I'm working on a project and I need to do two things:

1) Identify places which could be considered "over visited". Examples would be Venice or Barcelona which have so many tourists it is hurting the destination.

2) Alternatives to those places. This would be places that are sort of, kind of similar or at least within the same country or region. Places which are "under visited". Places that most people aren't aware of and that do not get large crowds.


I'd love to get your input.

The obvious example that jumps to my mind is Stonehenge and Avebury!

An example that comes to my mind is Choquequirao
https://www.dosmanosperu.com/blog/ruins-choquequirao-second-machu-picchu/

I fear that the problem is that there are no "alternatives" to the most famous WHS. You wouldn't suggest going to e.g Chioggia "instead" of Venice - though you might suggest that, if you have already seen Venice, then you might find Chioggia an interesting place to go to on a further visit or for that extra day. Similarly - interesting though Avebury is it would be better seen "as well as" Stonehenge rather than as an alternative!

I see "alternative" sites as fitting potentially into the following categories
a. "If you have seen and liked that then you might like this next time"
b. "If you can't get to that then try this"

Have you come across the book - "The Road Less Travelled - 1000 amazing places off the tourist trail" (Pub - Eyewitness. ISBN 978-1-4053-4427-2). You might find it of interest for your project - even if only to differentiate it! As well as WHS sites it covers a lot of "Non WHS" events/activities etc etc but does suggest a fair number of places which I would put into the above 2 categories. I have picked out a few WHS ones below. In addition to the main comparison it also lists other "similar" sites for each - so for instance a number of worthwhile sites of Prehistoric Stones, Chinese Temples, Roman Arenas etc etc. Much of the information is readily available on this web site via "Categories" and "Connections"!!!!
a. Pyramids of Meroe v Pyramids of Giza
b. Avebury v Stonehenge
c. Agrigento v The Acropolis
d. Herculaneum v Pompeii
e. Tikal v Chitzen Itza
f. Ponte delle Torre (Spoleto) v Pont du Gard
g. Puning Temple v Temple of Heaven
h. Annapurna Sanctuary v Everest Base Camp trek
i. Fernando de Noronha v Galapagos
j. Pula Arena v Colosseum

The general conclusion must be that none of these is a true "Alternative" - either the more "famous" is genuinely "more significant" or you should try to see both!!

I must admit I have always used this as my rule of thumb, doing a drive by at Stonehenge and then visiting Avebury as a proper visit, the landscape around it offers an awful lot more as well.

However this weekend I finally visited Stonehenge for the first time since they moved the visitor centre. The experience is greatly improved. Crowds were very manageable and it has really emphasised the setting in a landscape littered with prehistoric monuments. A much more rewarding encounter than the previous visiting experiences at Stonehenge.

Tonina (Under visited but not WHS) vs Palenque (over)

Thanks for your input!

Another example that we just visited: the Acropolis (in particular the Parthenon) in Athens and the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae. Both significant Doric temples in Greece. Unfortunately, they are also both largely covered in scaffolding and have had their best sculptures removed to the British Museum. The Temple in Bassae is quite remote, hence the low visitor numbers.

Another alternative to the Acropolis, although in Italy, could be Paestum (part of the "Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archeological Sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula") with its multiple magnificent Greek temples. The site was fairly quiet when I visited in February and this article puts its visitor numbers at 441,037 (https://www.lovingsicily.it/en/la-valle-dei-templi-doppia-colosseo-gli-uffizi-record -visitatori-nel-2017/).

Okay. Having my go. Running down my list of visited countries trying to find overcrowded sites.

Austria: Only candidate I see is Schönbrunn. Not sure what other palace could cover here.

Belgium: Plenty of cities can at least cover for Brugges or Bruxelles. Leuven is really nice. Antwerp, too. And plenty of the other Belfies come to mind.

China: There are probably less crowded stretches of the Great Wall than Badaling. Forbidden Palace/Summer Palace will probably have lesser palaces somewhere

Croatia: Not sure what can substitute Dubrovnik.

Czechia: Prague is Prague. Always find you can evade the tourist masses partially. Taken together Cesky Krumlov and Kutna Hora cover at least portions of the inscription.

Estonia: Only alternative I see to Talinn in Visby. Due to its remoteness its probably less crowded.

Germany: No idea. Dont even see any candidates for overrun sites. If Neuschwanenstein gets inscribed, you would have the choice of the lesser palaces (part of serial inscription), Schwerin (tentative site) or some other historism site.

@Gary: Maybe easier to first find a list of overcrowded sites and then look for the substitutes/workarounds?

I'm writing a book on overtourism. In particular, listing alternative locations that people might not even be aware of.

I realize there is no "substitute" for many places. Each place is unique. However, most people have no idea what is out there other than what they know of from popular culture. The end result is that you have hordes of people going to the same few places, and very few people visiting most other places.

The world heritage scheme is used, at least by Czechia, exactly to this end, namely to distribute its tourists over the country. I remember reading about the Czech tourist board promoting WHS outside Prague. Of course there are no similar sites to Prague in Czechia (I would say Cracow is a similar less visited alternative), but other sites are reasonably near to offer tourists alternatives of quality.

Gary,

You might be interested to see the site from the recent "World Tourism Day Forum" (September 27) at George Washington Univ., which focused on OverTourism:
https://www.worldtourismdayforum.com/

That site seems to be mostly pre-conference things (there apparently was a session on "World Heritage Sites"), but a recent CNN story has some quotes from some of the participants:
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/overtourism-solutions/index.html

That is, unless you actually attended this conference!