European hot spots in the fight against the tourist masses

A worker shouts in Italian, English and French, leading crowds of tourists through the small station. Wild gestures, a fluorescent yellow vest and a booming voice help him stand out on the crowded podium.

Swarms of people with backpacks and water bottles huddle together, some heading for a departing train, others for the exit and stunning views of the sea and cliffs that have transformed the towns of the Cinque Terre in Italy into a global tourist attraction.

Outside the station, queues are forming at grocery stores. Signs indicate that all umbrellas and sun loungers are taken from the paid beach on the Monterosso seafront. The narrow streets are filled with tourists eating ice cream or drinking bubble tea.

“Tourism is necessary, it’s almost all we have here, but it’s too much,” said longtime Cinque Terre resident Angela Costa.

The Italian tourist season has started with a record number of visitors during Holy Week. In the Cinque Terre, congestion was so bad that local authorities turned the region’s famous hiking trails into one-way traffic on the busiest days. The situation repeated itself for several weekends in May and June.

“Easter was crazy, and now it’s up again,” said David Cefaliello, who works at a cafe in Corniglia, another of the Cinque Terre’s five villages. “We’re not at pre-Covid levels yet, but I suspect that will change in a few weeks.”

Millions of Europeans and Americans are taking part in so-called revenge tourism, making up for lost travel time during the pandemic-stricken 2020-22 years. Millions of Chinese tourists are expected to visit Europe this summer and fall after travel restrictions in China were lifted.

Italy is set to surpass the record number of tourists and overnight stays set in 2019, before Covid arrived, according to market research firm Demoskopika. Arrivals in the June-September period are expected to be 3.7% higher than the same period in 2019 and 30% higher than ten years ago. Italy’s tourism ministry has also said it expects a record year, as have officials in Spain and Greece.

All these visitors give a welcome boost to the economies of southern Europe, which are heavily dependent on tourism. In Italy, more than 10% of the economy is linked to travel and tourism, compared to 15% in Spain and 19% in Greece, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. In France and the United States, the level is around 9%.

But locals are increasingly asking how much the Cinque Terre, Barcelona and Athens can support. Discontent is also mounting in some places, spurring local efforts to control the hordes of tourists.

In Portofino, a small, upmarket town on the Italian Riviera popular with international socialites, police issue tickets to people who block pedestrian traffic to take selfies.

In 2024, Venice plans to introduce an entry fee to the city on the busiest days of the year, according to the mayor’s office.

In Barcelona, ​​locals hang signs saying “tourists are terrorists”, while in Athens, locals complain about how the proliferation of Airbnb rentals for tourists is driving up rents and driving Greeks away from the center. city.

In May, there were some 10,000 short-term rentals available in Athens, almost a quarter more than in May 2018, according to market research firm AirDNA. Demand for short-term rentals in Greece rose 62% in May compared to the same month last year, the company said.

Italy’s Alpine region of Alto Adige has limited the number of beds available to tourists at private properties to combat the proliferation of short-term rentals.

The crowds are spreading far beyond the Mediterranean. On the Normandy coast in northern France, authorities have turned people away from Mont Saint-Michel, the tidal island topped by an abbey. The Louvre Museum in Paris has imposed a daily limit on the number of visitors.

The French government is planning an advertising campaign to entice people to travel at different times of the year and to consider lesser-known destinations.

The flow of tourists to France has remained strong even as the country has been rocked by protests, including months of demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age. Now the country is facing riots overnight following the shooting of a teenager by police.

Luxury hotels in Europe are benefiting from the boom, but many are looking for new ways to cater to their high-paying customers despite the huge number of tourists.

“We’re always on the lookout for something we can offer that avoids the crowds, like lesser-known hiking trails, a private boat tour in Capri, or wine tasting,” said Pietro Monti, director of marketing for the five stars. Hotel Mediterráneo near the Amalfi Coast, where rooms cost around $1,200 a night. “But when it’s high season, especially in a peak year like this, it’s bound to be crowded.”

It’s hard to avoid the crowds in Vernazza, the Cinque Terre town just south of Monterosso. On the rocks surrounding the small harbor, bathers compete for space with children kicking a soccer ball and people jumping into the sea. The crowd on the rocks grows when boats arrive from one of the towns neighbours.

Juli Eger, who was drinking wine and eating focaccia one recent morning in Monterosso while ignoring the crowds around her, finds her own solutions.

“We’ve just been to Venice and if you’re walking very early in the morning you just have to share the city with the people taking the engagement photos,” said Eger, who is traveling with her mother, husband and son. teenager. . “If you make Venice your first stop, you will have jet lagso getting up at 5:30 a.m. won’t even be a problem.”