I think the "heroin" comparison is needlessly dramatic. "Over-tourism" as you describe it is just one possible symptom of excessive capitalism. There are many

I think the "heroin" comparison is needlessly dramatic. "Over-tourism" as you describe it is just one possible symptom of excessive capitalism. There are many nice spots with tourists, and many ways to ruin a place without any tourists when regulations are lax or poorly enforced, e.g. privatization and massive price increases in the crucial infrastructure, or reckless industrial projects. And some things are just dumb traditions. Of course Oktoberfest sucks for the locals, but so does new year's eve in Berlin if you dislike continuous explosions until dawn and rockets flying horizontally. Tourism doesn't change the nature of these events much, just the scale. Many other big economical sectors are also highly dependent on a small set of factors that could quickly change and cause ripple effects when they go down. This is not unique to tourism. Think e.g. the decline of Detroit.