You'd better not travel here this summer

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• In many countries, tourism is heavily concentrated in the summer months: international arrivals peak between June and September.
• Traditional vacation destinations are particularly affected: In Greece, July and August account for around 38 percent of annual arrivals, in Croatia even around 47 percent.
• Countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland have a more even distribution, as does Spain.

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Summer is slowly approaching - and with it the vacation season. If you don't yet know where to go, a look at the data will help: In many countries, a large proportion of tourism is concentrated in just a few months.

UN Tourism, a specialized agency of the United Nations for tourism, measures this through the so-called international arrivals - i.e. the number of travellers from abroad who arrive in a country and stay there for at least one night. Domestic tourists are not included in this figure.

This data shows: Arrivals peak between June and September in particular.

The concentration is particularly high in classic vacation destinations. In Greece, for example, around 38% of the 38 million annual arrivals occur in July and August. In Croatia, the figure is almost half (47%).

Northern destinations are also seasonal

However, northern destinations are also highly seasonal: In Norway, around 22 percent of guests arrive in July, in Sweden around 21 percent.

If you want to avoid the crowds, you should avoid these destinations in high summer and visit in the low season instead. In contrast, tourism is more evenly distributed in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland. In Spain and Portugal, the trend is also comparatively more balanced.

However, this does not mean that things are quiet there in summer. Spain records almost 99 million arrivals every year - so even 11 percent in July still corresponds to a very large number of travelers.

Fees and access rules

First Swiss mountain regions crack down on mass tourism

The consequences are clearly visible on the ground: in Mallorca, for example, people are constantly protesting against mass tourism. Under slogans such as "Less tourism, more life", they are demanding, among other things, a limit on visitor numbers and stricter rules for vacation rentals.

The following diagram shows the distribution of arrivals in popular European tourist countries over the course of the year.

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