Instead of giving visitors visa free access who hold strong passports, rather make them require a visa prior to entry (meaning they can't just pack their bags and go, now having to pre-plan in advance and line up for getting a visa & paying money for it, they're not alone since hundreds more are doing the same thing. There's also the guarantee whether they'll be eligible or get rejected on the spot).

It may cause strain on visa applications that'll lead to mass rejections due to overload. If I were a country that's suffering over tourism, just rescind visa free access for ALL nationalities (including those who have strong passports like US, UK, DE, FR, AU or CA to name a few) as in when they check visa requirements: it'll be rewritten as "visa required" rather than "visa not required" prior to entry.

Or, they can apply for a tourist visa many times as they'd like but reject them. (Basically a real life travel "shadow ban" if that's the right way to say it), leads to them giving up as they'll know a visa will never be guaranteed regardless of numerous attempts. However, would this move alone reduce over tourism? Since you can't just show up in someone else's nation uninvited (illegal immigration).

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[–] 11 points 1 day ago

Visa free programms are not just a way to get in more tourists. They are often part of international treaties (which often contain way more things with bigger importance than overtourism) or bilateral agreements, which guarantee the same thing in the other country. If a country limits the entry of citizens from another country, that country probably will alao limit down its own visa free programm for citizens of the first country. The countries suffering from overtourism often don't have the treaty freedom to so this or don't want to limit their own citizens travels.

So Visa agreements are mostly part of international politics. Changing that does change a lot more than just tourism, which is often not worth it.

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