Managing Supply and Demand at Destinations: The Problem of Overtourism Caused by Cruise Ships and Countermeasures

Abstract

Overtourism refers to a situation where demand at a destination exceeds supply, and it can be said that a key condition for sustainable tourism is maintaining a balance between supply and demand at the destination. However, cruise ships cause a temporary and significant surge in demand at a destination, severely disrupting that balance. This article introduces initiatives by Fukuoka City and Ishikawa Prefecture to address this issue. These initiatives do not aim to suppress demand for the destination; rather, they seek to curb overtourism by using a reservation system to distribute demand across different times and locations, thereby preventing demand from becoming concentrated at specific times and places.