Italy's tourism hotspots are groaning under mass tourism.
Now the next community is speaking up - and wants to take steps.
Como/Turin - Turquoise-blue water framed by green Alpine slopes paired with stylish Art Nouveau villas and Italian flair.
With this mixture, Lake Como in north-eastern Italy attracts thousands of holidaymakers to its shores every year.
But for residents and communities, the mass of tourists is increasingly becoming a problem.
That's why you want to draw conclusions.
Because the holiday dream described above is increasingly clouded by endless traffic jams on the roads leading to the coastal towns, long queues for cable cars, fully booked restaurants and picturesque alleys that are completely blocked by crowds from tourist buses.
At least that's the lament of the communities.
Tourist collapse also on Lake Como?
Alarm already at Easter
Already on the long Easter weekend, the large number of tourists not only led to fully occupied beaches, but also to the fact that some Italian commuters to Switzerland could not come to work: no way through.
This is what the Italian
La Stampa
is now reporting .
There doesn't seem to be any improvement in sight for the upcoming holidays.
That's why the alarm is sounded before the summer.
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View of Torno, a village on Lake Como.
(archive image)
© IMAGO/Zoonar.com/Nicola Colombo
"It is important to adopt extraordinary provisions for the prohibition/restriction of heavy traffic, especially for coaches, but also in relation to vehicles such as trucks, articulated lorries and so on," wrote Mauro Guerra, the mayor of Tremezzina, after the report. to the prefecture.
Italy with tourist problems?
Hoteliers also warn - and see a special problem
And hoteliers should also be concerned.
Because the coach day trippers could increasingly scare off the upscale vacationers in their luxury establishments.
"Number limits cannot be the solution," says Luca Leoni, President of the Federalberghi Como Tourist Entrepreneurs' Association.
But: You have to pay attention to the “quality of the arrivals”.
The problem is not easy to solve, he admits and then makes it clear: "Considering how much a tourist pays for an overnight stay at the lake, we can't afford that he doesn't find a private motorboat or himself the next day can't sit down to eat."
According to the tourism expert, this "high-ranking tourist" might then go on vacation somewhere else next year.
And private rentals - for example via Airbnb - are a thorn in the side of the hoteliers.
These could accommodate tourists with "relaxed rules and costs".
This leads to even more overcrowding - and to a falling level of tourism.
Tourist cap in Italy?
Other regions are also complaining - and some are already reacting
"The inhabitants of Como don't like an empty Christmas, but neither do they like Easter with so many people," Alessandro Rapinese, Mayor of Como,
recently summarized according to
La Stampa .
Similar considerations for controlling tourism flows had only recently been given in the tourist magnet Cinque Terre in Liguria.
Here politicians warned of collapse due to overcrowding and called for legal options to control the flow of visitors.
Rediscover a country: you have never seen Italy like this
Rediscover a country: you have never seen Italy like this
The South Tyrol region has already taken this seriously.
A bed freeze was imposed here in 2022 to curb mass tourism.
