The Essentials

These Countries Are Overwhelmed with Tourists

One of the definitions of overtourism is when citizens of a country feel they’ve been outnumbered by visitors. And in some cases, those numbers are staggering.

So which are the most crowded destinations or countries? The answers might surprise you.

The most crowded place, especially this Jubilee Year, is Vatican City, the smallest country in the world, and the locals are outnumbered by a whopping 7,709 tourists to one.

The Bahamas gets more than 11 million tourists a year, but only 401,000 people live there. That’s a huge imbalance.

In Switzerland, tourists outnumber locals five to one. And Hong Kong has a population of just over 7 million, but 44 million tourists come each year.