LIST: Which places in France operate tourist quotas?

The Brittany island of Bréhat has set a limit on the number of tourists who can visit during summer months for the second consecutive year.

A limit of 4,700 daily visitors between the hours of 08:30 and 14:30 will remain in place weekdays, until August 23. 

The rule does not apply on weekends, with many people leaving or arriving for longer stays, meaning the number of arrivals as well as those using local services at peak hours is lower.

This does not impact second-home owners or workers travelling to the island - those who live there permanently. 

Ferry companies have been asked by the commune’s mayor, Olivier Carré, to help by limiting the number of people arriving and encouraging people to book tickets in advance and not on the day. 

Tourist quotas are becoming more popular around the world, implemented in sites that face over-tourism and are saturated by tourists, especially during the summer high season.

They remain rare in France, but an increasing number of areas are using them - we look at some main ones below

Calanques national park 

Perhaps the most famous site in France to limit the number of visitors during the tourist high season is the Calanques national park, near Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône). 

The number of people allowed to visit certain sections of the park was drastically decreased over fears that over-tourism was contributing to erosion of the landscape. 

The number of visitors to the site is limited to 400 per day this year, and the restrictions are in place every day until the beginning of September, as well as on September 7, 8, 14, and 15 (some days in June were also affected).

Previously, the site received around 2,500 daily visitors during summer.

Tourists wanting to visit restricted sites within the park must reserve a (free) ticket in advance, however these are only made available three days before the date of entry, up to 18:00 the day before. Same-day tickets are not available. 

The Hyères islands 

The Hyères islands off the coast of France’s Var department have imposed visitor quotas. 

Similar to Bréhat, the influx of people to a small area with limited services meant the island was unable to accommodate everyone arriving, with a lack of tables at restaurants, parking spaces, and infrastructure in previous years. 

A daily limit of 6,000 visitors is again in force on the largest of the islands (Porquerolles), with ferry and boating services required to limit the number of tickets sold. 

However, the island has found it difficult to limit the number of visitors arriving on private boats and yachts, who are numerous.

Corsica 

A slew of tourist quotas have applied in Corsica since local authorities allowed for them in 2022.However, they mostly apply to hiking trails and mountainous parts of the island, as opposed to beaches (where as of 2024, there are no limits). 

Areas including the Lavezzi island, Bavella, and Quenza have seen limits installed. 

There are calls by locals of Étretat in Normandy to apply quotas, but as of 2024, these have not been implemented by local authorities.

What are the alternatives? 

Other areas, including the Mont-Saint Michel, have previously toyed with the idea of implementing quotas to limit tourist numbers. 

For a number of reasons, however – economic impact, loss of prestige, difficulty in how to effectively control numbers – these have been rejected for other measures. 

The Unesco World Heritage site has instead opted for measures aimed at spreading out tourist numbers throughout the day (and year) to limit high-season influxes. 

It also rejected the proposal to require visitors to pay a fee, as is the case in Venice.

Read more: Fee to visit Mont-Saint-Michel rejected for other ways to ease crowds

In other areas, including Gourdes and Lourmarin in the Vaucluse, limits on car park spaces for drivers, and higher parking fees are being used to lower the number of visitors to a more manageable level.