Italy
to impose limits on visitors to Cinque Terre with tourist 'ticket'
system
Access
to beautiful and rugged coastal area will be closed this summer once
the number of visitors reaches 1.5 million in order to preserve the
local culture
A
ticketing system for the stretch of coastline in Liguria is to be
introduced this summer to limit the number of tourists treading the
Cinque Terre trail.
Reuters
Wednesday 17
February 2016 01.40 GMT
Italy plans to
severely reduce the number of tourists visiting the Cinque Terre UN
world heritage area this summer because the rugged coastal area risks
being wrecked by coach parties and cruise ships.
About 2.5 million
tourists poured into the picturesque park in north-west Italy’s
Liguria region last year to visit the five small fishing villages,
which are connected by narrow cliffside trails.
Residents say
day-trippers from cruise ships docking at nearby ports have
overwhelmed their communities and the head of the Cinque Terre park
said no more than 1.5 million visitors would be let in this year.
“We will certainly
be criticised for this, but for us it is a question of survival,”
Vittorio Alessandro told la Repubblica newspaper.
Roads leading to the
area are being fitted with devices to gauge the number of people
heading to the villages and once a certain number has been reached,
access will be closed.
Tickets will be sold
ahead of time online and an app created for tourists to show which of
the villages are most congested.
Roads will be
fitted with devices to gauge the number of people in the five
villages.
Accessed by steep,
winding roads, the Cinque Terre, with their brightly coloured houses,
used to be a remote backwater.
However, tourist
numbers have risen sharply in recent years partly as a result of
cruise companies adding more Italian destinations to their
itineraries as other Mediterranean ports, such as Tunisia, lost their
appeal following militant attacks.
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