Locals in a region of northeastern France are furious as “too many tourists” head to their towns and cities.
Alsace, close to the border with Germany and Switzerland, is a historic region with the city of Strasbourg as its capital.
Winter is often very busy for the city and region as people travel to experience Strasbourg’s world-famous Christmas market.
In the last five weeks of 2023, over 5 million people stayed overnight in the city, showing just how in-demand Strasbourg is.
Daniel Ehret, a tour guide lecturer and Alsace local, is one of many in the city who have noticed this rise in tourism numbers.
He told Euronews: “There are times when you physically can’t move through the crowds at these Christmas markets.
“There are long queues everywhere. I’ve even seen fights break out in the bathroom queues”.
He recalled one moment when the streets were so packed an elderly woman could not get to the toilet in time.
Ehret continued: “That is an extreme example of the scenes of overtourism we see, but what has become clear is that we have stretched these markets to the limit.”
Surrounding towns and villages have experienced similar problems.
Kayserberg has limited the size of its Christmas market to try and address the problem. Meanwhile, Colmar has introduced new measures to limit the size of crowds.
Éric Straumann, mayor of Colmar, added: “People can see when the market will be quiet and choose to come during those times.
“So far, we have noticed a slight increase in people during the off-peak times, meaning there has been a slight evening out of visitors.”
Strasbourg’s Christmas market will also bring in restrictions to try and stop overcrowding.
In October, Jacques Witkowski, Prefect of Bas-Rhin, announced that the number of visitors will be limited to improve “flow management.”
He said: “The system is not the same for 100,000 or 80,000 people in terms of emergency services and agents.”
