A proposal for an overtourism index

The rise of mass tourism has led to overtourism, where visitor numbers surpass a destination's sustainable capacity, causing envi-ronmental degradation, resource overuse, and social tensions. This study introduces a novel tourism intensity index tailored for small littoral towns, addressing a key gap in the literature by proposing a new, non-compensatory tool to quantify overtourism at a fine spatial scale. In contrast to extant approaches that rely on broad regional metrics or oversimplified indicators, this index employs the Peña Distance method (DP2) to manage multicollinearity and capture the multidimensional nature of overtourism. Using the Cinque Terre (Italy) as a case study, the proposed index aids in identifying policy interventions and strategies to miti-gate overtourism, fostering long-term sustainability for vulnerable destinations. This approach offers a quantitative tool to ad-dress the critical challenges posed by overtourism, with implications for sustainable tourism management in similar contexts globally.