The Belgian capital and the Flemish city of Bruges are among the busiest European holiday destinations: both are ranked above cities renowned for being popular tourists spots, such as Vienna, Rome and Barcelona.
From anti-tourism demonstrations on Spanish islands to Venice charging day-trippers a fee to visit the enchanting canals of the Queen of the Adriatic, more and more countries are dealing with mass tourism and attempting to strike a delicate balance between boosting the economy and supporting frustrated locals.
Belgian cities, too, have been taking steps: Brussels is working to curb the rise in rental and property prices in light of record bookings on holiday platforms, while Bruges has forbidden the construction of new hotels.
The fact that these authorities' measures are not redundant is reflected in their ranking in a list of Europe's busiest holiday destinations, compiled by German holiday accommodation portal Holidu. "These urban gems are facing the challenges of over-tourism," the company said. "They are best avoided during high season."
Brussels and Bruges 'overrun'
Cities were ranked on the number of tourists per inhabitant using data from market research provider Euromonitor International, which analysed the number of inbound arrivals in 2023 compared to the city's population.
Bruges, whose historic city centre attracted some 10.1 million visitors last year, landed in 14th position, just two positions behind the French capital Paris and one place ahead of Prague.
People pictured at the Grote Markt in the city centre of Bruges, a touristic hot-spot in Flanders. Credit: Belga / Nicolas Maeterlinck
Bruges counts 6.65 tourists per inhabitant, according to the ranking. This figure will hardly come as a surprise to those who have visited its historic city centre, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. Most of the tourist activity takes place in this area of barely 4.4 km², meaning tourists are much more compact.
Brussels, meanwhile, saw around 3.5 million tourists staying overnight and 5.5 million visitors overall last year. It was therefore ranked in 19th place, with 4.5 tourists per inhabitant. The pressure of tourism is almost as heavy as in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, while it is greater than in Barcelona, one of the cities at the heart of the over-tourism debate.
However, this large influx of tourists poses less of a problem in Brussels than in Bruges or other destinations where visitors linger in a small area. Visit.brussels' spokesperson Jeroen Roppe told Bruzz that the agency has been working on a strategy to prevent over-tourism for years. It aims to spread out tourists as much as possible, both in time and space, by putting neighbourhoods outside the city centre in the spotlight.
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Europe's busiest holiday destination per inhabitant according to Holidu is Dubrovnik in Croatia, which with 1.14 million arriving visitors received more than 27 tourists per inhabitant last year, followed by the Greek island of Rhodes (with just 120,000 people living on the island, it has a ratio of 26 tourists per inhabitant).
Venice in Italy ranked third with 21.26 visitors per resident. However, the figure is distorted as the population of the entire conurbation is included, not just that of the historic centre.
