Tourists will have to get tickets to visit Cinque Terre this summer
If you want to know why we can't have nice things, the answer is that there are too many people in "we."
And that's especially true at tourist hotspots, which is why Italian officials are putting a cap on the number of tourists who can visit Cinque Terre this summer.
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Cinque Terre, on the coast of the Italian Riviera, is a world heritage site made up of five small fishing villages connected by narrow trails. In the past few years, it has become one of Italy's largest tourist attractions — thanks mainly to day-trippers from cruise ships that dock nearby.
But the tourism explosion has proven too much: In 2011, 400,000 tourists visited Cinque Terre. Last year, that number was 2.5 million.
This year, officials will allow 1.5 million tourists — still a large increase from five years ago, but a potential shock to people who want to visit.
"We will certainly be criticized for this, but for us it is a question of survival."
Starting this summer, tourism will be managed via an online ticketing system. The total number of tickets available each day will be based on weather and trail conditions, Vittorio Alessandro, president of Cinque Terre Park told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
"We installed a pedometer on the trails in order to calculate the maximum load," Alessandro said. "By the summer we will have all the data to establish the number of people that can access each path per day."
Officials hope to establish a tourist-only train system that will only let tourists on who have purchased tickets, and developers are working on an app that would provide live updates about traffic and congestion in each of the villages.
While Alessandro said tickets could be purchased in advance, it is not yet clear how much in advance, or how many tickets would be sold before weather and traffic conditions are known.
The small villages, which date back to the 14th century, do not have the infrastructure to handle large numbers of tourists. Large tour buses are too big for narrow roads, public transit is overwrought and the streets and beaches become crowded with tourists.
"We will certainly be criticized for this, but for us it is a question of survival,” Alessandro said.
If the system does work, Cinque Terre could serve as a model for other popular tourist destinations. Everywhere from the U.S. national parks to Angkor Wat to Barcelona has faced challenges managing record numbers of tourists.
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Cailey studied journalism at SUNY Purchase and french cinema & literature at Paris IV Sorbonne. She is a cynical optimist and Talking Heads karaoke enthusiast. Drop her a line @misscaileyanne
