
The gorgeous Greek island named Europe's most overcrowded holiday spot
To find the answer, the European Commission created a 'tourism pressure' score by comparing the amount of nights tourists spend in a region with the number of people living there.
Which? Travel dived into the figures to find out which European hotspot is best avoided if you don't enjoy fighting crowds on holiday.
It found that Zakynthos is officially the most overcrowded holiday destination in Europe, according to 'tourism pressure' figures.
The Greek island, often known as Zante, has just 40,000 residents but tourists stayed for a whopping six million overnight stays in 2023.
This means that tourists outnumbered residents by nearly 150 to one during peak summer season.
Zante is the third-largest of Greece's Ionian islands and one of the country's most popular destinations.
It has a reputation for nightlife and is a leading destination for European party holidays.
Which? explains that the majority of Zante's tourists tend to stay at the 'sprawling, raucous resorts' on the island's south coast.
The island's biggest resort areas include Laganas, Kalamaki, Tsilivi, Argassi and Alkinas.
Responsible Travel, a travel company focused on ethical tourism, adds that Zante is 'struggling [to cope] with millions of visitors' each year.
It claims: 'Ferries overflow with people and luggage in high season, along with roads, ports, airports, while waste disposal facilities and electricity grids struggle to cope with the surge in numbers.'
But Zakynthos isn't the only European holiday destination to face issues with overtourism.
According to Which?, Majorca also has a 'problem' with overtourism. The Balearic island has an average of 54 overnight stays to every resident.
The Spanish hotspot has introduced a tourist tax to try to deter tourist numbers but Which? recommends avoiding the island altogether in the busiest months of July and August.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
Tourism minister: Britain must boost visitors from home and away
'I've been cleaning toilets and changing beds, pulling pints, making a very bad cup of cappuccino and cutting up onions badly.' Should Sir Chris Bryant ever wish to switch career and move into the hospitality industry, he might want to work on his CV. Yet the tourism minister gets an A for effort. On Wednesday afternoon, I caught up with him at Mylor Sailing School in Cornwall. He had just completed a stint of work experience that had included a hotel in Falmouth and a watersports enterprise just north on Mylor Creek. 'First of all, I'm trying to champion British tourism,' Sir Chris told me. 'As you know, the number of domestic visitors to UK tourism venues has fallen and has not reached pre-Covid levels yet. 'Secondly, I want to listen to the industry about the challenges they face.' That is a brave invitation to businesses who feel bruised by employers' national insurance rises, angry at what they see as unfair competition from short-term lets on platforms such as Airbnb and who are unimpressed by the level of support the tourism industry gets from the government. More than one business leader has complained to me about Sir Chris's job title. He is minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, and therefore has plenty on his professional plate besides the crucial business of persuading more British holidaymakers to stay at home – and luring more foreign visitors to the UK. Oh, and he also serves as MP for Rhondda and Ogmore. But on Wednesday, the focus of the multitasking minister was strictly tourism. 'I was in a hotel room here today in Falmouth,' Sir Chris told me. 'It could have been a room in an Airbnb – exactly the same. But the Airbnb wouldn't have paid any tax. They wouldn't have to abide by any of the legislation that a hotel would have to abide by. And that's simply unfair. So we need to level that up. And I want to make sure that in areas that have a lot of short-term lets, the local authority has an idea of exactly what's going on locally. So that should be in place by next April. 'We've got to get much better at enabling people not just to visit London. It's a depressing fact: something like 60 per cent of international visitors only come to London. So we need to do better with that.' A reminder that inbound tourism is the closest a community, county or country can get to free money. International visitors spend at local enterprises, creating jobs and helping to fund amenities that the citizens could not sustain on their own. They also pay a fortune in taxes and fees: starting with £16 for an Electronic Travel Authorisation, continuing with 20 per cent VAT on practically everything they spend and finishing with air passenger duty at anything from £13 (returning home to Europe in economy class) to £224 (heading back to Singapore or Sydney in business class). A nation whose public finances are in worse shape than a minister's chopped onion needs foreign tourists desperately. Sir Chris understands this. He has set an ambitious target of attracting 50 million international arrivals by 2030, which will require a compound increase of four per cent each year until the end of the decade. I put it to him that a really easy way to get a huge tourism win is simply to reverse the petulant post- Brexit decision to exclude all Europeans with national ID cards but without passports. I calculate that this is the status of 300 million citizens, who can go to dozens of countries – including some outside the EU – with their identity cards. But the UK wants to keep them out, unless they sort out a passport. Given the huge strides in improving the security of ID cards, this seems a good time to unlock a tourism dividend. The tourism minister does not agree. He says: 'I think there's a strong argument for, in particular, school trips. Obviously we've sorted that out with the French and I think there's an agreement coming with the Germans as well to be able to do that. 'But I don't think we want to completely abandon the requirements to have proper passport controls. Not least because ID cards in different European countries perform different functions, and are therefore constructed in different ways and have different security arrangements around them. 'I think we would want to make sure that everyone coming here is coming here validly.' As you will realise, I am contractually required when speaking to any tourism minister at the start of the summer where they will be holidaying. 'Thus far this year I've had a bit of a holiday in Loch Lomond at the Cameron House Hotel. Very beautiful, very cold on the water. And we went to a place in the Cotswolds for a weekend a few weeks ago. 'I'm going to Chepstow with my mother-in-law and my husband in a few weeks' time. I've got a week in the south of France when I'm probably going to burn to a crisp.' After a hyperactive Wednesday, he deserves to be on the guest side of the hospitality industry.


The Sun
7 hours ago
- The Sun
Two European airlines to start charging for hand luggage with new ‘no-frills' fares
TWO EUROPEAN airlines are set to introduce a new 'no frills' fare, cutting free luggage. KLM and Air France will be testing a new 'basic' ticket on select European routes with travellers only allowed to bring a small personal item on board. The maximum measurements for this bag will be 40x30x15cm and will be free of charge. Standard cabin baggage will now have to be purchased for an extra fee. The new basic fare will initially be rolled out on 10 medium haul routes, for non-stop flights starting September 9, 2025. The routes being included in the trial are Helsinki, Finland; Tunis-Carthage, Tunisia; Athens, Greece; Vienna, Austria; Dublin, Ireland; Stockholm Arlanda, Sweden; Munich, Germany; Turin, Italy; Florence, Italy and Prague, Czech Republic. No changes will be made to long-haul fares. The new fare will be implemented alongside existing 'light', 'standard' and 'flex' fare offers. If passengers wish to add hand luggage, they will still be able to for an additional fee up to four hours before departure. The cost for this will start from €15 (£13.10) per leg. Many airlines use a similar model to this, such as Ryanair. The model allows airlines to offer cheaper fares whilst giving passengers the option to pay for additional luggage if needed. The Sun's Travel Editor Lisa Minot shares her expert packing tips Recently, Ryanair announced that they would be changing the size of hand luggage allowance from 40x20x25cm to 40x30x20cm - an increase of 5cm. The new size means that Ryanair's free hand luggage capacity has risen from 20 litres to 24 litres. The new rules are expected to be introduced later this month, which means airports will need to update their baggage sizers. These are five cabin bags under £20 that fit Ryanair's new hand luggage rules including Amazon buy that fits 11 days worth of clothes. Plus, UK may ban airlines from charging for hand luggage – but it could hike your flight price, experts warn. 2


The Independent
9 hours ago
- The Independent
Abandoned island in Venice to become a haven for locals seeking escape from tourism
Venetian activists will transform part of an abandoned island into a public park, where locals can escape the millions of tourists that visit the city each year. The grassroots group, named Poveglia per Tutti (Poveglia for Everyone), said it had received permission from the Italian government to transform the island of Poveglia into a public lagoon park from 1 August. Residents and supporters across Italy have campaigned for more than a decade to save the historically significant but decaying island from neglect and privatisation. Campaigners say the project aims to create a 'public lagoon park open to all,' managed collectively through 'practices of subsidiarity and active participation.' Patrizia Veclani, one of the founders of the group, has told local outlet Altreconomia earlier this year that Poveglia per Tutti would prioritise building an 'accessible and safe landing place' and creating 'a way to reach the island without overtaking it with tourism'. They hope this model could serve as an alternative vision for Venice, where locals say they are struggling to cope with overtourism. The city has recently introduced measures like entry fees to curb tourist pressure, while residents warn of losing public space and a strain on local infrastructure. Cruise ships have been banned from entering the Venice lagoon and main Giudecca Canal since August 2021 – a move welcomed by Unesco after repeated warnings that the large vessels were damaging the iconic city. But after a brief trial last year, Venice also recently reintroduced its day-tripper tax, charging tourists not staying on the islands €5 to visit. From April this year, tourists are now charged €10 for that privilege unless they book at least four days in advance. Poveglia was once used as a quarantine site for people with plague and other infectious diseases. It was later converted into a mental hospital. The hospital shut its doors in 1968, and the island has remained abandoned ever since. Poveglia per Tutti has set aside around €300,000 for the first phase of the project and plans to seek further funding. It has also partnered with the University of Verona to study the social impact of redevelopment, aiming to create a blueprint for community-led management of public assets. The group said in a statement that the success of the project is due to 'thousands of members, supporters, associations and organisations' who backed the vision, even from afar.' They urged people to volunteer, spread the word and help turn Poveglia into what they call 'a symbol of a new idea of managing community assets.' Venice's historic centre had more than 170,000 residents in 1954, according to city authorities. Last year, they were down to just over 49,000. Around 30 million tourists visit Venice in a typical year, with about seven out of 10 (or 21 million) staying only for the day.