Italy: the large number of tourists causes heavy traffic

The increasingly high number of tourists on the roads of the famous and beautiful villages of Cinque Terre in Italy is the main cause of heavy traffic. The authorities that run the Cinque Terre national park in northwestern Italy have decided to introduce a ticketing system in an attempt to reduce the number of people visiting by around 40% – from 2.5 million last year to 1.5 million this year, writes Lonely Planet online newspaper.

The growth of Chinese tourists’ number is one of the reasons for which this Italian national park, part of the UNESCO heritage, home of about 5,000 residents, attracted 2.5 million tourists last year. This year, due to concerns about the instability and terrorist threats in destinations such as Tunisia and Turkey, the number of tourists arriving in Italy could increase by 20%, explained Vittorio Alessandro, President Cinque Terre National Park.

“It may seem a bit eccentric to want to cut the number of tourists when the general trend elsewhere is to increase tourism, but for us this is now a question of survival,” Vittorio Alessandro, the head of the Cinque Terre National Park, told La Repubblica newspaper. “No doubt people will criticize us, but we have to reduce the number of arrivals.”

More, other symbols of Italian tourism such as Venice, Florence or Capri were facing similar pressures that have led authorities to limit access in certain areas. “If on that day the path is all sold out, visitors will have to postpone their visit to the next available date.” said Vittorio Alessandro.