By Lea Thin, freelance author
Rising rents, tons of waste, and scarce resources – discussions about overtourism have never been more urgent, and never more polarizing. While the conventional debate about overtourism focuses on sheer numbers of visitors, the initiative Alba Sud shows that the underlying issues run far deeper than statistics.
The Buzzword “Overtourism”
The world keeps traveling, more than ever. Under the buzzword “overtourism,” the negative impacts of booming visitor flows dominate the discussion: housing shortages, disappearing local businesses, traffic gridlock, displacement, and social inequality. Environmental consequences such as waste accumulation, resource depletion, and threats to biodiversity also loom large. Yet addressing these challenges requires more than just limiting visitor numbers at popular hotspots. Ernest Cañada of Alba Sud warns: “Talking about overtourism quickly obscures the structural issues. It’s not just about numbers – it’s about power, capital, and social organisation.” He made this point during his talk Transforming Tourism: An Emancipatory Approach at the think tank’s Fourth Summer Academy.
Touristification as a Paradigm Shift
The event brought together diverse actors to critically explore tourism transformation. For Alba Sud, the label “overtourism” is largely irrelevant. Instead, the organization calls for an analysis of the deeper logics driving tourism development. Cañada and his network argue: “What we’re really criticizing is touristification – the reshaping of territories and social relations according to capitalist logic. We should call it that, instead of relying on terms like mass tourism or overtourism. If we only measure ‘more or less, near or far,’ we risk ignoring social justice entirely. Less tourism doesn’t automatically mean better quality of life for the local people. Instead, it often favours elites and deepens social segregation.” The term touristification describes a comprehensive transformation of cities and regions, increasingly controlled by international investors, hotel chains, and platform giants. Urban neighbourhoods suffer, but rural areas feel the impact, too. “If we’re not careful, we’re heading towards a society where the lives of the majority depend on a few corporations and their profit targets,” Cañada warns.
Especially the Global South suffers. Here, tourism is often promoted as a fast track to development yet profits typically end up in the hands of few international corporations. Digital platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com dominate the market, extracting fees and revenue while deepening local dependence on global capital flows. At the same time, major travel companies push standardized products that leave little space for local value creation and reduce cultural diversity to a commodified backdrop. The capitalist logic driving this system turns land, water, labour and even traditions into resources to be exploited, while the social and environmental costs are borne primarily by local communities. For many regions in the Global South, tourism does not bring liberation but rather reinforces a new cycle of extraction and inequality.
Moving Beyond Simple Solutions Toward Regulation
Alba Sud refuses to just accept the influence of large tourism corporations and calls for a clear political shift in the sector. Moving away from pure market liberalization toward enforceable rules is key. True sustainability in tourism, Alba Sud argues, depends on regional and solidarity-based business models that respect the climate, communities, and workers – not on ever-growing visitor numbers or corporate revenues.
To rein in uncontrolled urban tourism growth, strong regulations are essential. Multinational hotel chains and platform providers must be bound by legal requirements covering labour standards and housing protections. Affordable housing must no longer compete with high-return Airbnb listings. Transparency is central: who owns the prime apartments in historic districts? Where do millions in profits from top tourist regions go, and who has a voice in political decisions? Alba Sud demands that ownership and power structures be made visible, ensuring social equity. Public funds should support communal infrastructure, recreation, and local circular economies, not luxury projects for the few.
Justice Over Profit: Addressing the Root Causes of Overtourism
The consequences of touristification are no dystopia - they are already visible and felt in everyday life. “We’ve already exceeded ecological limits. We need new models that serve the people and the planet,” Cañada warns. The debate at its core is therefore a debate about participation, justice, and the right of ownership. Overtourism is merely a symptom. Community-oriented alternatives show what a different future might look like: municipal and cooperative accommodation, cooperative travel initiatives, and planning approaches that respect ecological boundaries. “We must have the courage to treat tourism as a common and a democratic responsibility,” Cañada argues. “We don’t want small niches. We want to redistribute the whole cake. The tourism of tomorrow must move from a system that exploits the many to one that becomes a true instrument of local development, social security, and better quality of life for all of us.”
