Beachgoers in Carmel-by-the-Sea on Thursday, July 23, 2026. In response to hundreds of local complaints about too many tourists, the City Council last month cut nearly $300,000 in annual marketing funds to the regional tourism bureau.
Nick Coury/For the SF Chronicle
CARMEL-BY-SEA — On a recent afternoon in this affluent beach community, dozens of cars crawled down Ocean Avenue in search of curbside parking. The horns blared. A parking enforcement officer was issuing tickets to vehicles exceeding the two-hour limit.
Carmel-by-the-Sea has long been accustomed to such bustle on sunny weekends, but Wednesday turned out to be overcast. After years of renovations, the iconic stretch of Highway 1 connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles has been fully reopened, with crowds of tourists flocking to this Monterey Peninsula enclave for its Instagram-worthy beach, storybook cottages, elegant restaurants and boutique storefronts.
The result is more trash on the streets, near-perpetual traffic jams in Carmel’s quaint shopping corridor, residential neighborhoods crowded with parked cars – and increasingly frustrated residents. “Frankly, they are not happy about it,” council member Hans Buder said at a recent public meeting. “They feel there is too much tourism, there is overtourism.”
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In response to hundreds of complaints from local residents, the City Council last month cut nearly $300,000 in annual marketing funds to the regional tourism bureau. But the decision also left many wondering: What would this popular tourist spot look like if there were far fewer tourists?
“It’s hard to imagine,” said Anthony Carnazzo, co-owner of Stationaery, a bustling downtown restaurant known for its giant, crispy hash browns. “Carmel is tourism”.
People wait for a seat at the Little Swiss Cafe in Carmel. The city has seen an increase in tourism, due in part to the full reopening of Highway 1 between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Nick Coury/For the SF Chronicle
The debate has forced Carmel’s roughly 3,200 year-round residents to grapple with the city’s complex relationship with its dominant industry.
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Some are convinced that Carmel has reached its carrying capacity and does not need to worry about attracting more tourists. As recent sightings of the Obamas, Taylor Swift and Bradley Cooper have highlighted, this artsy community 120 miles south of San Francisco is not just another pit stop on one of California’s most iconic roads. This is a place in itself.
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But other residents, including many small business owners, worry that curbing tourism could have grim consequences.
“I hear from people who want to exclude visitors, but they forget that tourism built this city,” said Mayor Dale Byrne. “Without this, well, I don’t even want to think about where we’ll end up.”
The City Council agreed to restore marketing funds only after Monterey County’s tourism bureau, See Monterey, promised to use some of the money to study Carmel’s “visitor management.” The report, due in November, will recommend changes to parking and infrastructure, as well as a clearer picture of visitor trends.
Carmel does not have an accurate visitor count at this time. Last fiscal year, hotel tax revenue rose 12% to a record $9.3 million, although that was partly a reflection of higher room prices—occupancy only increased from about 66% to 69%.
A sidewalk in Carmel, where the “overtourism” debate has recently erupted.
Nick Coury/For the SF Chronicle
This 1-square-mile community along California’s central coast depends on visitor spending for 60% of its annual budget, according to local tourism board Visit Carmel. This dependence will only intensify. With Carmel facing a projected five-year budget deficit of about $64 million, it may need significantly more tourism to avoid cuts to vital city services such as police and fire departments.
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But Carmel has been slow, if not downright stubborn, in building the infrastructure needed to accommodate the growing influx of visitors.
A downtown area that already has illuminated parking spaces recently lost 45 spaces due to California’s new traffic safety law. But none of Mayor Byrne’s preferred solutions – more parking, or even some kind of shuttle service or extensive valet work – received much support.
Perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise in a society that still doesn’t have street lights, traffic lights, residential sidewalks, parking meters, fast food restaurants, or mailboxes.
Just two months ago, after more than a century of debate, Carmel finally began assigning street numbers to each of its businesses, government buildings and homes, doing away with an often confusing system of building names and directions based on nearby intersections.
However, such quirks have been part of the city’s charm since the early 1900s. Created as a seaside resort with winding passages and wooden houses reminiscent of a European village, it became a bohemian retreat for artists and writers, including Jack London. By the time Clint Eastwood served as mayor in the mid-1980s, Carmel was the favorite choice of the Hollywood elite trying to sneak away for a romantic weekend or play a round of golf at nearby Pebble Beach.
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Tourists wait for a table at a restaurant in Carmel. Local residents complain about excessive crowds, but many acknowledge that the city relies on tourism spending to fund city services.
Nick Coury/For the SF Chronicle
For locals like Caryl Hall, the debate about “overtourism” goes back at least half a century. Hall, who grew up in the area before buying her own home in Carmel in 1990, remembers a popular cartoon published in the city’s Pinecone newspaper in the mid-1970s.
It shows a man waiting in his car while tourists walk in front of him. They take so long that he turns into a skeleton.
“I think about that cartoon from time to time because it still seems relevant to me,” Hall said. “Only now it’s even worse.”
Hall and many of her fellow Carmelites blame today’s annoying crowds on a more recent phenomenon: social media.
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Twenty-six miles south in Big Sur, selfie hunters have become such a problem that Monterey County supervisors recently imposed a yearlong ban on parking near the Bixby Bridge. “With Instagram and Facebook,” said longtime Carmel resident Karen Ferlito, “it feels like these places are kind of advertising themselves.”
The growth in tourism is also the result of concerted marketing efforts. See Monterey devotes about 80% of its $14 million annual budget to fly-in and international visitors, who tend to spend much more money at Carmel’s restaurants, galleries and gift shops than day-trippers. Thanks in part to direct flights from Monterey Airport to major cities such as Dallas, Chicago and Denver, the number of inbound tourists has grown from 14% of the county’s tourists in 2015 to 20% in 2024.
But Jeff Baron, the only council member to vote against restoring See Monterey’s funding, remains skeptical. When See Monterey releases its study this fall, Baron said, “I’m going to have a hard time believing the data coming out of the tourism board. At the end of the day, their job is to bring people here. There’s a built-in agenda.”
Carmel City Councilman Jeff Baron sits in a park on Ocean Avenue in Carmel. He voted not to restore funding to the regional tourism bureau and doubts that the report they produce can be impartial.
Nick Coury/For the SF Chronicle
Rob O’Keefe, president and CEO of See Monterey, acknowledged that it’s a “reasonable question.” But he praised the work of the organization’s research partner, Better Destinations LLC, which recently developed a management plan for the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
These days, Carmel photographer Ian Martin believes at least one thing is non-negotiable. “It’s become so crowded that it’s affecting the enjoyment,” he said, “for both visitors and locals.”
That tension was evident on that recent overcast Wednesday.
After driving his silver Honda Accord through the city center for more than 20 minutes, the baby-faced waiter found an empty seat right in front of his restaurant. As he got out of the car and did a little celebratory dance, a young woman walked right up to him. She was filming a live broadcast on her phone about her new favorite city.
“Damn tourists,” muttered the waiter.