<p class="ingestion featured-caption">Business Insider's reporter visited Venice, Italy, and saw first-hand how overtourism impacts its residents. Joey Hadden/Business Insider</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Tourists flock to Venice, Italy, for its canals and historic architecture, causing overtourism.</li><li>Locals are frustrated by overcrowded streets, environmental damage, and rising living costs.</li></ul><p>The reasons tourists travel to <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/italy-venice-rome-milan-trip-visit-things-to-do-2023-2">Venice, Italy,</a> are obvious. The city known for its canals and historic architecture feels like a fairytale.</p><p>Still, an influx of tourists comes each year, overcrowding streets, causing <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venice-canal-turns-fluorescent-green-sparking-police-investigation-italy-mystery-2023-5">environmental deterioration</a> and higher living costs. After visiting for myself in 2022, I saw the reasons <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-florence-italy-short-term-rentals-ban-2023-12">locals are fed up</a> — and two years later, those issues haven't been resolved.</p><p>I loved Venice. It's perhaps the most unique destination I've been to, with its boats in place of cars and vibrant buildings.</p><p>But seeing the European destination firsthand helped me see how <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-protesters-rallying-against-overtourism-in-barcelona-2024-7">overtourism</a> impacts residents — and how I was part of the problem.</p>