Le Cinque Terre to limit visitors & access to trails
 

It says that the sheer number of tourists is overwhelming the place, so they are planning to require some sort of admission card (price to be determined), limits to numbers of hikers on the trails (depending on conditions) by prohibiting entry to a trail after the daily limit has been reached, and running tourist only trains so the locals can travel without being overwhelmed by tourist and pickpockets. The goal is to reduce tourism by one million visitors per year.

Smart plan. Wish Venice could/would do that.

The very popular West Coast Trail in British Columbia had to put in place a system of permits and reservations to limit the number of hikers and damage to the area.
Making these changes in the CT might actually make it more pleasant to visit.

I'm not sure the tourist train idea will work. I don't think they can forbid nontourists to use it, although they won't want to if it costs more, as seems to be the idea being floated (according to La Repubblica). Nor can they prevent tourists from using the regular trains.

Maybe they could run a cute colorful train with big windows and a running tourist commentary in five languages. No one except tourists would want to use that.

Anyway, it looks, from the article in La Repubblica, that all of these are only proposals. It's a good idea, but I'll bet that the hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, and souvenir shops will oppose it.

The place that really needs to limit visitors is the Vatican Museums. I hate to think what would happen if a fire broke out there during visiting hours.

What better place to die than in God's foremost servant' s place ?

Rothenburg, Bellagio, Portofino, Sirmione and Venice for Italian starters need to follow suit?

I was in CT for the first time last summer (mid July) and was appalled at how busy the towns were. It did quiet down a bit after the weekend, but there were just too many people for the size of the towns. Strangely enough I did not find the trails crowded at all. I am not sure how they will effectively limit tourists, but I think it would make the experience more pleasant. There was definitely a lack of public benches or spaces to sit down. We didn't really have too much trouble finding space in restaurants though. Just lots of people milling about!

>>"I am not sure how they will effectively limit tourists"<<

I don't know if you read the article, but the park authorities hope to be able to use the already existing system for selling passes to the trails to limit access by selling fewer. They also want to install crowd "counters" on both the trails and entry points to the villages so towns, so tour guides could access the crowd info with an "app" to see where crowds were thickest and adjust their tour. (Similar to the way traffic flow is monitored on highways and warnings are relayed up the road). The idea is for cruise ship tours in particular to not all pile into the same towns and attempt to see them in the exact same order every day.

>>" It's a good idea, but I'll bet that the hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, and souvenir shops will oppose it. "<<

Right now the biggest opposition seems to be coming from the regional authority in Liguria, which also represents the interests of La Spezia. The port of La Spezia and the town benefit quite a bit from mass tourism to le Cinque Terre, with few of the downsides. Likewise Levanto and a few other towns very few people would visit were it not for the proximity to le Cinque Terre.

I have always thought that Cinque Terre needed to limit the numbers of tourists on the trails if nothing else to protect the fragile environment, however I am sure that the local business' have always been opposed. However what has changed in recent years is La Spezia becoming a cruise ship port of call with 1000's of day trippers disgorging on the trails. Maybe good for the trains and bars, but from what I hear from visitors the villages are packed whenever one or more cruise ships are in and its not pleasant to visit.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a6877896.html

Maybe in Venice they can force everybody to WALK places rather than riding on those boats.