Nestled along the beautiful Adriatic Gulf, a UNESCO World Heritage city cavity In Montenegrois struggling with a huge influx of tourists who are now crowding its narrow streets and raising environmental concerns. These visitors come each day on hundreds of boats, yachts and cruise ships that dock in the harbour.

This surge in tourism has sparked discussions about raising the 1 euro fee paid by cruise ship passengers to enter the city. This has now become a cause of concern for locals as well.

This influx of tourists has significantly affected the city’s infrastructure and quality of life. The medieval streets, which served as great testaments to history, are now clogged with heavy traffic and crowds of people.

The growing number of tourists in the region has further increased the cost of accommodation, making it increasingly difficult for residents to live in their own city. Locals support raising visitor fees for their own benefit. At the same time, the environmental impact of mass tourism is also becoming apparent.

Overtourism in Europe

Kotor is not the first city to face this problem. A similar situation has been seen in many European cities such as Venice, Barcelona, ​​Zurich and Santorini. This has led to protests and policy changes. For example, tourist access to one of Switzerland’s most iconic sites, the Alpine Lake, is limited. Switzerland’s tourism agency recently said it is trying to even out the flow of holidaymakers throughout the year to protect the Alpine country from the risk of overtourism.

Earlier, Switzerland tourism officials said at a press conference in Zurich that they wanted to “take holidaymakers to the right places at the right time”. According to an AFP report, agency chief Martin Nydegger said there were “temporary and local bottlenecks, which are well known to the industry”. For instance, to deal with a sudden influx of Asian travellers in the village of Iseltwald in central Switzerland, which was featured in the South Korean Netflix series “Crash Landing on You”, officials imposed a fee of five Swiss francs ($5.55) on tourists who wanted to visit the famous pontoon from the series.

Croatia has also implemented measures to control tourist numbers. Dubrovnik, another UNESCO-listed site, introduced a “Respect the City” scheme in 2017, limiting the number of cruise visitors to 4,000 at any one time.

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