The experience convinced the locals. The attendance of the islands of the national park of Port-Cros (Var), of which Porquerolles is part, will be for the third consecutive year limited to 6,000 visitors per day this summer, in particular to protect the environment, announced Monday the metropolis of Toulon.
This national park located on the Côte d'Azur, which includes the islands of Porquerolles, Port-Cros and Levant, considered among the most beautiful in the Mediterranean, has been confronted for several years with mass tourism. The island of Porquerolles also suffers from a chronic lack of drinking water, forcing the Var authorities to transport it each season using tanker rotations. To remedy this, the authorities had introduced attendance quotas as early as 2021.
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"The actors in charge of the environment and economic actors as well as summer visitors seem satisfied in their vast majority by this innovative device," he added. The measure, effective from the end of June to August 31, also aims to limit mass tourism, in order to "maintain a quality tourist experience". A "boatmaster's charter" will contractually limit the number of passengers using the public shuttle shipping service. On the other hand, this control will be difficult to apply for private boaters whose dozens of boats anchor off the beaches of these islands.
Quotas, popular
Such initiatives imposing visitor quotas have multiplied in recent years in order to limit overcrowding at certain sites. In Marseille, for example, a calanque had introduced a mandatory reservation system for the summer of 2022, a device renewed this summer. The municipality of Crozon (Finistère) is trying to make "counter-advertising" to avoid the public going to one of its beaches, considered one of the most beautiful in Europe.