When you think (err...know) tourists are over running Thailand, it's nice to read about other places that are having problems also. My wife and I were there about 5 years ago. And it was indeed a mess during the day, but great after the day trippers left.

The old town of Dubrovnik becomes crushed by its own popularity

Croatia's Adriatic coastal city of Dubrovnik is a victim of its own success.

"The hordes of tourists are slowly killing Dubrovnik," says prominent journalist Luko Brailo.

Mayor Andro Vlahusic is taking aim at the day-trippers, "who only want to stroll the Stradun (the main street) without buying anything," according to a quote in the newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija.

The medieval city is popular, but also limited in size. Along the Stradun promenade, the peninsula is not much more than 350 metres across.

Experts say that this is enough for the city to cope with 7,000 tourists per day - but last summer, their daily numbers were up to 25,000.

Continued:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/travel/Drowning-in-tourists-and-corruption-30209039.html

wrong website I think

wrong website I think

This is the travel forum. And we don't focus on Thailand exclusively. I thought it was an interesting article considering the huge increases in visitors we are seeing here.

Yes I think other parts of SE Asia at least feel more crowded with tourists than Thailand. Despite far fewer visitors than THailand, the impact tourists are making in Laos and Cambodia, two countries with smaller populations than Thailand is more significant than Thailand. This is due to Thailand's relatively large population, where tourists are most visible in specific tourist cities like Pattaya, Phuket and parts of Chiang Mai. Even in Bangkok, tourists are concentrated in only relatively small parts of town. You only need to travel over to areas of Bangkok like Bang Khae, Rama 2 road, Bang Kapi, Rangsit etc. some of which are quite close to downtown and you'll find very few tourists in the shopping malls there. When you do see a foreign looking face, that person is more likely to be an expat than a tourist.

Whereas in Laos and Cambodia, there's no escaping the tourists inside Luang Prabang or Siem Reap. Only once you head outside of those cities altogether, will you find "relief" from the hordes of visitors. But given Luang Prabang's population of around 16,000 (or perhaps 100,000 depending on the source) and since it probably hosts 1000 or even 2000 foreign visitors at any one time, it's not hard to see why. Whereas even if there were 20,000 foreigner visitors in Bangkok at any one time, that's a drop in the ocean compared to the 10-15 million population of the greater urban area.

Good point. I live in Pattaya. During the high season I try to avoid downtown on the weekends. It's just too crowded.

And like you said, head out of town a bit and it's a relatively quiet area.