The 2026 playbook for managing the effects of overtourism?

For years, the conversation around overtourism has been heavy on alarmism but light on practical strategy. But now, a new resource has arrived to shift that dynamic, and it couldn’t have arrived at a better time. 

Launched at the recent Travel by B Corp Annual Gathering, the Overtourism Marketing Playbook provides a practical blueprint designed specifically for tour operators, accommodation providers, and travel marketers.

B Corp organisations are certified businesses legally committed to balancing profit with social and environmental purpose. By teaming up with its collective membership, Travel by B Corp has gathered real-world case studies to demonstrate how commercial brands can actively combat the effects of overtourism by steering consumer demand away from fragile hotspots. 

The guide focuses on tour operators, but there are plenty of tips in there that are equally relevant and applicable for hotels and resorts.

The overtourism issue remains top of travellers' minds, with 67 per cent saying they plan to seek out less crowded destinations for their next trip, according to Booking.com's Travel Predictions 2025. So what does that mean for travel and hospitality businesses? Here we take a look at the practical steps you can take to promote responsible travel without affecting your bottom line…

The commercial risk of waiting for public policy

Public regulations are often reactive, inconsistently enforced, and slow to adapt to real-time visitor flows. Local authorities certainly play a vital role, but administrative entry fees, visitor caps, and holiday rental bans often fail to address the core commercial drivers of mass travel.

All those tourist dollars are great — right up until they’re not. And now, overtourism is no longer just a seasonal inconvenience. For popular destinations, it has become an existential threat to their delicate balance of infrastructure, local cultures, and natural ecosystems. We are collectively learning that it is entirely possible to have too much of a good thing.

Some local authorities are taking drastic measures to curb numbers. For instance, Venice has introduced a day-tripper entry fee, while Barcelona is pushing to completely eliminate holiday rental licences by 2028. Over in Japan, officials have capped daily climbers and introduced fees on Mount Fuji to manage dangerous congestion.

However, these public regulations are often a double-edged sword. Many public bodies say one thing about sustainability, but also know that they rely on the high tax revenues generated by mass tourism. This can lead to inconsistent enforcement and developer-led loopholes. The reality is that the private travel sector cannot afford to wait for public policy to solve this.

Proactive distribution management is both an ethical responsibility and a smart commercial strategy. When a destination becomes overcrowded, the guest experience deteriorates, online reviews suffer, and premium yields begin to dilute. Forward-thinking travel brands understand that dispersing traffic is a matter of long-term business survival. It is the responsible thing to do, and it makes excellent business sense. 

The B Corp playbook illustrates how savvy your operators have increased bookings at the same time that they are addressing overtourism. 

Clever travel storytelling by Intrepid saw bookings to Romania increase by 17 per cent, while 50 Degrees North achieved greater demand for shoulder season departures in their Nordic portfolio. This gap is where your marketing becomes a commercial superpower.

How to counteract destination crowding

The travel industry is adapting by redesigning itineraries and updating marketing assets to actively disperse visitor traffic away from fragile hotspots. Travel industry marketing is moving away from rigid, bucket-list checklists to intentionally highlight quieter, localised experiences.

This push to counteract destination crowding extends far across the wider hospitality and travel sectors. Operators are fundamentally re-evaluating how their product design impacts local communities. Industry groups like the Responsible Tourism Partnership emphasise that tour operators hold immense power in shaping the geographic footprint of a journey.  Rather than simply bundling the same predictable landmarks into an itinerary, progressive travel companies are actively auditing their supply chains.

This involves simple yet highly effective tactics. Adjust the timing of excursions to early mornings or late evenings, work exclusively with locally owned boutiques outside congested city centres, or swap over-saturated stops for equivalent, lesser-known alternatives. As a hotel, you can take these same steps, encouraging guests to explore responsibly and spread the pressure that tourism can cause on a destination.  

One simple change is to update your consumer-facing marketing and PR materials if your photography, blog hubs, and social media feeds exclusively highlight the most congested viewpoints, you are actively compounding the problem. Managing overtourism requires an intentional shift in marketing strategy for travel companies, presenting inspiration in a new way.

The SPOT, SHIFT, SHOW blueprint

In practice, a proactive approach focuses on the art of positive persuasion, framing alternative destinations and off-season travel around their exclusive experiential benefits rather than their lower costs - this is key for both tour operators and hotels and can have a positive impact on your bottom line.

Instead of using restrictive language, forward-thinking brands use a data-driven strategy to make the quieter choice feel like a premium upgrade.

Most travel marketing teams attempt to sell the off-season or shoulder season by simply promising fewer crowds or lower prices. But these are tactics that can inadvertently signal a compromised or lower-value experience. 

A positive marketing pivot frames these periods around their true benefits. It is a hotel offering an early spring booking in a suite as an exclusive, premium upgrade and an invitation to explore a destination before the crowds descend. It is a tour operator highlighting the crisp clarity of light for photography and the chance to witness unique local traditions that only happen when the mass tour buses leave.

To give marketing teams a structured way to implement these ideas, the playbook introduces the SPOT, SHIFT, SHOW framework. This three-stage methodology provides a clear technical compass for travel digital marketing strategists.

• SPOT: Identify the early warning signs of capacity friction. For a tour operator, this might involve tracking physical bottlenecking, overcrowding, and environmental strain along popular excursion routes. For a boutique hotel or resort, it means looking closely at metrics like declining guest review scores during peak July and August weeks, extended dining wait times, strained local infrastructure, or staff burnout.

  
  

• SHIFT: Adjust campaign weight and commercial priority. Both operators and hoteliers pivot ad spend, search visibility parameters, and promotional budgets away from hyper-congested peak windows. While a tour operator reallocates budget to elevate secondary wilderness trails or lesser-known regions, a hotel shifts its paid ads and search targeting toward shoulder-season packages, mid-week escapes, or off-peak booking windows. Instead of “summer hotel Barcelona”, you use keywords like “autumn culinary retreats Barcelona”. By focusing on these more niche, experiential keywords, you attract the right traveller, extend your season and reduce your customer acquisition costs, all while contributing to more responsible tourism.

• SHOW: Reframe alternatives through evocative, high-intent travel storytelling. Instead of relying on generic off-season price cuts, brands use high-quality photography, destination blog hubs, and social media feeds to spotlight hidden, hyper-local experiences. A hotel might showcase unhurried courtyard breakfasts, crisp autumn light for photography, or winter wellness rituals, while a tour operator highlights exclusive access to local artisan workshops and quiet sunrise trails, making the quieter choice feel like a distinct luxury upgrade. You’re connecting your brand to  the guest's psychological desire for exclusivity, privacy, and "insider" access. 

From hotspot friction to high margins

Redirecting visitors to secondary destinations can significantly boost profitability by opening up new revenue streams, extending operational calendars, and lowering customer acquisition costs. By steering traffic away from hyper-competitive hotspots, tour operators can command premium yields without relying on price discounting, while hotels can better control the guest experience, avoid negative reviews and defend its average daily rate.

The most compelling aspect of the Travel by B Corp guide is its concrete evidence that sustainable distribution directly benefits a brand’s financial performance. The playbook features real-world examples from independent travel companies that have successfully diversified their offerings. By intentionally steering their marketing engines toward secondary cities or regional wilderness areas, these operators did not just alleviate pressure on hotspots—they unlocked entirely new revenue streams, expanded their operational calendars, and secured much higher margins.

For instance, the specialist tour operator Pura Aventura actively countered the severe overcrowding along the classic Camino de Santiago by designing and marketing alternative walking routes through the lesser-known Picos de Europa mountains. By focusing its editorial content and search strategy on this pristine, under-visited region, it successfully drove high-yield bookings to rural communities that actively welcomed the income, while completely bypassing the congested main trail.

Similarly, adventure brand Much Better Adventures used targeted digital campaigns to actively promote shoulder-season sea kayaking in Croatia rather than peak July departures. By reframing the cooler weather and quiet waters as the optimal conditions for an active escape, it achieved a far more balanced operational calendar and reduced their reliance on peak-season volume.

This commercial pivot is by no means limited to tour operators. Forward-thinking hotels and resorts are proving equally adept at reshaping visitor flow. Take Il Palazzo Experimental in Venice, a boutique hotel that deliberately bases its brand storytelling and concierge strategy around its home in the quieter, residential Dorsoduro neighbourhood. 

Rather than directing guests toward overcrowded hubs like St. Mark’s Square, their social media channels regularly highlight hidden local bars and restaurants, neighbourhood artisan studios, and serene canal walks at dusk. In this way, they frame their location as an insider’s sanctuary away from the day-tripper crowds.

For properties located in so-called "second cities" or lesser-visited regional destinations, this industry shift presents an extraordinary commercial opportunity. By re-aligning your messaging to elevate space, tranquillity, and authentic local culture, you position your brand directly in front of the growing majority of travellers actively seeking quieter alternatives. Establishing this distinct regional authority also makes your property an ideal partner for progressive tour operators and travel designers who are looking for high-end, off-the-beaten-track stays to anchor their own demand-dispersed itineraries.

Of course, if your hotel sits in the middle of a hyper-visited hotspot like Barcelona or central Venice, you cannot simply move your physical foundations. What you can change, however, is your narrative lens. By stripping generic "top 10 tourist sights" checklists out of your content and replacing them with curated, hyper-local recommendations, you actively guide guest behaviour. This editorial shift naturally attracts a higher-value, more conscious traveller—one who stays longer, respects the local community, and spends meaningfully with independent neighbourhood businesses.

Implement a travel marketing strategy while combating overtourism

By using data-driven semantic keyword strategies and narrative design, brands can seamlessly introduce affluent travellers to lesser-known alternatives, making the alternative choice feel like an upgrade rather than a compromise. When you stop competing for the exact same overcrowded search terms and keywords as the multi-national corporate chains, you step out of the exhausting cycle of reactive price discounting. 

Craft your travel editorial strategy around unique, regional experiences, to attract high-intent, high-spending guests who value exclusivity.

Ultimately, managing overtourism is not an administrative burden or a compliance chore; it is an exceptional branding opportunity. 

At Peregryn, we believe that when you connect your content production, search engine optimisation, and product positioning into a single, cohesive asset, you build a resilient business. By embracing these frameworks, independent luxury travel brands can protect the integrity of their destinations while building a highly profitable, self-sustaining direct booking channel.