Some countries are unleashing heavy artillery against tourists

Overtourism threatens many localities in Europe and around the world. More and more cities are looking for and finding solutions to contain it.

Like the Japanese city of Kyoto, which is preparing to significantly increase its tourist taxes imposed on visitors, many tourist sites around the world have taken measures to limit mass attendance which clogs and damages them. .

Tax access to cities more heavily

Venice is trying to limit the influx of tourists into its historic center by establishing a paid period for day visits. Established in April 2024 for 29 days between April and July, it will be extended to 54 days in 2025.

For its part, Rome plans to charge for access to the famous Trevi Fountain.

More generally, in Italy, the government plans to significantly increase the tourist tax to deal with overtourism in the country, the fourth largest tourist destination in the world.

In Spain, the second largest destination in the world behind France, several cities threatened with saturation have taken the lead, driven by the exasperation of their inhabitants.

The seaside town of San Sebastián, in the Basque Country (north), now limits tourist groups in its center to 25 people after banning the use of loudspeakers during guided tours.

The same provision (with a capacity of 20 people) was adopted in Catalonia by Barcelona, ​​which also limited the groups visiting its famous Boqueria market.

Limit the number of cruise ships

Also in Spain, the very popular island of Majorca, in the Balearic archipelago, has limited arrivals on its coasts to a maximum of three cruise ships since 2022, including only one “mega-liner”. Its neighbor Menorca will limit car access.

Two cruise ships per day, four thousand passengers in each maximum: emblematic of overtourism, the Croatian city of Dubrovnik has been rationing arrivals by sea since 2019 in the streets of its medieval city, overwhelmed by fans of the “Game of Thrones” series.

Fans of Cersei Lannister will recognize King’s Landing, for others, here is Dubrovnik. Keystone

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Extending its already long list of measures against mass tourism, Amsterdam has banned its city center from cruise ships since 2023.

Limit the number of tourists with quotas

In the south-east of France, the Calanques national park requires reservations for access to the Sugiton cove, which is threatened by erosion. Since 2022, access has been limited to 400 people per day in summer, when 2,500 people could previously cram into the narrow rocky space.

Elsewhere on the Mediterranean coast, the Var island of Porquerolles, in the Port-Cros national park, limits its attendance to 6,000 visitors at the height of summer.

In Thailand, Maya Bay, a paradise beach on the island of Koh Phi Phi Ley, closed between June 2018 and January 2022, in order to achieve complete restoration of the coral reefs.

Immortalized in 2010 in the film “The Beach” with Leonardo di Caprio, the site had been ravaged by years of mass tourism. Up to 6,000 people per day then flooded onto the narrow beach, causing an ecological disaster. The places have reopened with a limited capacity.

The famous site of Pompeii, in Italy, launched a nominative entry ticket in November 2024 and imposed a maximum number of 20,000 visits per day.

Create fakes to save heritage

Discovered in 1940 in Dordogne, in the south-west of France, the prehistoric cave of Lascaux has been closed to the public since 1963. The crowds and the developments made to facilitate access have permanently destabilized the site, threatened by mushrooms and mold.

Three replicas, built between 1983 and 2016, however, allow you to admire the site, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

Charge and limit: the combo

Another site victim of its success, the mythical Mount Fuji, near Tokyo, where a daily quota of people will apply from this summer to take the most popular trail, while charging access a little less than 12 francs (2000 yen).

Last summer, the measure bore fruit: Mount Fuji experienced a 14% drop in attendance compared to the previous season.

But the famous Japanese mountain generates overtourism even in the towns that surround it. To the point that Fujikawaguchiko, a small Japanese town, installed a high opaque net in the spring of 2024 to hide a view of Mount Fuji, popular with tourists.

(afp)

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