Are tourists still welcome?

Kinga | Jul 20, 2026Jul 17, 2026

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson on overtourism are to:

• talk about mass tourism and resident privacy;
• practise vocabulary to describe the impacts of overtourism;
• watch a video about local clashes with tourists in London.

In this lesson, students work with photos of famous sights, share their perspectives and explore phrases for discussing overtourism (e.g. struggle with, put pressure on, get out of control). They watch a video about annoying tourist behaviour in Notting Hill, reflect on social media tourism and debate resident privacy and coping strategies. Students talk about factors for tourist overcrowding and imagine allocating a budget to tackle overtourism. 

WARM-UP AND VIDEO

This ESL lesson on overtourism starts with a warm-up. Students look at photos of popular tourist places, name them and answer questions about their travel experiences and preferences. After that, they read sentences about the negative impacts of overtourism and explore useful phrases (e.g. complain about, fed up with, deal with). Students choose the correct answers to explain their meaning. They then read the sentences from the previous exercise again and decide who might be saying them (e.g. museum worker, local resident, bus driver). Next, students watch a video about annoying tourist behaviour in Notting Hill, London. First, they write down examples of such behaviour. Then, they watch the first part of the video and check their answers. Afterwards, students speculate on points related to local strategies for keeping tourists away. Following that, they watch the second part of the video and compare their answers.

DISCUSSION AND ROLE-PLAY

In this part of this ESL lesson on overtourism, students discuss questions about the motivations behind social media-driven tourism and its impact on residents’ privacy. They then look at various factors for overtourism (e.g. social media influencers promoting destinations, cheap flights) and discuss how they contribute to tourist overcrowding. Moving on, students choose the correct prepositions in sentences about global responses to overtourism. Afterwards, they say whether any of the measures have been introduced where they live and share their opinions. Next, students imagine they are the mayor of a city that is experiencing overtourism. They have a budget of ten stars and choose the solutions (e.g. introduce a tourist tax – two stars) they want to introduce and explain why. Finally, students read several opinions on overtourism, say if they agree with them and provide details. 

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This ESL lesson on overtourism also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students find incorrect words in sentences and replace them with the correct ones. They then choose three sentences, say if they agree or disagree with them and explain their choices. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

WORKSHEETS

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