AMNA NAWAZ: Summer vacation time is quickly fading, but this season is expected to break records worldwide, with billions of people breaking out their suitcases, sandals and swimsuits.

And while tourism is a huge moneymaker, a growing number of destinations are finding their visitors, well, rather annoying and asking many to stay away.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant has been looking at European hot spots that are trying to deter the holiday hordes.

And he starts his report from the Cotswolds in Southwestern England.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Straddling the River Windrush, Bourton-on-the-Water is known as the Little Venice of the Cotswolds, a region of Southern England notable for its mellow, honey-stone architecture.

This is England at its finest.

It's picture perfect, almost fairy tale beautiful and wonderfully tranquil.

But you have to get up early to find it like this, especially when the sun deigns to appear.

JON WAREING, District Councillor, Cotswolds, United Kingdom: When you think a population of about 4,300, and we get round about 1.25 million tourists a year, you can see how people get stressed out by it.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Jon Wareing is both a district councillor and an occasionally frazzled resident.

JON WAREING: I have had a number of people who've actually said that considering moving from Bourton, because they just can't take the overtourism anymore.

MALCOLM BRABANT: One of Bourton's attractions is a replica of the village, a suitable metaphor for tourism's footprint here and around the world.

BRYONY HOLDEN, Ticket Seller: When you come to live in a place like Bourton-on-the-Water, you would be a fool to do so if you couldn't handle knowing that there was a peak tourist season, and that you were going to see a lot of people.

MALCOLM BRABANT: An employee here for nearly 30 years, Bryony Holden is unapologetic about the commercial benefits of tourism.

BRYONY HOLDEN: It doesn't really affect us.

We work in the village, we welcome the people, and then we go home, close our from doors.

There's nobody else is there.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Although few in number, many villagers share a kinship with bigger destinations whose quality of life has been diminished by tourism.

JON WAREING: I think the challenge is how we get the right balance of numbers of visitors, so that the experience for them and for local people is not a negative one.

MALCOLM BRABANT: On Santorini, the jewel of Greek islands, residents were angered recently at being urged to stay indoors on a day it was swamped by 17,000 cruise line passengers.

The Greek government is considering limiting the number of ships that can dock at once and overwhelm people, like hotelier Georgios Damigos.

GEORGIOS DAMIGOS, Hotelier: When we increase the number of visitors 20 times, I know for a fact that our standards of living has gone down.

MALCOLM BRABANT: As tourists crowded into narrow lanes to capture the sunset over an extinct volcano, Portuguese visitor Rita Cristavao made this appeal.

RITA CRISTAVAO, Portuguese Tourist: Maybe there should be some rules about the maximum visitors per day that Santorini should have, so every visitor can have a more pleasant experience.

MALCOLM BRABANT: In early July in Barcelona, some demonstrators delivered their message to visitors with water pistols.

JORDI HEREU, Spanish Industry and Tourism Minister (through translator): I condemn this expression that goes against our country's values and sentiments.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Spain's tourism minister and Barcelona's former Mayor Jordi Hereu.

JORDI HEREU (through translator): I want to reaffirm the values of hospitality of Spain and the Spanish tourism model, and one of its characteristics, which is security.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But Barcelona is turning up the temperature.

Cruise passengers who visit the city for less than 12 hours will have to pay an increased tourist tax, if the mayor gets his way.

He says day trippers aggravate the sense of occupation and saturation without providing any benefit.

That sentiment is shared from the Canary Islands to Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands.

Last year, exasperated by weekly drink- and drug-fueled bad behavior in the red light district, the city launched a campaign aimed squarely at the usual suspects, young British men.

OLIVIER PONTI, ForwardKeys: I think we can say this hasn't had much of an impact.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Based in Valencia, Spain, ForwardKeys is a travel analytics company that monitors who's travelling where and when.

Olivier Ponti is its director of intelligence and marketing.

OLIVIER PONTI: Looking at the year-to-date data, we can see a 17 percent increase in English arrivals to airports in Amsterdam.

MALCOLM BRABANT: So what does Amsterdam need to do to try to keep the Brits away?

OLIVIER PONTI: So I think the strategy should be to try and identify those travelers from the U.K. and other places that could be interested in a destination like Amsterdam outside of the high season.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But Amsterdam has pivoted.

NARRATOR: Amsterdam makes you see what's alive, what love is, how you can be just you, while giving room to others too.

MALCOLM BRABANT: It's also an appeal for more respectful behavior.

JUSTIN FRANCIS, Founder, Responsible Travel: As a tourist, if you can travel outside of the peak holiday season, that's going to be more enjoyable for you and take the pressure off local residents.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Justin Francis runs an ethical travel agency, which advocates that better treatment of local people and places result in better vacations.

JUSTIN FRANCIS: Spend as many of your dollars in the local communities you can, which shouldn't be a hardship, but local hotels, local bars, local restaurants, local markets, because this is the trade-off.

You come, you enjoy, but if your money is ending in local hands, it feels a fairer deal for them.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The city of Venice can't wait for attitudes to change.

This summer, it's levied an entrance fee costing five euros, or $5.45.

But travel analyst Olivier Ponti says the tax has failed to deter visitors.

OLIVIER PONTI: People want to visit Venice.

They want to see it at least once in their life.

Is a five euro tax really expected to deter people from fulfilling their dream of visiting Venice?

I don't think so.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Back in Bourton-on-the-Water, Thomas Wong from Des Moines, Iowa, was glad he beat the rush.

THOMAS WONG, American Tourist: When there are too many tourists, you find it, like, not as authentic compared to more remote regions, and it's not as, like, realistic.

So I like when there's not as many people so you can enjoy it by yourself with your family.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But day-trippers who bring their own picnics and don't contribute to the local economy provide ammunition for those who favor a Venice-style tourist tax.

JON WAREING: Repairing this green, because as you can see as the numbers start to increase, when it's absolutely full, there's a lot of wear and tear.

Residents in the past felt pretty negative about having to be the ones that bear the cost of doing that, when they're not the ones enjoying their own amenity.

MALCOLM BRABANT: When we visited, there was a better class of traffic jam.

But on peak summer days, lines of cars and coaches, or busses, as Americans call them, can delay emergency vehicles by over an hour.

BRYONY HOLDEN: The problem is, there's no longer any provision for coach parking in the village.

It causes congestion, and it causes a little bit of irritation on some parts, even though we really welcome the coaches.

The real difficulty is, there are far too many cars coming.

If more people took a coach and booked, the problem would probably be solved, if there was sufficient provision for the coach parking.

MALCOLM BRABANT: From the depths of the English countryside to every point of the compass, tourism is becoming more of a battlefield with every passing day.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Bourton-on-the-Water.