Travel influencers are responsible for luring thousands of eager tourists to beauty spots, and not everyone is happy about it. In fact, in the Dolomites, some farmers are so unhappy about their private land being used to secure the perfect spot that they have installed turnstiles.
The turnstiles mean that tourists and influencers alike will now have to pay 5 euros (nearly $9) to access ‘Instagrammable’ spots, including the Seceda and Drei Zinnen (Three Peaks) mountain ranges.
Unfortunately, rather than deterring tourists, the turnstiles have had the opposite effect. Lines of up to 4,000 people have been seen queuing by the gates. The media around the turnstiles has further put the spot on the map.
A frustrated Carlo Zanella, president of the Alto Adige Alpine Club, compared the tourists to sheep.
“The media’s been talking about the turnstiles, everyone’s been talking about it,” Zanella told CNN. “And people go where everyone else goes. We’re sheep.”
Zanella wants tourists banned from the Dolomites altogether.
Whilst Italian law mandates free national parks, Italian authorities have yet to push back.
Zanella thinks that the Italian government would install an entry fee system like they have in Venice.
“I would increase the price from 5 to 100 euros,” he said. “And close the accounts of travel influencers.”
He says that lack of awareness about navigating the mountains puts visitors at risk: “Once upon a time, those who came up to the mountains were prepared, dressed for the mountains, and came for hiking, especially the Germans, who had maps and knew where to go. The Italians, on the other hand, set off, go, and take a cable car,” he says in a statement shared with CNN.
“Now I’ve seen people go up to Seceda with sun umbrellas and flip-flops and get stuck because the cable car closed and they hadn’t checked the lift schedules (…) This isn’t what the mountains should be.”
The local tourism board insists that the issue is being overblown.
“Things have improved significantly,” Lukas Demetz, president of the Santa Cristina Tourist Board, said in a statement.
“And even the litter problem isn’t as serious as people say. It’s significantly reduced.”
