Travel to some of the world’s most photographed islands is about to come with a lot more paperwork. From volcanic Greek islands to remote dragon sanctuaries in Indonesia, local governments are moving past warnings and into actual enforcement, with hard numbers, digital permits, and daily quotas replacing the old first come, first served approach.
The shift isn’t random. Years of record breaking arrivals have strained water supplies, clogged narrow streets, and pushed residents into open protest on more than one coastline. What’s changing for 2027 is the scale of the response, since several destinations are moving from pilot programs to fully enforced caps for the first time.
1. Tahiti and the Islands of French Polynesia
French Polynesia, home to Bora Bora, Moorea, and the capital region of Tahiti, is rolling out one of the most ambitious limits anywhere in the Pacific. Under the Fāri’ira’a Manihini 2027 five-year strategic mission, the French Polynesian government aims to set an annual cap of one foreign tourist per local resident, about 280,000.[1] That figure isn’t a rough estimate; it’s the actual policy target written into the government’s official tourism strategy.
The territory includes popular destinations like Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti, with its capital, Papeete, located on Tahiti.[1] One open question that still lingers is exactly who counts toward the cap. It’s unclear whether the new visitor cap will apply to French nationals, since French Polynesia is a territory of France, meaning anyone with a French passport wouldn’t be considered an overseas visitor by law.[1] For travelers planning a bucket list trip to Bora Bora, that ambiguity is worth watching closely as the 2027 rollout gets closer.
2. Mallorca, Spain
Mallorca is tackling overtourism from two directions at once, cars and cruise ships. The Council of Mallorca will, before the end of this year, approve the maximum limit on the number of vehicles, both privately owned and hire cars, permitted to enter the island, so that the regulations come into force before the next summer season.[2] Council leadership confirmed the plan will give preference to electric and non polluting vehicles once the cap is finalized.
The island’s cruise terminal is facing its own squeeze. Palma de Mallorca caps arrivals at three ships a day, dropping to 7,500 passengers in summer from 2027.[3] Long before overtourism became a headline topic, similar rationing logic had already been applied elsewhere in Spain, but Palma’s numeric limit is one of the clearest on the continent.[4] Combined with the incoming vehicle rules, Mallorca is shaping up to be one of the most tightly managed islands in the Mediterranean by next summer.
3. Komodo Island, Indonesia
Home to the last wild population of Komodo dragons, this Indonesian island has watched its visitor numbers spiral for years. From approximately 40,000 annual visitors in 2010, the park received more than 429,000 visitors in 2025, according to Antara News.[5] That growth is exactly why authorities finally drew a hard line.
Starting April 1, 2026, the park began operating under a strict 1,000 visitor per day quota, with all entries managed through a mandatory pre booking system.[6] Looking ahead, Komodo National Park now caps visitors at 365,000 a year with dated tickets, and in 2026 the entire month of August sold out entirely.[7] Tour operators say early 2027 bookings are already filling fast, which means anyone hoping to see a Komodo dragon in the wild next year should lock in dates well ahead of time.
4. Santorini, Greece
Santorini’s caldera views have become almost synonymous with cruise ship crowds, and Greek authorities decided that had to change. Greece introduced a strict Santorini cruise passenger cap of 8,000 per day and a €20 levy in 2026 to fight overtourism.[8] The numbers behind that decision are striking on their own.
A ship with 3,000 berths now occupies 3,000 of the 8,000 daily slots rather than the old, lower calculation, effectively reducing the number of large vessels that can call on any given day, in stark contrast to the day visitor surges that reached 11,000 to 17,000 on some days before the policy came in.[9] The cap is enforced through a berth ranking system rather than turning ships away at the dock, and cruise lines that fail to secure a slot get pushed to a different date entirely. As the rule carries into the 2027 sailing season, several major cruise lines are already adjusting their Aegean itineraries around it.
5. Capri, Italy
Capri’s cobblestone lanes were never built for modern tour group traffic, and the island’s numbers make that obvious. Capri receives up to 50,000 daily visitors in peak season, a number far exceeding the resident population of roughly 13,000 to 15,000.[10] That imbalance pushed local officials to act on group size specifically rather than trying to cap every visitor outright.
From as early as the summer 2026 season, tour groups disembarking on the island will be capped at a maximum of 40 people, and group leaders working with more than 20 visitors at a time will be obliged to communicate via headphones or earpieces rather than loudspeakers.[11] Local hotelier groups have welcomed the change as overdue, given how outnumbered residents feel during peak summer months. As the rule heads into its first full high season run through 2027, officials are watching closely to see whether it actually thins out the midday crowds around the Piazzetta.
6. Formentera, Spain
Smaller and quieter than its Balearic neighbors, Formentera has quietly run one of Spain’s strictest seasonal access systems for years, and it’s becoming the model other islands are now copying. The small island of Formentera, around 20km south of Ibiza, already restricts the number of tourist vehicles during the summer months.[12] Anyone hoping to drive around the island during high season needs to plan ahead rather than assume a rental car will just be waiting.
From 1 June to 30 September, visitors, including those with their own vehicles or rental cars, need to apply for a permit on the Formentera Eco website.[12] The permit costs €6 per day, with a minimum of €30 regardless of stay length for cars, and €3 per day for motorbikes, while hybrid vehicles get a 50 percent discount and electric vehicles are exempt from the fee entirely.[12] With Mallorca now building its own version of this system for 2027, Formentera’s smaller scale permit program looks less like an outlier and more like the blueprint the rest of the Balearics are quietly following.
