Italy Follows Spain as Overtourism in Europe Spreads From Famous Cities to Mediterranean Regions

Europe’s tourism map is changing as visitor pressure moves beyond famous cities into islands, coastal provinces and smaller holiday regions. The European Union recorded more than 3 billion nights in tourist accommodation in 2024, a record year, while coastal areas alone absorbed almost 1.5 billion nights. Spain, Italy, Greece and Croatia stand out because several of their coastal regions combine high visitor volumes with small resident populations and intense summer concentration. The shift matters for travellers because the busiest places are no longer limited to Venice, Barcelona, Athens or Dubrovnik. Data increasingly points towards Mallorca, the Greek islands, Croatia’s Adriatic coast and other coastal territories where seasonal demand can overwhelm local capacity.

Europe’s Tourism Map Is Being Redrawn

The latest figures suggest that tourism pressure cannot be understood through national totals alone. More than 3 billion nights were spent in EU tourist accommodation during 2024, up 2.2% from 2023, according to Eurostat. Spain recorded about 500 million nights, Italy 458 million, France 451 million and Germany 441 million.

Yet national totals conceal a sharper regional pattern. Eurostat’s regional analysis found tourism intensity above the EU average in 84 of 244 regions with available 2024 data. Seven regions recorded more than 50,000 tourist nights per 1,000 residents, led by Greece’s Notio Aigaio with 126,817.

The European Commission also cautions that overnight stays provide only part of the picture. Day visitors, second-home users and people staying with friends or relatives can add pressure without appearing in conventional accommodation statistics.

That distinction matters enormously for popular islands. A destination may appear manageable when measured by registered beds, yet experience severe pressure at beaches, ports, roads, water networks and historic centres during a few critical hours.

Coastal Regions Now Carry the Heaviest Load

The European Commission estimates that EU coastal areas had almost 12.5 million bed places in 2024, representing 42% of total EU bed capacity. Italy had the largest coastal capacity at about 3.1 million places, followed by France at 2 million, while Spain and Greece each had about 1.2 million.

Coastal accommodation generated almost 1.5 billion nights in 2024, rising 3.6% from the previous year. The Commission explicitly identifies Spanish and Greek islands, the Croatian coast and Venice among areas where tourism intensity can create overtourism-related pressure.

This creates an important distinction for travellers. A destination does not need to receive Europe’s largest absolute number of tourists to experience severe crowding. Population size, geography and seasonal concentration can matter more than raw arrivals.

The Commission’s Tourism Dashboard found that the top 100 destinations by tourism intensity averaged around 44 tourist nights per resident, compared with roughly six across the EU. Some destinations in Istria and the Greek and Spanish islands reached approximately 115 to 145 nights per resident.

Italy Shows Why City Data Is Not Enough

Italy remains one of Europe’s largest tourism economies, but its pressure map extends well beyond Rome, Venice and Florence. Istat’s latest statistical yearbook recorded 466.2 million overnight stays in 2024, 4.2% above 2023 and 6.7% above 2019.

Foreign visitors accounted for 54.5% of Italian overnight stays. The fifty most touristic municipalities generated 197.4 million nights, or 42.3% of the national total, showing that concentration remains significant even inside a huge tourism market.

Rome alone recorded about 42.7 million nights in 2024, while Milan reached 14.1 million and Venice 13.3 million. However, the wider national picture includes extensive coastal and island tourism that can create a different kind of pressure.

The key issue is therefore not simply whether travellers are leaving Italy’s famous cities. It is whether tourism demand is becoming more geographically dispersed while remaining heavily concentrated within individual coastal territories.

Venice illustrates the policy response. Its access-fee experiment targeted day visitors entering the historic centre on designated dates, with the 2026 fee set at €5 for earlier payment and €10 for later payment. The 2026 trial ended on 27 July, leaving future arrangements subject to further decisions by the city authorities.

That policy demonstrates a broader European shift from unrestricted visitor growth towards visitor-flow management. It also shows why travellers increasingly need to check local rules before visiting iconic destinations.

Spain’s Islands Reveal the Scale of Regional Pressure

Spain provides perhaps the clearest evidence that major tourism pressure is no longer a purely metropolitan issue. Official statistics show that hotel establishments recorded 366.7 million overnight stays in 2025, another annual record.

Non-hotel accommodation added more than 146.3 million nights, including apartments, campsites, rural tourism accommodation and hostels. Tourist apartments alone generated more than 76 million nights, while non-residents accounted for 84.6 million non-hotel nights.

Mallorca remains particularly striking. Spain’s statistics agency recorded 49.5 million hotel nights on the island in 2025, making it the country’s leading tourist area by this measure.

The wider geography is also significant. The Canary Islands, Balearic Islands and mainland coastal regions continue to absorb large volumes of international demand, meaning that Spain’s tourism pressure is distributed across multiple destinations rather than centred on Barcelona.

For travellers, this creates a useful planning lesson. Choosing a smaller destination does not automatically mean choosing a less pressured destination. A small island can have fewer residents, fewer roads and more limited water infrastructure while hosting a very large visitor population.

Greece’s Islands Face A Different Arithmetic

Greece illustrates the relationship between tourism intensity and population size particularly clearly. In 2024, three Greek island regions — Notio Aigaio, Ionia Nisia and Kriti — were among the seven EU regions exceeding 50,000 tourist nights per 1,000 residents.

Notio Aigaio recorded 126,817 nights per 1,000 inhabitants, the highest regional tourism-intensity figure in the EU. The region includes major destinations such as Rhodes, Kos and Mykonos.

Peak-season pressure can become even more pronounced. Eurostat found that in August 2024, Notio Aigaio recorded approximately 896 tourist overnight stays per 1,000 inhabitants on an average day.

The figure still understates the real pressure because it excludes same-day visitors and people staying outside rented accommodation. That makes the statistic particularly important for island travellers because ferry passengers, cruise visitors and excursionists can swell the daytime population without appearing in hotel-night figures.

Greece’s tourism economy is also expanding financially. The Bank of Greece reported that inbound traveller flows increased 6.4% in 2025, while overnight stays rose 1.6%. Travel receipts climbed 9.4% to €23.63 billion, while the Southern Aegean recorded the largest share of receipts and overnight stays.

This creates a more nuanced picture. Tourism brings substantial economic value, yet high visitor intensity can create localised infrastructure pressure even when national tourism indicators remain positive.

Croatia Faces Europe’s Sharpest Summer Compression

Croatia presents another revealing case because its tourism pressure combines geography, foreign demand and extreme seasonality. Official Croatian statistics recorded 94.8 million commercial-accommodation nights in 2025, up 1.2% from 2024.

Foreign visitors generated 85.6 million of those nights, representing 90.3% of the commercial total. Germany alone contributed 21 million nights, while visitors from Slovenia, Austria and Poland also generated substantial volumes.

The Adriatic region carries much of this activity. Eurostat previously recorded 80.8 million foreign tourist nights in Jadranska Hrvatska in 2023, representing 92.5% of its accommodation nights.

Seasonality intensifies the pressure. In 2025, 55% of Croatia’s annual accommodation nights occurred in July and August, according to Eurostat. Greece followed at 41.6%, placing both countries among Europe’s most seasonally concentrated tourism markets.

*Greece figure refers to total overnight stays from Bank of Greece travel-services statistics.

Croatia has already embedded year-round and regionally balanced tourism into its national sustainable tourism strategy for 2030. The strategy also targets environmental protection, resilience and greater balance across destinations.

The policy direction is significant. Instead of simply adding accommodation and transport capacity, governments are increasingly examining when tourists arrive, where they stay and how concentrated their spending becomes.

Short-Term Rentals Add Another Layer

Hotels tell only part of Europe’s accommodation story. Online platforms have become a substantial additional channel, particularly in coastal and island regions.

Eurostat recorded 951.6 million guest nights in EU short-stay accommodation booked through online platforms during 2025. That represented an 11.4% increase from 2024 and a 32.4% rise from 2023.

The regional figures are particularly revealing. Jadranska Hrvatska recorded 27.7 million platform-booked nights in Q3 2025, followed by Andalucía with 19.5 million and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur with 16.9 million.

This does not prove that short-term rentals cause overtourism. However, the data demonstrates their growing role in the accommodation ecosystem and their importance when measuring regional visitor pressure.

For travellers, this also means that official hotel occupancy figures can underestimate the accommodation footprint in destinations where apartments and holiday homes are widespread.

Summer Concentration Changes The Traveller Experience

Seasonality may be the most overlooked part of the overtourism debate. Across the EU, 31.1% of all accommodation nights in 2025 occurred during July and August.

That represented 962 million nights in just two months. The figure was almost equal to the combined 976 million nights recorded during January, February, March, April, November and December.

Croatia’s pattern was far sharper. More than half of its annual nights arrived during those two months, while Greece exceeded 40%.

For travellers, the implication is straightforward. A destination’s annual tourism statistics cannot tell you what a beach, ferry terminal or old town will feel like in August.

Shoulder-season travel can therefore change the experience without requiring a completely different destination. It can also spread visitor spending across a longer period, supporting businesses outside the narrow summer peak.

What Travellers Should Watch Before Booking

The most useful indicator is not simply the number of tourists. Travellers should consider tourism intensity, seasonality, accommodation growth and local infrastructure together.

A region with rapidly rising visitor nights and a small population deserves closer scrutiny than a major city with millions of residents. Similarly, a destination where half its annual demand arrives in two months may feel dramatically different in July than in October.

The European Commission now uses an EU Tourism Dashboard with 35 indicators, including tourism intensity and short-term-rental data. Its 2025 update also expanded some indicators to municipal level, providing more granular information for understanding destination pressure.

Travellers can use the same logic when planning. Check peak months, accommodation availability, local visitor rules and transport constraints before booking. Consider longer stays, shoulder-season dates and nearby destinations where demand is less compressed.

Europe Is Testing A New Tourism Model

The policy response is moving beyond simple promotion. The European Commission’s work on sustainable tourism highlights economic, environmental, social and governance challenges, including overcrowding, housing pressure, resource consumption and infrastructure strain.

In June 2026, the Commission also introduced dedicated strategies for EU islands and coastal communities. It noted that about 17 million people live across 4,000 EU islands, while around 95 million people live along EU coastlines.

The new approach recognises that these territories face interconnected pressures. Tourism, housing, connectivity, climate adaptation, healthcare, energy and environmental protection increasingly need to be planned together.

Croatia’s 2030 tourism strategy follows a similar direction by emphasising year-round activity, regional balance and environmental resilience. Venice’s access-fee experiment represents a more targeted response, focusing on visitor flows into a specific historic centre.

These measures are different, but they point towards the same structural change. European tourism management is becoming increasingly place-specific rather than purely national.

The New Map Matters to Travellers

The evidence does not show that tourism pressure has simply migrated from Europe’s famous cities to smaller destinations. Instead, it shows something more complex: regional and island destinations now occupy a much larger share of Europe’s high-intensity tourism landscape.

Mallorca, Notio Aigaio, Jadranska Hrvatska and other coastal regions demonstrate why resident population, seasonal concentration and accommodation patterns matter. At the same time, record tourism volumes continue to generate substantial economic value for national and local economies.

For travellers, the smartest response is better information rather than simply chasing lesser-known places. The next travel map of Europe will be defined not only by where tourists go, but by when they arrive, how long they stay and how much pressure their presence creates locally. That makes regional tourism data increasingly valuable for anyone planning a Mediterranean holiday.