As overtourism rows continue to grip Europe, two countries have gone one step further and are “hiding” major landmarks in a bid to curb the amount of visitors.
As one of Europe’s top tourist hotspots, Amsterdam sees 12 tourists for every resident. Frustrated by the influx of drunken stag parties, the city has banned the construction of new hotels and has one of the world’s highest tourist taxes.
Copenhagen is no exception to the growing number of visitors. In 2023, a total of 20.3 million passengers travelled through its airport, a notable increase compared to the 16.4 million in 2022. This, according to schengen.news, marked a 24 percent year-on-year increase.
And now the two countries have taken a bizarre move to hide key landmarks from tourists by implementing plans of how to steer visitors away from popular landmarks and destinations where the crowds are often huge.
With the help of Ondrej Mitas, a senior lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences and AI, the countries are diverting crowds through hidden gem areas that are often overlooked with hopes to reduce overcrowding and offer visitors a more authentic experience.
In 2021, Mitas and his team ran an experiment in the Dutch province of Overijssel by giving 155 visitors one of two digital planning tools to inspire their trips. One group was given an app with traditional sights marked out, while the other used an AI concierge called “Travel With Zoey” that recommended the least visited tourist attractions as must-sees.
In the subsequent survey, the two groups showed equal satisfaction with their holidays, despite half of them not seeing the most famous and most-visited attractions.
“People had an equally good time whether they went to the hotspots or not, and that is pretty important,” Mitas said.
Copenhagen has also tried another way to curb the negative impacts of overtourism by rewarding visitors for participating in environmentally friendly tasks such as picking up litter and cycling through the city.
Tourists were given free food and activities as part of the new CopenPay scheme, starting on July 15 and running until August 11.
Copenhagen’s tourist board announced the initiative in order to combat the pollution created by the millions of tourists who visit the city every year.
