Abstrakt
Aims: Common perceived problems of overtourism are congestion and overcrowding of popular tourism-exposed areas. Another typical example of discontent regarding excessive tourism is the proliferation of short-term rentals such as Airbnb.
Although environmental issues are often included in the definitions of overtourism, these issues lack media attention and are not sufficiently embedded in the perceptions of local people. This paper is focused on framing of overtourism among scholars with emphasis on the environmental dimension and its issues.
The main aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which the environmental issues are discussed among scholars. Methodology / Approach: The aim of this paper was achieved through a systematic review of all articles available under the keyword "overtourism" in the Web of Science database.
A total of 74 articles were examined. The reviewing process answered to what extent environmental dimension is discussed in the theoretical and empirical parts of articles and what are the most discussed issues associated with overtourism.
Depending on the extent to which the environmental dimension had been discussed, we assigned the degree of relevance (low, medium, high) to the examined articles. Other information collected was: focus of the article; methodology; keywords; year of publication; nationality of authors; journal.
Conclusions / Results: The investigation showed that the environmental dimension is underestimated not only in the media or in the perception of locals, but also among scholars. Only 11% of reviewed articles were marked as highly relevant, which means that these articles focus primarily on environmental issues.
The most discussed topics among these articles are overuse of resources (e.g. water), impact on land use, cruises, waste and measures that should be implemented to prevent environmental degradation. Most of all articles are focused on perception of overtourism by locals, the conceptual basis and management of overtourism.
Research implications: In recent years, the climate change is one of the most discussed topics among people. Considering overtourism, the environmental issues should not be underestimated.
Regarding the findings of this review, more attention needs to be paid to the environmental impacts of overtourism. Topics such as waste management of destinations, impact of offered food in tourism on land use of destination or pollution of air and soil caused by tourism should be implemented in the future research.
Originality: Importance and originality of this paper lies in the framing of overtourism as an environmental concept. So far, authors only conceptualize overtourism through its social impacts especially associated with overcrowding and short-term rental platforms.
Only a minimum of articles is focused on the environmental degradation caused by excessive number of tourists in the destination. The findings of this review could lead scholars to shape their future research primarily in favour of environmental issues associated with excessive tourism in the main tourist areas.
Proliferation of environmentally focused articles could consequently give rise to the development of government measures to protect the environment.