Edinburgh in top 10 most overcrowded tourist cities in the world - report
A new report has revealed Edinburgh as one of the most overcrowded tourist cities in the world.
Global car rental comparison site DiscoverCars.com has created a ranking comparing the number of tourists to the number of locals in cities around the world.
They’ve looked into how many tourists are visiting these popular cities per 100 locals.
They used Euromonitor’s Top 100 City Destinations 2025 report to select the cities covered, and used government sources like tourism portals or city websites to find their population data. DiscoverCars.com compared this to the number of international tourists who visited in 2025, using data sourced from Euromonitor.
The company ranked the cities in order of the highest or lowest number of tourists compared to the number of people who live there.
DiscoverCars.com separated the data out into three lists: all cities worldwide, European cities only and American cities only.
Edinburgh earned ninth place on the list.
In order, the most visited cities on the list are; Dubrovnik in Croatia, Reykjavik in Iceland, Venice in Italy, Geneva in Switzerland, Porto in Portugal, Phuket in Thailand, Florence in Italy, Lisbon in Portugal, Edinburgh in Scotland, and Athens in Greece.
Aleksandrs Buraks, Head of Growth at DiscoverCars.com, said: “Our ranking of the cities that attract the most and least tourists compared to local residents is a fantastic source of inspiration for any upcoming holidays.
“Although it’s important to say, just because a city has fewer tourists doesn’t mean it will be a quieter trip – on the contrary, the cities that have the highest number of locals compared to visitors are some of the biggest in the world!
“Cairo, Jakarta and all the other destinations in our top five cities with a lower proportion of tourists have more than 22 million residents.
“As well as spending time in the city itself, renting a car makes it easy to explore the surrounding area and neighbouring cities, giving you a more complete picture of the country you’re visiting.
“Even if you’re on holiday in a tourist hotspot like Dubrovnik, Reykjavik or Venice, what can often be just a short drive will take you further off the beaten path.”