French Island Takes Action Against 'Overtourism' With Tourist Restrictions In Place
This summer, the French island of Brehat will combat "overtourism" by imposing visitor restrictions in order to address concerns about waste management and environmental protection.
Brehat, a charming French island off the coast of Brittany, has taken a bold step this summer to combat the growing problem of "overtourism" by imposing visitor restrictions. With the island experiencing a massive influx of tourists, reaching up to 15 times its resident population in a single day, concerns about waste management and environmental preservation have arisen. Mayor Olivier Carre recently announced that the number of day visitors would be limited to 4,700 between July 14 and August 25. This decision aligns Brehat with several other French destinations that are actively addressing the challenges posed by excessive tourism.
The island, which has only 377 permanent residents, is part of the EU's Natura 2000 conservation network, which aims to promote biodiversity by protecting the habitats of the most vulnerable species.
According to a Littomatique study, the idyllic landscape is a tourist hotspot, with up to 450,000 people visiting the island in a single year. In the spring and summer, the number of visitors on a single day can reach nearly 6,000.
According to the news agency AFP, the mayor's statement stated that "the commune is unable to handle the volume of waste" that increases tenfold during peak tourism months.
The influx is also eroding paths leading to the picturesque lighthouse on the island's northern tip, as well as affecting protected areas. According to one study conducted by the Ponant Islands Association (AIP), the crowds are also a detriment to the tourists themselves, resulting in a rapid decline in visitor satisfaction.
The France Tourism Alliance reported earlier this year that 80 percent of tourists visit only 20 percent of the country's territory. The Paris tourism office predicts that more than 37 million people will visit the capital this year, nearly matching pre-pandemic levels. The first quarter of this year saw volumes comparable to those of 2019, while spending exceeded those of 2019.
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The France Tourism Alliance has advised tourism operators to promote less popular sites in order to disperse crowds, as well as to implement techniques such as daily quotas at sites, scheduled ticketing, and higher tariffs. To reduce the influx, seaside Marseille in 2021 and Corsica's Porto-Vecchio in 2022 successfully implemented "demarketing" campaigns, which advertise images of overcrowded sites to make them appear less appealing.
According to AFP, the Calanques national park near Marseille recently announced that it would keep the reservation system for visiting the Sugiton coves that was put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic. With limited time to travel, the rocky trails along the crystalline Mediterranean water saw an influx of up to 2,500 tourists per day, trampling the lush vegetation, as per the report.
According to park director Gaelle Berthaud, the reservation system, which cost 100,000 euros to implement, ensures that only 400 people can visit the site on any given day. In a similar effort to protect the landscape, the national park on the island of Porquerolles off France's southeast coast has limited daily visitors to 6,000 for three summers.
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