Abstract
Tourism is gaining its importance as governments around the world including the Japanese government position it as a strategic industry to grow their economies. However, while tourism provides economic benefits, it is not without side effects such as destruction of the natural environment, development imbalances, and overtourism. Extensive research and discussions have been conducted on overtourism to address the negative effects of excessive tourism. However, they have failed to provide any specific measures and solutions. This study discusses the definition and causes of overtourism, and provides suggestions as to how travel agencies and individual travelers can contribute to overcoming the negative effects of tourism in terms of sustainability. For example, a travel agency can assess the process leading to excessive tourism through the occupancy rate of available travel products in a specific area. They can help diversify destinations by curbing advertising and developing new tourism products when tourism in a particular area overheats. In addition, to avoid contributing to overtourism issues, many problems can be alleviated by exercising so called “Responsible Tourism” that would allow visitors and local residents to coexist. Changing destinations is effective action which should help to address overtourism, but managing tourism consumption in consideration of local communities may be one of the responsibilities of travelers themselves.
