The tourism industry in India is witnessing an unprecedented growth in some of the destinations due to which the physical, social and environmental capacity of a destination is creating a pressure on nature, heritage, residents, infrastructure and the tourist experience itself. Destinations such as Manali, Ladakh, Kedarnath, Sikkim, and others are increasingly experiencing this pressure, chiefly during the peak seasons.
Overtourism occurs when the number of footfalls exceed the carrying capacity of the destination. Improved connectivity, social media influence, spiritual tourism and government have played a pivotal role in encouraging people to explore the nation, but has also led to an unmanaged tourism growth.
Mission & Objectives
The mission is to make tourism sustainable, balanced, responsible and locally beneficial.
The objectives are:
- Manage & distribute tourist flow throughout the year
- Promote the off-beat and lesser-known destinations
- Protect local communities
- Enhance the quality of life of local residents
- Protect nature and cultural heritage
A model in making tourism with destination development.
Problem statement to us?
For us, overtourism presents a major issue, as when the place becomes overcrowded, service quality drops, complaints rise the authenticity and the natural beauty of the destination is lost. The major crises that can be observed are primarily in the spiritual circuits or hubs like Varanasi, Tirupati, Uttarakhand, while the Himalayan regions, such as Sikkim, Darjeeling, Shimla, Manali results in peak traffic congestion, plastic wastes, constructions and environmental strain in the ecosystem. If unmanaged or unattended, it will lead to natural disasters, cultural erosion and vulnerability in the major areas.
Adaptation
Major countries have adapted innovative approaches to manage overtourism, which leads to valuable insights for us.
Tourist Tax or Sustainability fee, Venice- An access fee is charged in advance on peak hours and dates, one must pre-book on their portal if avoided one could face fines.
Amsterdam Demarketing and Dispersion model- The local bodies halted the construction of new hotels and capping the tourist hotel stay to a limited number annually. Further diverting travelers to nearby destinations.
Early reservation system model of Machu Pichu- Advanced booking system, timed entry slots which leads to regulate daily capacity.
Real time crowd alert of Seoul- Provides digital information and visitor guidance to redistribute tourist away from congested areas to new places.
Implementation & Solution
We can adept a multidimensional strategy to manage overtourism-
- Diversification of Destinations- Promoting unexplored nearby places.
- Smart Visitor Management- AI enabled destination dashboards, GIS mapping and smart ticketing system to track the tourist inflow.
- Tourist Tax- Small Sustainability fee for fragile ecosystem will help in conserving the same and will economically develop the local livelihoods.
- Limitation of new Infrastructure development especially in hotels
- Reservation system for major tourist places, advance booking system.
- Some sort of discounts offering for people visiting offbeat places and promoting them or as a off season campaign drive for tourist circuit.
- Promoting Community Tourism structure to strengthen village and rural tourism and local guides and people.
- Ban Single use of plastic, mandating zero waste practices for hotels and restaurants.
Monitoring
Without continuous monitoring we cannot see the result in a broader way, authorities should compare the actual footfalls with the carrying capacity of the place.
- Government bodies in collaboration with local authorities can continuously monitor the tourist daily flow by QR based entry system, CCTV analytics, GPS enabled Vehicle parking in major tourist places.
- Local surveys of hotels and restaurants in a calendar quarter to notice the zero-waste practices and the increase in the number of hotels and restaurants, with the local government bodies or associations.
- IoT sensors and pollution monitoring stations and other different biodiversity assessments for measuring the ecological impact continuously.
- Hotel, Homestay, OTA platforms booking data and payment analytics to be reviewed monthly by government bodies.
- Digital permits, advance ticketing reservation systems so crowd can be avoided during the peak season.
AI based crowd analysis, feedback system from mobile app so that the continuous tourist feedback can help in maintaining the place.
Conclusion
A significant threat to India’s heritage sites, delicate ecosystems, and spiritual destinations is presented through over-tourism, which also poses the risks of cultural erosion as well as natural disasters. Thus, it is of utmost importance that a more responsible tourism model is planned and implemented to maintain and retain the authenticity of the local communities and ecosystems. India requires a destination diversification framework, which would entail the implementation of advanced reserved systems (for travel, accommodation, sight-seeing), along with restricting new hotel establishment initiatives without adequate permissions. Additionally, charging a fee to ensure sustainability, enforcing strict practices for zero-waste management would essentially result in the long-term viability of the tourism destinations, which can further be managed through digital permits, monitoring through crowd analytics using AI, and IoT sensors to track actual visitor footfalls, as per the carrying capacity of a specific tourism destination.
References
Cheer, J.M. and Novelli, M. (2023). The complexities of overtourism and how we can overcome it. [online] World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/10/what-is-overtourism-and-how-can-we-overcome-it/.
Ledsom, A. (2026). In Machu Picchu Joins Governments Worldwide To Curb Overtourism 2026. Forbes. [online] 28 May. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexledsom/2026/05/28/machu-picchu-joins-governments-worldwide-to-curb-overtourism-in-2026/
Oklevik, O., Gössling, S., Hall, C.M., Steen Jacobsen, J.K., Grøtte, I.P. and McCabe, S. (2019). Overtourism, optimisation, and destination performance indicators: a case study of activities in Fjord Norway. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(12), pp.1–21.
Puljić, I., Knežević, M. and Šegota, T. (2018). ‘Case study 8: Dubrovnik, Croatia’. ‘Overtourism’? Understanding and Managing Urban Tourism Growth beyond Perceptions Volume 2: Case Studies, pp.40–43. doi:https://doi.org/10.18111/9789284420629.
TOI (2024). Overtourism effects: Amsterdam bans construction of new hotels and slashes river cruise stays. [online] Times of India Travel. Available at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/travel-news/overtourism-effects-amsterdam-bans-construction-of-new-hotels-and-slashes-river-cruise-stays/articleshow/109426047.cms.