These favourite holiday destinations DON’T want tourists back after the pandemic is over
POPULAR holiday destinations in Europe have struggled during the pandemic, with British tourists being kept away by strict travel rules.
However, some hotspots don't want Brits back even when holidays resume - unless you are very well-behaved.
Many of the popular tourist hotspots include Amsterdam, Prague, Barcelona and Venice, which have seen badly-behaved visitors as well as overtourism in recent years.
Hana Třeštíková, Prague’s Councillor for Tourism met up to discuss how to go forward post-Covid: “We met representatives from Amsterdam, Barcelona and Florence during the pandemic and all of us were thinking the same thing.
"Before Covid, over-tourism had become almost unbearable and Covid gave a pause to try to make some changes in what our cities represent, how we promote ourselves and how we must focus on quality of visits not quantity.”
They are keen to stress that they don't want to deter holidaymakers, but to not want "low-quality" visitors who break the rules and give the destinations a bad reputation.
Instead, they want sustainable tourism, for those who want to visit the area for culture reasons, rather than anti-social reasons.
Here are some of the destinations who have already cracked down on bad tourists.
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Amsterdam
Amsterdam has already been cracking down on ";badly-behaved" tourists, enforcing new restrictions on the red light district and popular cannabis cafes.
Other measures include more police especially at weekends who can issue fines for rule-breakers, as well as further restrictions on short-term rentals with a 30-day annual limit.
Temporary bans on booze, music speakers and laughing gas will also be enforced if crowds being too large.
The city hall said in a statement earlier this year: "We do not want to go back to what we saw before the pandemic, where massive crowds in the Red Light District and the city’s entertainment areas caused a nuisance to residents.
"Visitors who respect Amsterdam and the people of Amsterdam have always been welcome and will, of course, remain so.
"Visitors who treat our residents and heritage with disrespect are not welcome. The message we have for them is: don’t come to Amsterdam.";
Amsterdan's Deputy mayor for Economic Affairs Victor Everhardt added: "We’re focusing on people who have interest in culture in the broadest sense of the word. We try to persuade them to visit all these other beautiful parts of the city.”
Prague
Prague has seen tourism boom in recent years, thanks to cheap flights and hotels.
The Czech capital, which once saw around two million visitors per year, hit highs of eight million in 2019.
Back in 2019, Prague Mayor Pavel Čižinský said “Too many people are coming just for a very small number of purposes, and buildings, and those who want to make profits from the presence of the tourists worsen the situation.”
Ms Třeštíková said she that hopes to deter "low-quality" visits would need to be done on a national level, which include restrictions on budget airline flight prices, as well as Airbnbs and the cost of beer.
Beer bikes have already been banned in the middle of the city, with further calls to restrict cheap alcohol deals and pub crawls.
Venice
Venice recently announced new plans to curb overtourism, which include charges for day visitors up to €10.
Tourists visiting for the day will also have to prebook, so the tiny city can manage numbers.
In recent years, Venice has cracked down on badly behaved tourists with strict fines.
Pre-Covid, a woman was fined £225 for sunbathing in her bikini while two backpackers were fined £854 for making coffee on public steps.
Spain
Some of the party resorts in Spain, most popular with Brits, have clamped down on boozy breaks in a bid to clean up their reputation.
Javier Pascuet, director general of tourism for Calvia, previously told Sun Online that the pandemic restrictions are helping them enforce changes to the image of the party town.
He said: “The normal Covid regulations will be in place for tourists visiting so in bars there will be a limit to the number of people allowed in.
“There will be no party boats, pub crawls or happy hours.
“That means all you can drink, offers like two-for-one drinks, there will be none of that. There will be areas of Magaluf you can’t drink so there will be quiet, family areas.”
While Barcelona is yet to battle the same levels of anti-social tourism, Xavier Marcé, Councillor for Tourism and Creative Industries, said they wanted to inspire tourists which visited for more than just the beach.
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In response, they have created new bus routes to encourage visitors to visit other parts of the city - resulting in fewer crowds - as well as clamped down on short-term rentals.
Back in August 2020, Barcelona temporarily , which has since been extended until next month.