YOU’RE NOT WELCOME ANYMORE

Wish you weren’t here. Marion McMullen looks at the tourist hot spots that are putting a curb on visitors to protect famous sites

LEONARDO DICAPRIO, left, made Thailand’s Maya Beach famous in the movie The Beach and it now attracts up to 5,000 visitors a day – so overwhelming that Thai authorities announced this week they will be closing the cove on Koh Phi Phi Lei for four months annually starting in June to allow the island’s coral reefs to recover. THE number of tourists visiting the colourfully painted Italian cliff side towns of Cinque Terre, right, has been growing. The area is home to 5,000 residents, but attracts more than two million visitors a year and paths through the vineyards have become eroded through overuse.

There is now an app which alerts tourists with a red warning sign when routes are overcrowded. 3 THE Peruvian government closes the famous Inca trail through the Andes to Machu Picchu every February to clean and maintain the ancient site and limits the number of people who can hike the trail every season. Tourists must book ahead for tickets to visit the famous mountain citadel. AUTHORITIES in the Seychelles have announced a ban on new large hotel developments to help slow down the number of visitors to the area. No new hotels with 25 rooms or more can be built until the end of 2020.

Around a quarter of a million people visit the Seychelles every year. RWANDA now charges tourists around £1,000 a day for a gorilla-watching permit at the Volcanoes National Park. An official said: “Gorilla trekking is a unique experience. We have raised the price of permits to ensure sustainability of conservation initiatives and enhance visitors’ experience.” SCOTLAND’S Isle Of Skye has become increasingly popular with visitors in recent years and Harry Styles filmed his music video for Sign Of The Times there. Police Scotland have warned tourists in the past to use “common sense” and book ahead to arrange accommodation before their trip or risk having to sleep in the car because every bed on Skye is taken. BORACY Island in the Philippines is closing to tourists for six months from April 26. President Rodrigo Duterte said it had become an overcrowded “cesspool” and the closure was needed to deal with environmental damage. Almost two million tourists visited the island last year. 8 THERE is likely to be a cap on the number of domestic visitors to India’s Taj Mahal to 40,000 a day to protect the 17th century monument. Indian visitors would have to pay for a pass to visit the site, but there would be no cap on the number of foreign tourists. Around eight million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. 9 SECURITY cameras are being used to help limit the number of tourists to the old town of Dubrovnik in Croatia and the number of visiting cruise ships has been cut. Overcrowding became a growing problem in the area after it was used for the setting for King’s Landing in TV fantasy drama Game Of Thrones. 10 NEARLY two million tourists a year visit the small Greek island of Santorini and mayor Nikolaos Zorzos limited the number of cruise ship passengers disembarking every day to 8,000 last year down from up to 18,000 in the past.