ABSTRACT
Since the early 1970s, travellers’ criticism of the volume of tourism has been a regular tradition. Overtourism, however, is addressed as a more recent phenomenon, and is also referred to as the ‘touristification’ of a habitat, with all the negative economic, ecological and social outcomes that excessive tourism entails. A classification of the problem areas discussed in the history of tourism attempts to point out both similarities and new aspects of overtourism. In more recent science and practice, individual instruments of tourism design and control are already being used to overcome overtourism, such as visitor flow control, spreading, regulatory measures via state intervention (e.g. quotas) and the first digital control systems. Nevertheless, there is no clear picture of the assessment of overtourism in terms of measurability, methods of strategic planning with foresight, or the development of digital supports in the context of overall city or destination management. A three-stage international Delphi survey in 2019 confronted experts from the fields of science, management and media with 28 theses on the current and future assessment of overtourism. The results show that the phenomenon requires a broader perspective – both on the question of problem solving and acceptance of the phenomenon, and on the question of a new type of cooperation- and resiliency-oriented thinking and action by all participants and people affected.
