Something unexpected is happening to some of the world’s most iconic travel destinations. Cities that once struggled to manage the crush of visitors are now watching those numbers shrink, quietly and steadily. The broader picture across Europe and beyond is one of deliberate recalibration combined with genuine demand shifts, as cities like Amsterdam and Barcelona push strategies that prioritize value over volume. The causes are layered – rising costs, political tensions, resident backlash, and a growing wave of travelers choosing roads less taken. These are six tourist cities where the ghost town trend is becoming very real.
1. Venice, Italy: Beds Outnumber Residents
Venice’s population has dropped from about 175,000 in the 1970s to below 50,000, while the number of tourists passing through the city has continued to increase. Last September 2024, the number of tourist lodging beds actually surpassed the resident population for the first time – a startling statistic that reveals how thoroughly tourism has transformed the city. Despite those staggering visitor totals, cracks are beginning to show in the demand figures. Venice’s drop of nearly 30% compared to 2024 has been one of the most dramatic shifts of the 2025 tourist season, with locals and operators pointing to the new day-tripper tax as a contributing factor.
The daily average number of visitors who paid the daytripper fee was only slightly less than in 2024, at 13,046 in 2025 compared to 16,676 in 2024. There are now more tourist beds in the historic centre than official residents, whose numbers stand at an all-time low of 48,500. Most troubling is how Venice risks losing its UNESCO World Heritage designation – UNESCO has warned the city faces losing its crucial cultural status if the historic center’s permanent population falls below 40,000. That threshold is no longer a distant concern.
2. Barcelona, Spain: Protests, Water Pistols, and Falling Overnight Stays
It is unclear whether last year’s protests had a direct impact, but 15.5 million tourists stayed overnight in Barcelona in 2024 – 100,000 fewer than in 2023, official figures show. In the summer of 2024, after years of enduring the pressures of overtourism, locals in Barcelona ramped up their protests, with thousands gathering to chant “tourists go home.” The mood on the streets turned particularly heated when residents armed themselves with water pistols to spray visitors sitting at outdoor cafes. The number of nights foreign tourists spent in Catalonia fell 5.7 percent in September 2025, and the Catalan and Barcelona governments describe these results as consistent with their new tourism strategy, which seeks to attract “quality tourists” who stay longer and spend more.
The biggest month-on-month gap came in June, when Barcelona saw 13 percent fewer searches compared to 2024, while Spain overall saw 18 percent growth. The Catalan government announced it would double the regional tourist tax by the end of 2025, raising it to €15. By encouraging higher spending per visitor rather than sheer volume, authorities hope to reduce crowding and lessen disruption for residents – and tourist numbers are intentionally declining, with officials viewing this as progress toward a more sustainable model. Whether Barcelona’s economy agrees remains to be seen.
3. Las Vegas, USA: Worst Slump Since the Pandemic
Las Vegas just recorded its worst decline in annual visitation since the 2020 pandemic began, with a 7.5 percent annual drop in 2025 sparked by economic uncertainty, declining international visitation, and other headwinds. There were 35,457,000 people who visited Sin City – down 7.4% from 2024 – compared to the highest visitation year ever recorded in Las Vegas, which was 2019 at 42,523,700. The noted visitor volume in 2025 closely mirrors the levels seen in 2000, 2002, and 2003. The city’s casino floor operators are feeling it directly: Reuters notes that MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment’s Las Vegas profit and revenue both fell in 2025, with Caesars reporting a 20 percent drop in profit.
In August 2025, Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley told reporters that their Canadian visitation, which comprised the city’s biggest international market, had “slowed to a drip” as Canadian travelers began canceling trips to the U.S. Year-over-year numbers in December 2025 showed visitor volume down 9.2 percent, the average daily rate down 5.1 percent, room nights occupied down 7.3 percent, and RevPAR dropping 11.8 percent from December 2024. U.S. air carriers are offering 7 percent fewer seats heading to Las Vegas for the first quarter of 2026, while major Canadian carriers have cut capacity by 30 percent. That kind of airline adjustment signals that the drop is not temporary.
4. Dubrovnik, Croatia: The Pearl of the Adriatic Loses Its Shine
Overtourism is a substantial issue in Dubrovnik’s Old Town, and the city is reported to be the most touristed in Europe – more so than Venice and Barcelona – receiving 36 overnight tourists per resident per year. The Croatian Bureau of Statistics reported that in May 2025 there were 1.8 million tourist arrivals and 5.9 million tourist nights in commercial accommodations – 5.1 percent fewer arrivals and 15 percent fewer nights compared to the previous year. Deliberate restrictions and surging costs are combining to push travelers toward alternatives. After daily caps on cruise visitors were introduced, some port-related revenues declined, but hotel occupancy and length of stay increased, suggesting a possible shift toward slower, higher-value tourism.
The rising cost of living in Dubrovnik is another key factor behind the city’s declining tourism, with prices for accommodation, food, and transportation having soared, making it harder for many tourists to afford a visit. Croatia’s tourism sector faced a significant challenge during the summer of 2025, with both the number of visitors and the overall revenue seeing a noticeable decline – a downturn that highlights the impact of rising prices on the country’s competitiveness within the Mediterranean travel market. The Croatian National Tourist Board has cited “unstable geopolitical developments” as a reason behind the tourism slump, while visitors from the UK and Germany – two of Dubrovnik’s largest tourist markets – are opting to delay their trips.
5. Bangkok and Thailand: A 7% Freefall in International Arrivals
Thailand saw 32.9 million international tourists in 2025, down 7.23 percent from 2024, according to figures from the Thai tourism ministry, while revenue from foreign visitors also declined, falling 4.7 percent year-on-year to about THB 1.53 trillion ($49 billion). The downturn was attributed to several factors, including a sharp fall in East Asian visitors after the abduction of Chinese actor Wang Xing in Bangkok in January 2025, alongside the aftershocks of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in northern Myanmar, a border dispute with Cambodia, and severe flooding in southern Thailand. The combination of safety headlines and natural disasters hit the country’s reputation on multiple fronts simultaneously. The largest single drop in visitors came from China, Thailand’s biggest source market, with a 33.8 percent year-on-year decline.
The slowdown began early in 2025, forcing a reset of official expectations – in April, Thailand cut its international tourism revenue forecast for 2025 from THB 2.3 trillion to THB 2 trillion. The decline can also be attributed to widespread scams, safety concerns, and growing competition from neighboring countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, with many tourists citing concerns about fraud and unfair treatment by local businesses. Looking ahead, Thailand is targeting a significant recovery in 2026 by attracting higher-spending, longer-stay visitors, but faces challenges from rising travel costs and growing regional competition.
6. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Residents Take the City to Court
Tourism in Amsterdam is still growing, but not at the rates it has in the past – new statistics provided by the municipality show that the number of tourist overnight stays reached 22.9 million in 2024, which is a 3 percent increase from the previous year. According to the municipality, the reason for the lower-than-expected figures is the result of the measures the city has taken to curb tourism: the tourist tax has been raised, the number of river and sea cruises has been limited, and there is currently a ban on the construction of new hotels. That ban is unprecedented for a major European capital and signals just how serious the city is about capping growth. Amsterdam has already raised its tourist tax to 12.5 percent, making it the highest in Europe.
Locals have launched legal action against the council, which they say is not doing enough to curb unsustainable visitor numbers – the Dutch city has been straining under the impact of mass tourism for years. A group of Amsterdam residents filed a lawsuit against the municipality, with the citizens’ initiative “Amsterdam has a Choice” raising €50,000 from locals and supported by 12 other residents’ organizations, to denounce the municipality’s ineffective tourism management. Amsterdam’s local government has enacted a strict “Tourism in Balance” policy that includes an annual cap of 20 million tourist overnight stays and a ban on new hotel construction – under the policy, a new hotel can only be developed if an existing hotel of equivalent size closes. The city is pulling every lever it has, but residents say it still isn’t enough.
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