By Lacey Pfalz, TravelPulse

Overtourism is a constant theme in the travel world, and it has been growing since the pandemic. Destinations that had received large numbers of tourists enjoyed a well-deserved break from the congestion during lockdowns and travel bans.

Then they suddenly experienced large waves of tourists returning once the world reopened.

TravelPulse has written a lot about overtourism, highlighting how different places are creating laws to target specific problems that overtourism creates, such as strain on fragile local environments or historic sites, higher housing costs associated with too many short-term vacation rentals and overcrowding.

Overtourism also creates new trends for travelers, like detour destinations and destination dupes, which focus on more affordable and less-known places that provide similar experiences to other, more crowded destinations.

Here’s a big-pictures look at the changes, in particular those made at places we have reported about in the past year or so.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is one of the significant destinations creating the most laws restricting or curbing overtourism in recent years. It gained global headlines last year when it banned new hotel construction in the city and announced a plan to halve the number of cruise ships docking in Amsterdam by 2028.

In July, it announced it would halve the number of large cruise ships docking in the city by 2026 and eliminate its Veemkade port by 2035.

Amsterdam residents took to the streets in protest this past December, complaining that the number of tourists makes parts of their city unlivable and drives up housing prices.

Nice, France

On Jan. 24, 2025, the mayor of the French city of Nice signed an order banning all cruise ships with over 900 passengers from visiting the city, a move that will likely begin this July. The mayor also wants to convert the city’s ports to allow smaller ships to plug into shore power when docked.

While no large ships were scheduled to stop at Nice this summer, its schedule will welcome 124 smaller and mid-sized ships that meet the new requirement.

Spain

Spain made quite a few headlines last year about overtourism. Residents in destinations like Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca took to the streets by the thousands last summer to protest crowds of tourists and the ensuing housing crisis, mainly due to many short-term vacation rentals.

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As the second most-visited country in the world, Barcelona is bound to have its run-ins with overtourism. Last year, new laws were created to help change that. Barcelona hopes to ban short-term rentals by 2028. Alicante is banning new short-term rentals for the next two years.

As a deterrent, Spain’s federal government is proposing a 100% tax on non-EU residents who purchase property in Spain.

Greece

Greece made some changes to combat overtourism last year, too. The nation increased its tourist tax to help generate funds for climate emergencies like wildfires, which was estimated to generate an additional 300 million euros a year.

The country’s prime minister also noted last year that he plans to limit the number of cruise ships visiting islands like Santorini and Mykonos sometime this year. There’s been no word yet on when or if this will happen, but other destinations have changed to limit cruise tourism, so it’s highly possible.

Athens also limited the number of visitors to the Acropolis last year to 20,000 per day.

Travelers heading to Santorini and Mykonos by cruise ship also now pay more with a new $22 tax designed to help preserve the islands.

Italy

Italy is one of the most visited countries in the world, and Venice, a popular city, was one of the first destinations to gain global attention for its overtourism problem.

Cities across Italy are finding ways to combat overtourism: Venice implemented a day trip tax for travelers who don’t stay the night during high-tourist days and later added a size limit for tour groups, so groups can only be 25 people maximum. Rome is also considering restricting access to the Trevi Fountain due to large crowds.

In December, the nation banned self-check-in options for accommodations, including key boxes outside of short-term rentals like Airbnbs, ahead of the 2025 Jubilee Year, which is expected to bring millions of travelers to Rome and other parts of Italy this year.

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic cracked down on unregistered short-term vacation rentals in major cities like Prague in September 2024. While it shouldn’t impact travelers themselves, it does provide more oversight for those who own short-term rentals in big cities, which would address growing housing crises for residents.

Japan

Japan has become increasingly popular post-pandemic, thanks mainly due to the pandemic’s halt in travel to the destination and a weaker yen that allows Americans and others to enjoy less expensive travel to Japan.

With that being said, the country created a few measures over the past two years to help curb overtourism: It launched a bullet train to the less-visited Fukui Prefecture to encourage a greater spread of tourism, implemented barriers against tourists overcrowding certain areas while taking photos of Mount Fuji and have discussed increasing tourist taxes or fees for certain iconic attractions for their preservation.

Another popular travel year will likely bring a few more changes to combat the crowds, especially in popular places.

National parks

The National Park Foundation was given a $100 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. in August 2024, in part to help the national parks research and create plans to combat overtourism’s negative impacts. During and after the pandemic, many of the most popular parks implemented a reservation system to limit the number of daily visitors and spread visitation more evenly.

Now, however, with the Trump administration firing an estimated 4,000 national parks employees and speculation about the administration defunding them, the future of the national parks has never been so uncertain.

©2025 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By ANDREW DeMILLO

Health care giant Johnson & Johnson is one of the most well-known and respected brands, and its response to the 1982 tampering of Tylenol bottles that killed seven people is held up in business schools as a model.

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But in “No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson,” veteran reporter Gardiner Harris uses his investigative skills to scrutinize the legacy of the company, as well as that of federal regulators. What he unveils is a damning portrait.

It’s a story that Harris writes “has been hiding in plain sight for a very long time,” but his comprehensively reported and researched book goes much further.

Harris takes a deeper dive in looking at Johnson & Johnson’s history, including the story behind the litigation against the company that it settled for billions of dollars over its baby powder containing talc powder.

He details a litany of controversies involving the company ranging from the effects of its anti-psychotic drug Risperdal to the company’s role in the nation’s opioid crisis.

But Harris doesn’t spare others from scrutiny or criticism with his book. Namely, he focuses on what he calls the false mythology of the Food and Drug Administration, detailing times when the agency fell short of protecting consumers.

He also trains his eye on the American media itself, noting ways that reporters at times portrayed the FDA’s actions against drugmakers as tougher than they really were.

Harris’ book provides a valuable history that’s not limited to Johnson & Johnson, and helps for a broader understanding of today’s health care system.

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews

By CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL, Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street

Roasted chicken is a Passover mainstay. It’s easy to prepare while keeping kosher and takes well to a variety of seasonings and sauces, like bold and savory chutney. Though the selection available at most grocery stores suggests otherwise, not all chutneys contain mango. Nor are they all sweet. In fact, many contain no fruit at all.

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In this recipe from our cookbook “ Milk Street 365: The All-Purpose Cookbook for Every Day of the Year,” we season the bird with a blend of Indian spices, then serve it with a savory green chutney made with a simple puree of arugula, cilantro, garlic and serrano chilies, along with fresh lime wedges. The richly browned skin is balanced by the lighter flavors of the lime and herbs in the chutney, with just a bit of heat.

For the holiday meal, use a large bird (5½ to 6 pounds) so the dish serves six or yields ample leftovers. If you prefer a smaller bird, use a 4-pound chicken and season it with only half of the spice rub (the remainder can be reserved for another use); reduce the roasting time to 60 to 70 minutes.

Don’t tent the chicken with foil as it rests or the trapped steam will cause the skin to turn soggy. Also, be sure to allow the chicken to rest for about 30 minutes before carving. If cut too soon, the juices will flow out rather than remain in the meat and keep it moist.

This image released by Milk Street shows a recipe for spice-rubbed roasted chicken with green-herb chutney. (Milk Street via AP)

Spice-Rubbed Roasted Chicken with Green-Herb Chutney

Start to finish: 2 hours

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons ground coriander, divided
2 tablespoons ground cumin, divided
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 tablespoon garam masala
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
5½- to 6-pound whole chicken, patted dry
4 cups lightly packed baby arugula (3 ounces)
1 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro
1 medium garlic clove, smashed and peeled
2 serrano chilies, stemmed and halved
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lime juice, plus lime wedges to serve

Directions:

Heat the oven to 425°F with a rack in the lower-middle position. Place a V-rack inside a large roasting pan. In a small bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons of coriander, 1 tablespoon of cumin, the paprika, garam masala, cayenne and 1 teaspoon salt. Working over a large plate, rub all of the spice mixture evenly over the chicken, using all of the rub and any that has fallen onto the plate, then tie the legs together with kitchen twine. Transfer the chicken breast side up to the rack in the roasting pan. Roast until well browned, the thickest part of the breast reaches 160°F and the thickest part of the thigh reaches 175°F, 70 to 80 minutes.

While the chicken cooks, in a food processor, combine the arugula, cilantro, garlic, serranos, the remaining 1 tablespoon coriander, the remaining 1 tablespoon cumin and ½ teaspoon salt. Process until coarsely chopped, about 30 seconds. With the machine running, pour the oil through the feed tube, then process until finely chopped, another 30 seconds. Transfer to a small bowl, then stir in the lime juice. Cover and refrigerate.

When the chicken is done, transfer it to a cutting board and let rest for 30 minutes. Remove the rack from the roasting pan. While the chicken rests, add ½ cup water to the roasting pan and stir, scraping up any browned bits. Pour the liquid into a medium bowl, then let settle for 5 minutes. Skim off and discard any fat from the surface. Stir 3 tablespoons of the defatted liquid into the arugula-cilantro mixture, then taste and season with salt and pepper; discard the remaining liquid.

Carve the chicken and arrange on a platter. Drizzle with about 3 tablespoons of the chutney, then serve with lime wedges and the remaining chutney on the side.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For more recipes, go to Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street at 177milkstreet.com/ap

By Christine Mai-Duc, KFF Health News

Tina Ewing-Wilson remembers the last time major Medicaid cuts slashed her budget.

In the late 2000s, during the Great Recession, the pot of money she and other Medi-Cal recipients depend on to keep them out of costly residential care homes shrank.

The only way she could afford help was to offer room and board to a series of live-in caregivers who she said abused alcohol and drugs and eventually subjected her to financial abuse. She vowed to never rely on live-in care again.

Now the 58-year-old Republican from the Inland Empire is worried Medicaid cuts being mulled by her party in Washington could force her into another vulnerable spot.

“If they reduce my budget, that doesn’t change the fact that I need 24-hour care,” said Ewing-Wilson, who has struggled with seizures and developmental disabilities her entire life. “If they cut it too much, people will die or they’ll lose their freedoms.”

Similar stories have already surfaced in GOP-held swing districts nationwide where activists have been applying political pressure to sway vulnerable House members from supporting $880 billion in cuts that health experts say would almost certainly hit safety net programs. But in California, which sends more Republicans to Congress than any state west of Texas, consumer groups and health industry giants are joining forces in a quieter campaign to lobby lawmakers in solidly red districts, some of which they say would be disproportionately affected if those cuts materialize.

Organizers are trying to highlight a thorny fact that faces many conservative members as they navigate a complex decision: The scale of spending cuts top GOP leaders are demanding is nearly impossible to achieve without slashing Medicaid funds to states, which are a lifeline for their largely poor, rural districts. In Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s northern Sierra district stretching to the Oregon border, for example, some 43% of residents are enrolled in Medi-Cal, while 48% of residents in Rep. Jay Obernolte’s district, centered on San Bernardino County, rely on Medi-Cal.

“The hospitals, the health plans — we don’t always get along with those folks,” said Dustin Corcoran, CEO of the powerful California Medical Association, which represents more than 55,000 doctors and encouraged its members to call their representatives. “On this, there’s not a lot of daylight. It will take strange bedfellows, for sure.”

The California Hospital Association has sent letters to Republican lawmakers and encouraged executives of its more than 400 member hospitals to reach out or provide tours to them. Consumer advocates and patient groups have protested outside members’ district offices and community health center CEOs have requested private meetings.

The House of Representatives in February approved a budget framework tasking the committee overseeing Medicaid to cut $880 billion over 10 years. While there are still no specific provisions cutting Medicaid, Medicare, or other safety net programs, health care analysts say the magnitude of the spending reductions means they’re inevitable. They could force millions of Californians off Medi-Cal (the state’s Medicaid program covers roughly 15 million people), reduce benefits for those still enrolled, and lower reimbursement rates for physicians at a time of acute provider shortages, said Kristof Stremikis, director of market analysis and insight for the California Health Care Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates on health care policy.

“What you’re talking about at the end of the day is reductions in funding that the states, including California, are in no position to make up,” Stremikis said. “You see that reflected in the different groups that have come together to talk about how important this program is.”

Even before Congress approved its controversial budget plan, Corcoran said, doctors and other industry representatives had been holding weekly calls for months to discuss how to protect Medicaid funding following Republicans’ substantial wins in November. Corcoran has also rallied physicians’ groups out of state, sending a joint letter to House leaders in February. The group has asked individual doctors to call or write their congressional representatives as well.

Many Republican lawmakers appear to be lying low while home after House leadership advised GOP members against holding in-person town halls, blaming Democratic activists for “hijacking” the events. A viral clip showed Obernolte getting booed down by constituents at a district event.

Meanwhile, LaMalfa said on the House floor in February that the spending resolution, which all nine California Republicans voted for, does not cut Medicaid, Medicare, or other social safety net programs.

“Any claim to the contrary is actually fearmongering, plain and simple, or I guess in my neighborhood it would be known as a lie,” he said.

Neither LaMalfa nor Obernolte responded to requests for comment.

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Jo Campbell, who runs a federally qualified health center in LaMalfa’s district, said she has invited the lawmaker to join her and other local clinic executives to explain how the federal government can cut the $880 billion without touching funding crucial to health centers like hers.

“We all kind of live financially on a knife’s edge,” said Campbell, CEO of Hill Country Community Clinic, roughly half of whose patients rely on Medi-Cal. “It could mean the difference of whether or not we keep our doors open.”

Campbell hasn’t heard back from LaMalfa’s office.

Executives at Adventist Health, which has 23 hospitals across California, have met with Central Valley Republican Reps. Vince Fong and David Valadao and have requested a meeting with LaMalfa, with whom they worked closely after one of its hospitals burned in the 2018 Camp Fire.

“They’re all at different places,” said Adventist spokesperson Julia Drefke. “I think they understand what it means for their community. What that translates to in terms of their vote could be a different thing.”

In 2023, Medi-Cal made up more than 80% of patient revenue at Surprise Valley Community Hospital in LaMalfa’s district, for example, and 64% of patient revenue at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital, in Obernolte’s district, came from Medi-Cal, according to a CHCF analysis of state data.

Sabrina Epstein, a policy analyst with Disability Rights California, said she’s encouraging local activists, no matter where they live, to engage with California’s congressional Republicans.

“It only takes a few votes to keep Medicaid going, to protect it in Congress,” she said. “We don’t know where those votes are going to come from.”

Republicans — swing district or not — will now have to weigh the popularity of Medicaid among their constituents with pressure from national Republicans who see a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shrink the size of government and have shown little mercy for party members who fall out of line. More than three-quarters of Americans have a favorable opinion of Medicaid, according to a January KFF poll.

Complicating that calculation is the recent revelation by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration that California’s Medi-Cal program is billions of dollars short and relying on a loan to cover the overrun. Republican state legislators have singled out California’s decision to cover low-income residents regardless of legal status, although other factors have also contributed.

“The majority party decided to add billions of dollars to the cost of Medi-Cal and it was so nonsensical,” said GOP Assembly member Joe Patterson. “That’s a self-inflicted wound.”

Jenny McLelland, whose 13-year-old son has a breathing disability that requires round-the-clock care, said cutting benefits for immigrants would end up costing taxpayers more, when they show up in emergency rooms with more complicated ailments.

“I don’t buy the argument that other people are any less deserving of care than my son,” said McLelland, who lives in Clovis, part of Fong’s district. For her son, Medi-Cal is “a matter of life and death,” she added.

She believes if Fong understood how vital Medi-Cal is to families, he would work to make the system better.

It remains to be seen whether targeting House Republicans will change minds when a final budget package is voted on. Two vulnerable members — Valadao and Young Kim, who represents a district east of Anaheim — have signaled they’ll oppose major cuts to Medicaid. Rep. Ken Calvert, whose Palm Desert district office was targeted by protesters during the spring recess, said in a statement that he favors work requirements and would not support Medicaid cuts for “mothers, children, disabled, and low-income Americans.”

In Valadao’s district, state data shows, two-thirds of residents rely on Medi-Cal, which is the single biggest payer for all five general acute care hospitals there. That includes Adventist Health Delano, which derives two-thirds of patient revenue from Medi-Cal, according to the CHCF analysis.

Most other GOP House members remain silent.

Ewing-Wilson voted for Obernolte, who won reelection by 20 percentage points and is in little danger of losing. She’s been trying for weeks to get a meeting with him. If he votes to cut Medicaid, she said, “I will be very disappointed in him, because I voted for him, expecting that he would care about all of his constituents.”

This article was produced by KFF Health News , which publishes California Healthline , an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation .

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.