Overtourism: Between the Right to Travel and Residents’ Rights

Debates on overtourism, as a challenging phenomenon, are becoming more and more active. The purpose of this integrative review paper is to discuss the right to travel and residents’ rights in the context of overtourism and sustainable tourism, analyzing different scientific and legal sources. The integrative review analysis shows that overtourism and sustainable tourism are important contexts influencing the changing meaning of the right to travel and the right to live. On the one hand, the overtourism context makes the voices of residents more important to be heard, while on the other hand the sustainable tourism context influences the discussion of the right to travel, asking tourist voices to be considered more important. The results of this integrative review also shows the importance of rethinking the concept of sustainability in tourism as a holistic principle of democracy and as a degrowth movement, and opens the broader discussion for future tourism research development. The problem of overtourism could be solved by striving to develop sustainable tourism goals, thus balancing equality between the right to travel and residents’ rights. The presented integrative review paper is a preliminary work; further research is needed in order to find possible concrete solutions for overtourism.