Europe’s most visited countries’ coastal areas affected by overtourism

Abstract

Tourism has a constant impact on the environment and on society, taking these impacts intoconsideration reveals that these are not always beneficial. Negative impacts include increasedpollution, inappropriate construction, conflicts between local society and tourists, crowding andcongestion. The objective of my research is to study coastal areas affected by overtourism insouthern European countries. By examining tourism in the European countries that received themost international tourists in 2019, I illustrate the importance of 3S tourism (sea, sand, sun), themass of tourists it attracts, and its effects. The tourism of France, Spain and Italy, with their sunny sandy coasts, are presented by summarising data sets from various international databases.I analyse the cases of some destinations from the three countries that are the main focus of the study, based on previously published articles. Coastal areas that have been associated with theovertourism phenomenon by other authors are also presented.