Twenty thousand visitors per day and not one more: the famous archaeological site of Pompeii established this limit on Friday November 15, 2024 to deal with overtourism. “These are essentially security reasons, both for visitors and staff, but also for the protection of heritage.“, which led to this measure, according to Gabriel Zuchtriegel, general director of the site.
“As the low season begins, we have the opportunity to experiment with this measure. We want to guarantee all visitors a quality experience, it should never be mass tourism, quality must always be at the center“, he insisted.
In 2023, four million people visited Pompeii, the latest Italian tourist site to take measures to limit overtourism.
Venice has thus introduced an entry fee (5 euros) to visit the city of the Doges for the day. In 2024, this measure concerned 29 busy days between April and July, but in 2025, it will be extended to 54 days.
The famous “path of love” winding between land and sea in the Cinque Terre park (north-west) reopened in July after long works, but visitors now have to pay 5 euros.
In Rome, access to the Trevi Fountain will be regulated and will undoubtedly become subject to payment. And on the bridges of Florence, in Tuscany, graffiti flourishes “Tourists go home!“(Tourists, go home!).
In Pompeii, the limit of 20,000 people per day is also supposed to achieve a “sustainable growth“, emphasizes Mr. Zuchtriegel. His idea is to expand the area that can be visited, as well as the surrounding archaeological areas, so that it can ultimately accommodate more than 20,000 visitors in safe conditions.
This project “will allow in the short term, I am convinced, to review this figure (from 20,000 visitors) which is, I repeat, experimental, and to decide whether we need to adjust it according to a constantly evolving situation“added the director.
Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Pompeii, the second most visited tourist site in Italy after the Colosseum, covers a total area of approximately 22 hectares, a third of which is still buried under ashes.
The volcanic ash spewed 2,000 years ago by Vesuvius sedimented on most of the homes of Pompeii, which allowed them to be almost completely preserved, as did many of the bodies of the 3,000 deaths caused by the catastrophe.
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