Most overcrowded country in the world is in Europe - with almost four tourists to every local

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Austria has been named the most overcrowded tourist destination in the world after it was revealed they welcome almost four tourists to the country for every resident.

While European countries such as Spain and Greece have dealing with a range overtourism issues, from visitors packing city streets to threatening the lifespan of their natural landscape, it was not those popular hotspots that came out on top as having the wildest resident-to-tourist ratio.

Research carried out by MoneyTransfers.com found that for every resident in Austria, there are almost four times the number of tourists, at a ratio of one resident to 3.6 tourists.

The country only has a population of around nine million; however, Austria accepts around 32 million international visitors yearly. Most of the tourists are concentrated in Austria’s capital, Vienna.

Tourism in the capital continues to increase rapidly to its pre-pandemic levels, with its tourist board reporting that it had a 31 per cent rise in overnight stays between 2022 and 2023, with 17.3 million overnights by visitors within the city limits.

While Vienna is used to catering for huge swarms of visitors, other areas of the country are becoming increasingly popular, however, they are not as prepared to take on the influx of tourists.

One example is Hallstatt, a small town known for its picturesque Alpine houses, waterfalls and salt lakes, all backed by a tremendous snowy mountain range.

The fairytale-like town, the rumoured inspiration for the kingdom of Arendelle in Disney’s Frozen, was caught in a battle with overtourism last year when the town constructed wooden fences that obstructed the view of the lake.

The fences blocked the view of Hallstatt’s famous selfie backdrop amid attempts to scale back the number of visitors to the area that is overwhelming the town.

However, Hallstatt’s fences were later dismantled following backlash on social media. In a statement to local website Upper Austrian News in 2023, Mayor Scheutz said: “The only thing that would help is if the photo point is no longer a photo point.”

The town, a protected Unesco World Heritage site, has seen over a million tourists a year since it was rumoured to be the muse for Frozen, despite the movie makers travelling to Norway and Canada to collect inspiration.

Before the pandemic, foot traffic in the small town rose to around 10,000 visitors a day, causing Hallstatt’s mayor, Alexander Scheutz, to introduce a cap on the number of tour buses and cars allowed to enter the area.

The town itself only has around 800 residents, leading Scheutz to declare that he’d like to slash tourist numbers by a third.

Protesters blocked the main road tunnel in 2023, holding up signs with messages such as “radical limits for mass tourism”, “tourism yes – mass tourism no”, and “visitors limitation, reclaim habitat”.

For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast