Despite geopolitical unrest and a summer marked by unprecedented heatwaves and devastating forest fires that severely affected several European regions, European tourism recorded 1.31 billion overnight stays in the first half of 2026 — a 1.7% increase compared to the same period in 2025. Foreign visitors accounted for nearly half of all overnight stays, confirming Europe’s position as the world’s most popular destination.
This growth is routinely celebrated as good news for the tourism industry and for employment. But the other side of the coin, overtourism, cannot be ignored. Unsustainable tourism development puts real pressure on the environment: destroying natural habitats, draining water resources, and ultimately eroding the very destinations tourists come to see.
Communities are being pushed out
The impact on local communities is by now well documented, and anti-tourism protests have spread across several countries, this week alone, residents in Barcelona took to the streets against the expansion of the city’s airport. The disappearance of local shops, the dismantling of public infrastructure such as nurseries and schools, the daily nuisance of mass tourist flows, and above all the surge in housing prices are together driving local residents out of the places they call home.
Workers pay the price
Despite the high number of tourists, this doesn’t lead to good jobs and less precariousness. Tourism workers are often the first to bear the brunt of overtourism. Popular destinations rely heavily on seasonal labour during peak season, workers who are frequently low-paid, required to work long and antisocial hours, and exposed to exploitative practices such as subcontracting, particularly widespread in areas like hotel housekeeping. Many of these workers are mobile or migrant workers, which makes them especially vulnerable.
But what makes life genuinely unbearable for seasonal workers in major tourist destinations is the housing crisis. Low wages combined with extremely high housing costs force many to live far from their workplace, generating long and exhausting commutes, incompatible with the flexibility tourism jobs demand. As a result, some seasonal workers are left with no real choice but to accept substandard housing: overcrowded shared flats, or even more precarious situations such as living in cars, tents, or on balconies.
EFFAT wake up call!
For EFFAT, tackling overtourism is now an urgent priority. As the EU prepares its forthcoming sustainable tourism strategy, we call for concrete action at European level:
- Better jobs and less precarity in the industry
- Strenghten collective bargaining, eliminate zero hour contracts and unrecorded working hours.
- Reduce seasonality by promoting year-round tourism models. This would ease the environmental strain of concentrated peak-season tourism while offering tourism workers more stable employment.
- Regulate short-term rentals and ensure a level playing field.
The unchecked expansion of unregulated short-term rentals is fuelling the housing affordability crisis in tourist hotspots. The proposed EU regulation on short-term rentals is a step in the right direction, but it must go further to guarantee equal treatment between workers employed by professional hosts on platforms like Airbnb and those employed by traditional operators such as hotels, including on employment, social security and working conditions. Platforms must be held more accountable for the labour standards applied by their hosts. - Improve working conditions for seasonal workers, including:
Access to social protection and unemployment benefits between seasons.
Access to decent, affordable housing, with no deductions from workers’ wages.
Stronger regulation of subcontracting, labour intermediaries and recruitment agencies.
A truly sustainable European tourism model is one that protects the environment, respects local communities, and guarantees decent work and decent housing for the people who make tourism possible. EFFAT stands ready to work with EU institutions, national governments and social partners to ensure the upcoming EU sustainable tourism strategy delivers on this promise.
