stay home!

Apparently so many people have enough expendable cash and leisure time to travel these days that some of the more-popular destinations are getting overcrowded.

 

From Conde Nast

15 Places Telling Tourists to Stay Home

Tourism can provide an incredible economic boost, sure, but some locals say it can also be harmful to the environment and negatively impact local populations. With such considerations in mind, several destinations around the world have proposed—or put into place—measures restricting the annual number of visitors.

This post was originally published in June 2015. It has been updated with new information.

some of the 15:

Zion National Park

Utah's Zion is expecting a record four million visitors this year, and not everyone is happy about it: to combat increased land erosion and "overwhelmed facilities," park officials are considering putting a daily cap on visitor numbers via a new reservation system. Inside the park, Zion Canyon has suffered the most in recent years, but Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, the Narrows, and Angels Landing could face new restrictions, too. Interested in viewing all of the possibilities? Visit the plan proposals. The park is aiming to have settled on a concrete strategy by 2018.

Santorini

Santorini, the famed blue-and-white darling of the Cyclades, isn't shunning tourists altogether, but it is making some significant changes in the coming months: Hoping to stem the tide of cruise tourists, which reached 10,000 per day during peak season (May-September) last year, the island will in 2017 begin limiting the number of cruise ship visitors to 8,000 a day. (Fliers, take note: At present, there aren't any plans to limit the number of people who come to Santorini by air, since the number is significantly smaller.) Not entirely interested in Santorini? Here's where Greek locals think you should go instead.

Barcelona

Barcelona mayor Ada Colau made headlines in June 2015 when she discussed implementing an entry cap on the Spanish city. In order to keep Barcelona from reaching its "saturation limit," Colau's administration is developing plans to balance the tourism sector's interests with those of local residents; potentially putting a city-wide freeze on the development of new hotels and creating a preventative policy before things "get out of hand." As of May 2016, the city was considering a new tourist tax, which would charge travelers entering the city who don't stay overnight—think day-trippers, and those in town on a cruise.

Iceland

Machu Pichu

Mt Everest (no worries there!)

others at the link.