Even though overtourism became the object of extensive scientific research only three years ago, different definitions and approaches to the issue can be seen. However, it is still in the initial phase of research, and there are numerous gaps in our knowledge of the reasons and solutions to this issue. The main aim of the paper is to summarize different approaches and points of view on the overtourism issue. This includes searching for reasons of tension between tourists and visitors in particular destinations. They are presented partially in tourism literature but also in the literature dealing with urban studies, sustainable development and other areas. This aim was achieved through a literature review and the deduction method. The paper identifies several different factors that stimulate overtourism. Some of them are acknowledged in most publications. They are a growing number of tourists, new solutions in the information technologies (IT) business and the availability of cheap flights. Other factors such as management mistakes in particular destinations are underlined from time to time. Finally, some factors are expressed very rarely. They are the growing popularity of city tourism and the shift from 3S (sea, sun and sand) to 3E (education, experience, entertainment) tourism. Identification and general overview of those factors is intended to be an important contribution to the contemporary scientific knowledge on overtourism. The analysis of the factors recognized allowed to point out significant weaknesses of our contemporary knowledge on overtourism. A radical shift of the approach to the governance of cities as tourism destinations, as well as filling theoretical gaps and creating effective tools to manage tourism development in cities are postulated. Several directions of the future research are presented in the conclusions of the paper. Some practical recommendations for decision-makers in particular cities are also included.

Different approaches to the analysis of tourism destinations as the basic units of research in tourism, are reviewed in this paper. Traditional geographical and economic perspectives are presented as the bases for more modern system and networking approaches. Network analysis is discussed as the most useful current approach to understand cooperation and coopetition processes taking place in destinations. This approach, developed in general management theory, however, if implicated directly in tourism, is not free from major problems and may lead to misleading conclusions. Among such problems, spatial embeddedness and the non-voluntary character of membership in a network, the crucial role of free goods in product creation, the predominance of SMEs in a destination network, differences between particular destinations and the difficulty in setting clear borders between networks, are discussed.

Cultural heritage and its various elements are an important factor that supports the development of tourism in destinations. One of the key factors of a successful destination is its positive image that allows it to effectively attract visitors. This paper investigates the impact of selected elements of material cultural heritage on the image of four Polish metropolitan destinations. The results indicate thathistorical and cultural heritage plays a more significantrole in creating an attractive image of a city than the city’s contemporary and post-industrial facilities. Cities perceived as historical areconsideredas much more attractive to spend free time in than cities predominantly associated with industrial functions. Moreover, the presented research results confirm a relationship between the familiarity of a destination and its positive image. These features have also been observed in previous studies.

With a constantly and rapidly increasing number of publications, modern expertise on overtourism is becoming increasingly complete. However, a subject that has not been sufficiently presented in the literature thus far is the issue of identifying groups of inhabitants of various destinations that are most severely affected by overtourism and the perception of innovative remedial solutions. In numerous previous publications that analyzed the impact of overtourism on the inhabitants of destinations, the inhabitants were most often treated as a homogeneous group. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to describe the phenomenon of overtourism from the perspective of residents of two Polish tourist destinations and propose innovative solutions to the problem of tourist overcrowding, dedicated to areas with different specificities. Empirical research was conducted among the inhabitants of popular destinations in Poland—Kraków and Białka Tatrzańska—where overtourism has been noted in the scientific literature in recent years. The results allow us to outline significant differences in how the impact of overtourism is perceived by the inhabitants of a large city and a peripheral tourist resort. Additionally, the research demonstrated that respondents who live in the central part of a tourist destination much more clearly perceive their exposure to the effects of overtourism than the inhabitants of other parts, and that this phenomenon is more evident in cities than in resorts. According to the diagnosis of the situation, it was proposed to implement open innovations in the nature of preventive solutions.

The dynamic development of the sharing economy is clearly seen in particular, in the area of tourism in large cities. There is, therefore, an increasingly urgent need to study its impact on the functioning of cities, especially when they implement a sustainable development policy. Therefore, the need to study its impact on cities’ performances is more and more urgent, particularly, when they implement a sustainable development policy. This study discussed the influence of a sharing economy in tourism on city sustainability from the perspective of the Agenda 2030 goals. The main objective of the paper was achieved, thanks to in-depth analysis of the content of secondary sources. Results of the analysis were subjected to the synthesis process, using the tabular method. In Agenda 2030, when diagnosing the importance of this issue, one of 17 goals, i.e., goal 11, and 10 tasks within it, were devoted to the sustainable development of cities. The results of this study showed that sharing economy in tourism has an impact on the implementation of seven of them, but the direction of the impact is diversified. The domination of positive sharing economy (SE) effects was observed in the following areas: providing access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all (Target 11.2) and upgrading slums (Target 11.1), while the negative effects were noticed particularly clearly in implementing Targets 11.6 (reducing the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities) and 11.7 (providing universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces).