This Southern European Destination Is the Continent's Most Over-Touristed City, Study Says
Forget about Venice or Paris, the European city that's most choked by tourists is none other than Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The southern European city famously served as the setting for King's Landing in the blockbuster HBO series Game of Thrones, and saw an accompanying surge in tourism in the years since the show first aired. Due to its small population of just 42,000 people, city residents are outnumbered by annual tourists by a 36:1 ratio. Far fewer of these locals live in the historic Old Town, where the majority of tourists want to visit.
This is all according to a new study from UK vacation booking platform Holidu, which analyzed annual tourism data from 2019, the last year before the pandemic, compared to cities' populations.
The coastal Croatian city managed to outpace Venice, Italy—a city famously drown in tourists—as well as Bruges, Belgium, and Rhodes, Greece, which collectively tied for second place with 21 tourists per inhabitant. Reykjavik, Iceland, rounded out the top five with 16 annual tourists per inhabitant.
Other cities in the top 10 include the expected (Florence, Italy, and Amsterdam, Netherlands) as well as ones you might not have seen coming (Tallinn, Estonia). With four total entries in the top 30, Italy was the most-represented country overall.
Dubrovnik has implemented some changes since then, including a limit on the number of cruise ship passengers allowed to enter the city per day (capped at 4,000). Still, the city has seen a serious rebound in tourism. With the summer travel season in full swing, it's likely to be another busy year for the seaside retreat.
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