experts and travel trend forecaster Globetrender.
But Barnes is also careful to note that the list is not a catalog of new Intrepid offerings. While five new trips are connected to the list, Barnes said that "first and foremost, we want to change the conversation about where people travel and what it means to travel responsibly."
Logistics also factored into destination selection. Whitehorse already offers accommodation and air access along with an expanding flight network. Mestia, Georgia is seeing greater investments in its airport, roads and trails and Sri Lanka's Pekoe Trail is also adding flight capacity as its ecosystem of local hosts expands. "Our job, and the advisor's job, is to take the logistical headache out of planning these trips," Barnes added.
The good news is that the demand is already there. In a 2026 survey conducted by Wakefield Research in conjunction with Intrepid Travel, 57% of the traveling public said they want to get off the beaten path while 92% said they would change their travel behavior to help reduce overtourism.
Destinations that aren't renowned also tend to make for especially memorable trips. Anderson recently sent clients to Greece with Intrepid Travel. Although the itinerary included some hotspots, the client highlight was a locally guided beekeeping and honey tasting experience in Itea, a lesser-known destination. "There's a lot to be said for suppliers that specialize in off-the-beaten path destinations and have local guides who can help me with questions that I either cannot answer or cannot answer as well as them," she added.
That isn't to say Intrepid's trip roster is limited to less explored locations. In May, the company launched Uncommon Day Trips to Barcelona, Venice and Paris, featuring a slate of experiences outside of the cities' main tourist hubs. Aware that people will always want to travel to these iconic cities, Intrepid created these trips to disperse travelers and their spend. "Responsible travel isn't necessarily about telling people they can't go to the places they've always dreamed of visiting," explained Barnes. "It's about designing a better way to experience it."
For responsible travel solutions to truly resonate with travelers, guidance is often essential. For travel advisors, that translates to opportunity. Barnes defines the true value of a travel advisor as knowing the amazing alternative to the obvious trip. "You can solve a problem for destinations while giving your clients a better story to come home with," he said.
As tourism evolves beyond visitor numbers to also account for the needs and preferences of local residents, forward thinking partners like Intrepid Travel can help agents quickly adapt to the changing landscape. "Overtourism isn't going away," Barnes admitted. "Travel is going to keep growing so the industry needs to get much better at managing that growth."
For more information on the destinations that make up Intrepid Travel's 2027 Not Hot List, visit here. And sign up here to receive Intrepid's newsletter just for advisors.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
