The mayor of Nice – France’s second-most popular destination after Paris – has revealed he intends to implement further measures to limit overtourism. The city has already banned cruises carrying more than 900 passengers and 2,500 passengers in Villefranche-sur-Mer.
Earlier this month, Nice hosted the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC), placing the French coastal city at the centre of the world. In their prospective scenarios for 2050, the UNOC’s scientists listed “sustainable tourism” and the banning of “destructive mass tourism” among the solutions to deal with increasing global warming in the Mediterranean basin. Now, Mayor Christian Estrosi has said he wishes to do the same for Nice.
In an interview with Nice-Matin, Mayor Estrosi said: “I don’t want overtourism anymore. No question of becoming Florence or Rome.
“We are working on drafting a decree to ban tour operator coaches from entering Nice as quickly as possible,” he revealed. “They will park on the outskirts and their passengers will take public transport.”
While popular tourist destinations like the Balearic Islands in Spain are introducing quotas and limits on the number of hotels, Mr Estrosi said that Nice is “in balance” in terms of quality accommodation.
He said: “I’m very much in demand for land with a view to new hotel investments. I’m not necessarily in favour of it. Our tourism is our history, our jobs too. I want to preserve it but by doing less and better.”
According to the Tourism Office of Nice Côte d’Azur, the southern French city is only second to Paris, attracting around five million visitors annually. Nice’s international airport is the second busiest in France and a major hub for low-cost airlines. In 2023 alone, it handled nearly 14.2 million passengers.
At the start of the year, Mayor Estrosi announced that cruise ships exceeding 623ft in length and carrying more than 900 passengers would be banned, starting this summer instead of the initially planned date of January 1 2026.
At the time, he said: “Cruise ships that pollute and unload low-cost tourists who consume little but leave their waste behind, have no place here”.