**1. Introduction**

The aim of the study was to identify the background and factors contributing to the overtourism phenomenon in a big urban agglomeration of high tourist attractiveness. The research object was Wrocław, a city of over 600,000 inhabitants, located in the west of Poland (Figure 1), a popular tourist destination for people from various countries. This is a city with a still growing reputation.

The tourist resources and potential of Wrocław are based primarily on its centuries-old and highly diversified cultural heritage and unique architecture as well as a rapidly developing meeting industry infrastructure. This determines the key forms and types of tourist traffic in the city space (such as cultural tourism, city breaks, and business and conference tourism). The number of tourists visiting the city is constantly and dynamically increasing. According to estimates [1,2], in 2018, 5.35 million tourists were registered in Wroclaw, with a constant increase in the group of foreign tourists and an overall increase in the number of tourists of +7% in the period of 2016–2018. The number of tourists utilizing the accommodation facilities in Wrocław increased by as much as 40% in the period of 2014–2018, with the concentration of tourist traffic flows in May–August (at the level of 52% of the registered traffic) [3].

**Figure 1.** Geographical location of Wrocław. Source: own elaboration based on Google Maps.

Wrocław was ranked "Gamma–" in the prestigious international ranking of the British Loughborough University, The World According to GaWC *2018,* (Globalization and World Cities Research) [4], which denotes a high position among the world's leading cities. In the Polish Premium Brand 2019 classification, Wrocław was ranked first as a province capital city, enjoying the best reputation among Poles [5]. It was also placed 95th of the 174 cities assessed in the ranking of the world's smartest cities published in 2019 in the annual report of IESE Business School University of Navarra, Cities in Motion Index [6].

On the basis of the available diagnoses [1], we made the initial assumption that there were symptoms of overtourism in Wrocław, which might intensify in the years to come. We intended to establish the degree of overtourism threat and to determine factors increasing and decreasing the threat, as perceived by people working for the benefit of tourism and living in Wrocław.

Overtourism is an objective phenomenon that emerges as a result of tourism market activity and socioeconomic policy. Its negative consequences affect mainly the tourists themselves and the residents of a given area, although they may, to a certain extent, be approved by entrepreneurs involved in tourism. Three main types of activities related to this phenomenon can be identified. The first one is preventing the emergence of overtourism. These are preventive measures involved in the development strategies of cities and regions. The second type of actions entails measures to eliminate or reduce the adverse effects of overtourism. Here, special action plans are needed, usually long-term ones. The third type is adaptation activities, whereby one wants to adjust the functioning of a given area to excessive tourist traffic, accepting its existence. Each of these types of action requires a preliminary multidirectional diagnosis of overtourism, recognition of its specific elements, as well as an early identification of risks and their potential consequences. In this paper, we focus on this third aspect. The examined city has no conclusive overtourism data, measurements, or assessments. The available

scarce analyses relating to the description of the tourist phenomena in Wrocław which can be seen as symptoms of overtourism are prognostic in their character [1,2]. Simultaneously, the analyses in question directly indicate the content (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats: SWOT analysis), and even specific operational objectives and a catalogue of actions within the planned tourist policy of the city, which are aimed at reducing the overtourism phenomenon [1]. This indirectly proves the need to verify the real condition of the overtourism phenomenon in the city space. There is not enough evidence to infer that this phenomenon has already become a real threat. An ongoing discussion of experts (being also Wrocław residents) reveals suggestions of potential discomfort caused by the growing tourist traffic in Wrocław. The city authorities consider whether to stimulate further tourist traffic development or perhaps to inhibit it [1]. Therefore, a closer examination is becoming increasingly important, including verification and assessment of the opinions and feelings of main tourism stakeholders in Wrocław. In recent years, Wrocław has taken steps to stimulate some areas of the city in order to increase the significance of the tourist function. This created incentives and opportunities for tourist traffic growth. It is thus worth seeking an answer to the question of whether this direction should be further followed in the coming years.
