Austria has been named the most overcrowded tourist destination in the world after it was revealed they welcome almost four tourists to the country for every resident. While European countries such as Spain and Greece have dealing with a range overtourism issues , from visitors packing city streets to threatening the lifespan of their natural landscape, it was not those popular hotspots that came out on top as having the wildest resident-to-tourist ratio. Research carried out by MoneyTransfers.
com found that for every resident in Austria , there are almost four times the number of tourists, at a ratio of one resident to 3.6 tourists. The country only has a population of around nine million; however, Austria accepts around 32 million international visitors yearly.
Most of the tourists are concentrated in Austria’s capital, Vienna . Tourism in the capital continues to increase rapidly to its pre-pandemic levels, with its tourist board reporting that it had a 31 per cent rise in overnight stays between 2022 and 2023, with 17.3 million overnights by visitors within the city limits.
While Vienna is used to catering for huge swarms of visitors, other areas of the country are becoming increasingly popular, however, they are not as prepared to take on the influx of tourists. One example is Hallstatt, a small town known for its picturesque Alpine houses, waterfalls and salt lakes, all backed by a tremendous snowy mountain range. The fairytale-like town, the rumoured inspiration for .