A French website has developed a ‘tourism score’ for French towns and cities to help demonstrate the impact of tourism, and allow visitors to avoid places that are already suffering from too many tourists.
The subject of ‘over-tourism’ has been a growing concern in many of Europe’s most popular holiday destinations.
In 2024, France was ranked as the world’s top tourist destination, bringing in over 100 million visitors.
However, increasing tourism levels have also left some parts of France overwhelmed. In response, some towns have introduced property rental restrictions, while others have started imposing visitor quotas or demanding pre-booking from visitors at popular locations.
READ MORE: Airbnb crackdown: The French towns that have short-term property rental restrictions
Recently, alongside the organisation Collectif National des Habitants Permanents, which maps Airbnb listings in France, the website Ville de Rêve put together a study on over-tourism.
They define ‘over-tourism’ as “the saturation of an area with tourists, where residents suffer negative consequences on their lifestyle and well-being, and where the natural environment is degraded.”
The ‘Touriscore’
Using open-source data, the website published an interactive map, as well as a ‘Touriscore’, which is a ranking for towns and cities based on their level of over-tourism. You can find it here.
The ranking uses the same format as France’s Nutri-Score label, which denotes the healthiness of food from A (excellent) to E (very poor).
Using two lists: one for smaller cities and towns with 10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants and another for places with more than 50,000 inhabitants.
Each location was scored based on four criteria, and then given an average ‘Touriscore’.Â
The first criterion is the proportion of tourist accommodations to available housing for residents in the city centre.Â
The second looks at ‘housing predation’, meaning the percentage of small apartments in the city centre recently listed on Airbnb versus the number of real estate transactions for the same type of property.
Basically, this is meant to show the number of apartments or houses that are converted into tourist accommodation and removed from the residential market.
The third looks at the ‘presence of professional landlords’. This figure is determined by the percentage of listings published by someone who manages at least three different properties on Airbnb.
The study noted that in 35 French cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, professional landlords represented over 40 percent of all landlords.
And finally, the fourth criterion focuses on the number of bars and restaurants per square kilometre in the city centre, in order to determine if these types of establishments are overly represented in the city centre (meaning there would be greater noise, traffic, and other nuisances).
READ MORE: ‘Turned our French village into a ghost town’: The verdict on Airbnb in France
Notably, the ranking does not take a few things into account, such as events, monuments or natural sites worth visiting in the location. It also does not look at pure tourism numbers, showing how many people go there per year, nor does it consider aspects like safety and crime.
However, the list is a helpful consideration – either for those who prefer to take holidays in areas without too many tourists, or for those looking to avoid buying property in a very touristy area.
How did French cities perform?
In total, 16 larger French cities and 47 smaller towns and cities ended up in the ‘A’ category. On the other hand, eight larger cities and six smaller towns/ cities scored an ‘E’.
Screenshot of the Touriscore map, credit; Ville de Rêve
The larger cities with the most ‘over-tourism’ based on the ranking were;
Cannes – The glitzy Riviera resort has more than 30 percent of housing in the city centre listed on Airbnb. Over half of Airbnb listings in the city centre are run by ‘professional landlords’.
Nice – Airbnb listings make up almost a fifth of housing in the city centre and half of Airbnb listings are run by ‘professional landlords’ in the Riviera city.
Annecy – The pretty lakeside Alpine town has almost a quarter of listings in central Annecy on Airbnbs, and over half of the recent property transactions correspond to recent Airbnb listings.
Antibes – Back to the Riviera, in Antibes almost six out of every 10 recent property transactions correspond to new Airbnb listings.
Paris – While Airbnb only accounts for 13 percent of housing in the city centre, 77 percent of recent property transactions in the French capital correspond to recent Airbnb listings.
Avignon – Airbnb listings make up almost a fifth of housing in the centre of the historic southern French town
Aix-en-Provence – Over a third of recent property transactions correspond to recent Airbnb listings.
Marseille – France’s second city has a ‘high presence’ (729 per square km) of bars and restaurants in the city centre.
The best (A) larger towns were;
- Mérignac
- Saint-Maur-des-Fossés
- Antony
- Chelles
- Sartrouville
- Drancy
- Pessac
- Noisy-le-Grand
- Bondy
- Sevran
- Champigny-sur-Marne
- Clamart
- Le Blanc-Mesnil
- Cergy
- Colombes
- Épinay-sur-Seine
What else can you use Ville de Rêve for?
The website also offers helpful data for people looking to explore different parts of France, with the intention of visiting or perhaps moving there.
It offers interactive maps of different French cities and towns, showing cost of living to accessibility to transport connections, to climate predictions in 2050.