Overloved destinations
Where tourists aren’t welcome
“Tourists are not welcome because of tourism” — that’s the unusual greeting many travellers will get in the coming year when they try to visit some of the world’s top destinations.
According to the Air Transport Action Group, an organization of transport professionals focusing on sustainability, some 3 billion people flew in 2016.
As a consequence of this exponential increase in the tourism, guardians of the world’s treasures are finding that they need to restrict access to ensure protection.
How is that playing out? Just two weeks ago, Peru announced that it would be limiting access to its top attraction: Macchu Picchu.
Visitors would now be required to explore either in the morning or the afternoon (not the entire day, as most have done in the past). They will be led around by guides — no bushwacking — with a maximum of 3,600 allowed to enter the storied site from 6 a.m. to noon; and 2,700 entering in the afternoon after the first batch has left.
Italy also is attacking the effects
of being overloved on a number of fronts.
Venice has put a moratorium on the licensing of new hotels.
Both Rome and Florence are cracking down on tourists picnicking on the steps of churches and the rims of fountains by imposing fines, and in the case of one Florentine church, dumping water from above on picnickers (which doesn’t seem very Christian).
Last year, a number of outlets
reported that the region Cinque Terre would be imposing a ticketing system to limit the number of tourists visiting these small fishing towns.
That hasn’t happened yet, but it’s telling that government officials are discussing it.
In other parts of the world, the island of Santorini in Greece now officially caps the number of people who can arrive daily by boat to 8,000.
The Seychelles Islands have
banned the development of new, large-scale resorts.
And Barcelona, in Spain, is looking at ways to cut down on tourist congestion.
Stay tuned!
Pauline Frommer is the editorial director for the Frommer travel guides and Frommers.com. she co-hosts the radio program “the travel show” with her father, arthur Frommer and is the author of the best-selling “Frommer’s easyguide to new york city.”