The governing officials of Bibury, a civil parish in the Cotswold region of Gloucestershire, England, recently turned a “nightmare” situation into a revenue stream.
In August 2025, Forbes named Bibury the “world’s most beautiful village,” saying that it looked nothing short of a “watercolor dream.”
The high praise soon brought thousands of intrigued tourists eager to explore the village.
Highlights
- A small British parish started drawing thousands of tourists after being declared the “world’s most beautiful village.”
- Overtourism led to tourist buses encroaching on the village’s streets and cars illegally parked in front of residents’ homes.
- To battle the problem, the village council came up with a plan that also helped them earn over $60,000 in one year.
Meant to support a community of about 600 people, the influx of visitors began to cause civic issues and disrupt citizens’ daily lives.
However, Gloucestershire County Council found a way to tackle the matter, which ended up earning them over £45,000 ($60,000) in 2025.
Bibury earned $1,180 per week by fining tourists for illegally parked vehicles
Sitting on the banks of the River Coln, a tributary of the Thames, Bibury is best known for its 17th-century weavers’ cottages in Arlington Row, one of the most photographed places in all of the Cotswolds.
The village also boasts a picturesque natural setting that got English craftsman William Morris to call it the “most beautiful village in England,” and Japanese emperor Hirohito to find it a “sacred place” during his 1921 visit.
But the peace was disrupted as Forbes conferred the prestigious title, with up to 50 tourist buses arriving daily and 20,000 footfalls on weekends in 2025, according to The Independent.
As Bibury does not have enough parking space to accommodate the numbers, many tourists left their vehicles on the streets, sometimes outside villagers’ homes and businesses, or on the pavements.
It has also led to arguments between residents and visitors, with one motorist reportedly getting hostile after being asked to move his car from outside a home.
In response, Gloucestershire County Council launched a crackdown on illegal parking in 2025, with the latest figures showing 651 penalty charge notices being issued last year, up from just 28 in 2019.
The fines, which are £35 ($47) for the first two weeks and £70 ($95) after that, helped the council generate up to £45,570 ($61,400) in 2025. It comes to about £3,797 ($5,115) a month or £876 ($1,180) a week.
In 2025, the council also went to court to reduce the number of buses allowed in Bibury, installed new signage and bus stop clearways to prevent accidents, and requested tourists to use mini-buses and “smaller vehicles” for their visits.
Officials have introduced several other reforms to tackle the overtourism issue
Craig Chapman, chair of Bibury Parish Council, told The Independent that he was satisfied with the response.
“The reality is a lot of the visitors have very little regard for the villagers,” he said.
“It is the simple fact that we as a village face the problem where people, after taking the trouble to get to Bibury, will then find anywhere they can park.”
“For that reason, the village needs enforcement to ensure the roads are open for emergency vehicles and safe for pedestrians.”
To implement a more permanent solution, the council has been planning to introduce a pay-and-display parking system for 24 on-street spaces to raise the funds required for enforcement, ensuring the roads remain open for emergency vehicles and safe for pedestrians.
The fee would likely be £6 - £7 ($8 - $9.4) for two hours between March and October.
The charges, benchmarked against other “high-visitor locations,” would bring in up to £218,880 ($294,767) per year, the council said, and garner a profit of up to £360,680 ($485,731) after four years.
Meanwhile, a focus group has been tasked with looking at options for out-of-village parking to ease pressure on Bibury.
Bibury community leader was left “flabbergasted” over Bibury being declared the “world’s most beautiful village”
In a 2025 interview with BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Craig Chapman said that while Bibury is not “anti-tourist,” he finds Forbes’ declaration to be a “double-edged sword.”
“The issue is very much about the mechanisms whereby people come to the village and when they come here, how they behave, where they park,” he said. “We've suffered greatly from congestion, particularly from the larger coaches.”
He also said that being a well-traveled individual, he was “flabbergasted” with the label: “It's a great honor, but it's a little bit of a surprise. There's a lot of competition out there.”
He added there needed to be “harmony” between tourists and local visitors, and said the restrictions were helping.
However, the village is not new to troubles with tourists.
In one 2024 incident, the lack of parking space led to a violent altercation, in which one individual got kicked in the stomach and punched in the face, he shared with the BBC.
Back in 2017, Arlington Row resident Peter Maddox’s “ugly” yellow car was vandalized after tourists blamed it for being a “shot spoiler” and “ruining” their photographs.
The word “MOVE” was scratched into the Vauxhall Corsa’s bonnet, with the driver’s window and the rear windscreen smashed. The Telegraph reported at the time that repairs would cost Maddox over £6,000 ($8,090).
"Tourists are a nightmare." Netizens weighed in on Bibury officials fining visitors for illegally parked vehicles
