Overtourism in Destinations in Central and Eastern European Countries

This chapter conducts a systematic literature review on overtourism in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries, using the Scopus database with the keywords “overtourism” plus the name of each country of the region. The chapter also attempts to establish whether overtourism in CEE countries has distinctive characteristics when compared to overtouristed regions in Southern Europe. The results indicate that the publications reviewed cover a wide array of issues connected with overtourism, with the most common themes derived from perception surveys of the host communities. The list of sourced publications does not cover overtourism in all the countries in the region and is mostly focused on certain cities. The question as to whether overtourism in the CEE countries has distinctive features does not emerge clearly from the literature selected. However, the fact that the CEE countries formed part of the communist system for many years, after which, during the 1990s, there was a rapid transformation which accelerated the touristification of old towns, may have led to structural political and social weaknesses in these countries, possibly rendering it more difficult to address the disadvantages of overtourism.