Thursday's "Rethinking overtourism: are we ready for real accountability?" session saw Chris Fair, chief executive of tourism strategy firm Resonance; Jo Reeve, Intrepid Travel's UK and Ireland general manager; and Tolene van der Merwe, the Malta Tourism Authority's UK and Ireland director debate the countries they felt had been successful at easing pressure on its communities.

Reeve highlighted Venice and Copenhagen as "good examples" of where governments had taken the right action to regulate the flow of tourism.

In Venice, a €5 entry fee is charged on selected peak days, increasing to €10 for last-minute bookings, while there's also a limit of the size of tour groups.

Copenhagen, meanwhile, has launched an initiative which rewards tourists with free or discounted experiences if they engage in sustainable, community-focused activities.

Reeve said: "Destinations have their limits and governments will understand the frameworks." However, she stressed the importance of including tourism NGOs in conversations around overtourism.

"This is super important," she continued. "[NGOs] are at the sharp-end of challenges and problems in communities," Reeve added. "It's important to have them in those conversations with all the stakeholders there."

Intrepid has just renewed its partnership with the Moroccan National Tourist office for the next five years. According to Reeve, the tourism board wants to work with Intrepid to "look at immersive, sustainable travel" and how to bring in an extra 200,000 visitors who "look like Intrepid travellers" by 2031.

"It starts here with these kinds of partnerships and then you can figure out what works," Reeve explained. "But it needs that collaboration at the beginning."

Making the right impression

Fair picked up the baton. "I think we have a lot of the tools [to tackle overtourism], but how we're implementing them is somewhat misplaced. Look at New York City or British Columbia banning AirBnB rentals due to housing shortages in the area. Is that the right link that we need to make?"

He also noted how money from tourism taxes is often lumped in with general funding to support city budgets. "There's a bit of a counter trend where we have the tools but where that funding goes is not necessarily into destination management or community quality of life – [it] gets gobbled up by the city's general budget."

Van der Merwe confirmed Malta is heavily reliant on tourism, noting how inbound travel generates around 27% of Malta's GDP and sustains around 25,000 jobs.

She said the Malta Tourism Authority was working closely with all airlines that flies to the archipelago to ensure they offer flights "outside the peak summer season". "We will forever be dependent on tourism, and we're very popular at the moment, but we're seeing a shift in people arriving outside the summer season," Van der Merwe continued.

"From January to March, visitor numbers were up by 11% or 12% year-on-year," she explained. "Our July and August numbers were up but they were up less than last year. Our outside of summer season is growing. That's been a real focus for us recently."