Essay

In a growing number of historic cities, residents now find themselves outnumbered by visitors for much of the year. Rents rise as flats are turned into short-term holiday lets, local shops give way to souvenir stalls, and narrow streets become impassable. Some cities have responded with entry fees, limits on cruise ships and bans on new hotels. Such measures are sometimes criticised as elitist, but without them the very qualities that attract visitors are likely to disappear, and the people who make these places living communities will be driven out.

Restricting tourism is a blunt instrument that tends to hit hardest those with least money. Day-trippers and young travellers are put off by fees that wealthy visitors barely notice, while many local workers, from waiters to guides, depend on visitor numbers for their living. The real problem is less the total number of tourists than their concentration in a few famous places at the same times of year. Encouraging people to travel out of season and to explore lesser-known places would spread both the benefits and the burdens more fairly.