OVERTOURISM IN THE MOST VISITED EUROPEAN CITY AND VILLAGE DESTINATIONS.

The goal of this study is to analyze overtourism in a selection of the top visited European countries, in the most visited cities and villages, based on a specific indicator "density per inhabitant" and also on "density per square km" in the cities in the years 2022 versus 2019. The results proved that overtourism is present because the density of tourists per inhabitant is very high and per square km is a few times higher than the number of the local population. In 2022, the highest tourist charge per inhabitant was found in all the selected cities, but especially in: Venice, Dubrovnik, Vienna, Paris, Florence, Amsterdam, Milan and Barcelona. Per square km, the overcrowded cities by tourists are: Venice, Barcelona, Nice, Florence, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Madrid and Vienna. There were also highlighted the villages which are suffocated by tourists taking into consideration the local population: Cinque Terre, Capri-Anacapri, Alberobello, Hallstadt, Giethoorn, Oia, Tibermory, Ciocanesti, Viscri, Bran, Marginimea Sibiului, and Sapanta. Finally, the study emphasizes the measures taken by the authorities in each city and village, depending on the local situation, as well as UNWTO strategies recommended to be implemented for diminishing the negative effects of overtourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]