One of the biggest issues affecting many popular destinations is overtourism, according to a report.
The subject made headlines worldwide in the last few years due to record visitor numbers at many destinations, prompting well-publicised protests by residents and diverse measures by local authorities, noted Rolf Freitag, CEO of IPK International, while presenting the World Travel Monitor for 2017 at ITB Berlin.
As this topic not only impacts destinations, tourist attractions, local infrastructure and residents, but also travellers themselves, IPK International had recently conducted a special survey among international travellers, he said.
The results show that 24 percent of all international tourists had the feeling that the destination they visited was overcrowded. However, only 9 percent said that this overcrowding actually affected the quality of their outbound trip, the IPK survey found.
Most affected cities are Mexico City (23 percent), Shanghai (22 percent), Venice (20 percent), Beijing (19 percent), Hong Kong (18 percent), Istanbul, Amsterdam and Florence (all 17 percent) and Barcelona (16 percent), it added.