Bellagio on Lake Como is a popular tourist destination in northern Italy. (Archive image) © IMAGO / Jöran Steinsiek
Italy's tourism hotspots are groaning under mass tourism. Now the next community is speaking out - 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 the north-east of Italy attracts thousands of holidaymakers to its coasts every year. But for residents and communities, the mass of tourists is increasingly becoming a problem. That's why they want to draw consequences.
Because the holiday dream described above is increasingly clouded by seemingly endless traffic jams on the roads leading to the coastal towns, long queues at cable cars, fully booked restaurants and picturesque alleys that are completely clogged by crowds of people from tourist buses. At least that's the lament of the churches.
Tourist collapse also on Lake Como? Alarm already at Easter
Already on the long Easter weekend, the large number of tourists led not only to fully occupied beaches, but also, for example, to the fact that Italian commuters to Switzerland were sometimes unable to show up for work: no getting through. This is now reported by the Italian La Stampa. There seems to be no improvement in sight for the upcoming holidays. That is why the alarm is sounded even before the summer.
View of Torno, a village on Lake Como. (Archive image) © IMAGO/Zoonar.com/Nicola Colombo
"It is important to issue extraordinary provisions for the prohibition/restriction of heavy traffic, especially for coaches, but also in relation to vehicles such as trucks, semi-trailers and so on," Mauro Guerra, the mayor of Tremezzina, wrote to the prefecture, according to the report.
Italy with tourist problems? Hoteliers also warn - and see special problem
And hoteliers are also said to be concerned. Because the coach day trippers could increasingly deter the upscale holidaymakers in their luxury establishments. "Limits on numbers cannot be the solution," says Luca Leoni, president of the Federalberghi Como tourism business association. But: One has 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 not to find a private motorboat the next day or not be able to sit down to eat." This "high-ranking tourist" would then perhaps go on holiday somewhere else in the coming year, according to the tourism expert.
And private rentals - for example via Airbnb - are also a thorn in the side of hoteliers. These could accommodate tourists with "looser rules and costs". This would lead to even greater overcrowding - and to a declining level of tourism.
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Tourist cap in Italy? Other regions are also complaining - and in some cases are already reacting
"The inhabitants of Como don't like an empty Christmas, but neither does Easter with so many people," Alessandro Rapinese, mayor of Como, had recently summed up, according to La Stampa.
Similar considerations for the control of tourism flows had just been made in the tourist magnet Cinque Terre in Liguria. Here, politicians warned of collapse due to overcrowding and demanded legal options to control the flow of visitors.
The South Tyrol region has already taken this seriously. A bed ban was imposed here in 2022 to curb mass tourism.