11. Tourism Pressures
Concentration, Capacity and the Evidence for Overtourism
Sardinia is sometimes described broadly as an “overtouristed” destination. This paper does not apply that label to the whole island without qualification.
Overtourism is not synonymous with popularity or visitor growth. It describes a condition in which visitor volume, concentration, timing or behaviour causes material pressure on ecosystems, public infrastructure, resident quality of life or visitor experience. It must be assessed at the scale at which the pressure occurs.
For Sardinia, the available evidence indicates that tourism pressure is primarily seasonal and spatially concentrated, rather than uniformly distributed across the island.
A 2025 peer-reviewed study examining Sardinia through place-based tourism-pressure indicators found that potential overtourism clusters around coastal destinations and is concentrated in the summer season. The study uses geographical information systems and local spatial analysis to show how tourism intensity, accommodation use and visitor concentration vary between municipalities.[colab]
This conclusion is consistent with 2024 tourism data analysed by the University of Olbia. Twelve municipalities in Gallura were among Sardinia’s thirty leading tourism municipalities, together accounting for 6.8 million overnight stays—more than 30% of the island-wide total. The thirty leading municipalities collectively represented 85% of recorded tourism movement.[unionesarda]
These figures do not mean that all of Gallura or every leading municipality is beyond capacity. They show that destination-management challenges are concentrated and must be approached at municipal and site level.
| Pressure type | Where it may arise | Required evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Seasonal beach pressure | Popular beaches, coves, dunes and island sites | Visitor counts, beach access, habitat condition, litter, safety and resident access |
| Road and parking congestion | Coastal roads, airports, ports and beach approaches | Traffic counts, parking use, travel time, public-transport availability and emissions |
| Water and wastewater stress | Coastal municipalities with high seasonal occupancy | Monthly demand, network performance, treatment capacity and water-quality indicators |
| Waste-service pressure | Resorts, holiday-home areas, beaches and ports | Seasonal waste volumes, collection frequency, contamination rates and illegal dumping |
| Marine pressure | Marinas, anchorages, protected areas and popular coves | Vessel movements, mooring use, anchoring, habitat condition and enforcement data |
| Housing and workforce pressure | High-demand towns and areas with extensive short-let activity | Rental availability, short-let supply, worker housing and resident surveys |
| Public-space pressure | Historic centres, promenades, transport gateways and beach access points | Pedestrian counts, crowding, complaints, accessibility and safety evidence |
| Ecological pressure | Dunes, wetlands, trails, reefs and sensitive habitats | Erosion, species disturbance, water quality, litter and monitoring reports |
The appropriate management response is not necessarily to reduce total visitor numbers across Sardinia. It is to manage demand in the locations and periods where evidence shows pressure.
Measures may include:
- Timed entry, booking systems or daily limits for sensitive beaches and coves.
- Managed parking, park-and-ride and seasonal shuttle services.
- Mooring systems and anchoring restrictions in sensitive marine habitats.
- Stronger seasonal water, wastewater and waste-service planning.
- Public-transport links between gateways, towns and high-use sites.
- Visitor dispersal only where receiving areas have ecological and community capacity.
- Clear public communication about access rules, environmental behaviour and alternative routes or timings.
- Monitoring of resident experience and access to public space.
The evidence does not support a simplistic conclusion that tourism growth is inherently harmful. It does support the conclusion that unmanaged concentration can create environmental and social risks.
The objective for Sardinia should be to replace reactive crowd control with a more systematic model of destination capacity management: identifying where pressures occur, measuring them consistently, acting before thresholds are exceeded and ensuring that visitor demand supports rather than weakens the quality of the island’s natural and community systems.