Hiking the coastal path that links the medieval fishing villages of Italy’s Cinque Terre on its northwest coast is a stop-start affair these days.
Nestled between azure expanses of sea and dry-stone terraced mountains that cascade into the Mediterranean, the rocky way is barely 30cm wide in places.
And as visitors arrive in ever greater numbers to see why this corner of the Riviera features on so many travel bucket lists, pedestrian traffic jams made the going slow on a sweltering August morning.
Photo: AFP
However, Chinese student Hardy Yang has no complaints on the crowded path between Monterosso and Vernazza, two of the five villages that make up Cinque Terre.
“Words fail me, it is so amazing,” the 18-year-old said, as he and his family, from Yunnan Province, took a breather. “Are there too many people? No. You know, in China, everywhere you go there are so many people. [For us] there are few people here.”
A surge in the number of Chinese visitors is only one of the reasons that the Cinque Terre, a UNESCO world heritage site that is home to about 5,000 people, attracted 2.5 million tourists last year.
Moreover, with instability and security concerns placing countries like Tunisia and Turkey off limits for many holiday operators, the total is set to be 20 percent higher this year, Cinque Terre National Park president Vittorio Alessandro said.
Other iconic Italian settings, such as Venice, Florence and the celebrity hangout of Capri, are feeling similar strains, triggering debate about the possibility of capping access.
“The relationship between visitors and residents is in danger of becoming a conflictual one,” Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro recently said.
Brugnaro is spearheading a campaign for local authorities responsible for the most saturated sites to be given special powers to limit access — a measure Italy’s center-left government is considering.
Alessandro made waves earlier this year when he unveiled plans to monitor the numbers of people entering the 43km2 of the Cinque Terre. Ticket prices to access the coastal paths were raised to 7.50 euros (US$8.50) per day and visitors are now made to pay higher rail ticket prices than locals.
The initiative sparked headlines about the specter of quotas leading to tourists being turned away at road barriers or denied access to the trains that ferry the hordes to quayside lunches of spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams).
To date, nobody has been turned away.
Alessandro says the objective is only to reduce the numbers at peak times to more manageable levels.
“We don’t have gates, we don’t have barriers, the park is open, the stations are open,” Alessandro told AFP TV. “But this is a small and fragile territory and, yes, influxes have to be rationalized.
“This landscape can only be preserved by people living in it; otherwise, it becomes nothing more than a cinema set,” he said.
Efforts so far have been focused on expanding train services to spread the flow of arriving and departing visitors more evenly.
Train operator TrenItalia kicks back some of its increased revenue to the National Park, which uses it to maintain the walking paths and the terraces which shaped the region’s celebrated landscape.
Alessandro says the system is working well with this year’s increased numbers generating fewer incidents of painfully log-jammed village streets or dangerous overcrowding on train station platforms.
However, challenges remain, particularly in dealing with cruise ship crowds, he said.
It is like “organizing a party at your house with no idea of how many people are going to turn up,” he said.
“Sustainable tourism is something that benefits the area, the host and the visitor, but a tourism that is so quick and frantic leaves nothing to the territory,” he said.
Chiara Gasparini, a native of the region who guides walking groups, says most locals have benefited from the Cinque Terre’s fame, highlighting how the new interest from Asia had helped extend the season into the traditionally quiet months of January and February.
“Obviously it depends who you talk to,” she said. “But there are many people who work in tourism and it is thanks to tourism that people have the opportunity to stay and work in their homeland.”
French visitor Camilla Leconte has seen the region transformed in the 30 years she has been visiting.
“For good or bad? I really don’t know. I said to someone in Vernazza: ‘There are really a lot of people here,’ and she replied: ‘There are never enough,’” Leconte said.
“I suppose charging for the hiking paths is a way also of limiting numbers because the price is not insignificant,” she said.
“But limiting things by money also raises questions. Does that mean those who can afford can come, those who can’t, can’t?” she asked.
PROTECTIONISM: China hopes to help domestic chipmakers gain more market share while preparing local tech companies for the possibility of more US sanctions Beijing is stepping up pressure on Chinese companies to buy locally produced artificial intelligence (AI) chips instead of Nvidia Corp products, part of the nation’s effort to expand its semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions. Chinese regulators have been discouraging companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, which are used to develop and run AI models, sources familiar with the matter said. The policy has taken the form of guidance rather than an outright ban, as Beijing wants to avoid handicapping its own AI start-ups and escalating tensions with the US, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
CHEMICAL FIRE: 10 Indian employees were injured by smoke inhalation at a Tata Electronics plant in Tamil Nadu state that produces components for Apple Inc At least 10 people received medical treatment, with two hospitalized after a major fire on Saturday disrupted production at a key Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd plant in southern India that makes Apple Inc’s iPhone components. The fire occurred at the plant in the city of Hosur in Tamil Nadu state that makes some iPhone components. It broke out near another building inside the Tata complex, which was to begin producing complete iPhones in the coming months. The fire was contained to one building and has been extinguished fully, top district administrative official K.M. Sarayu said. No decision has been made on when
RSS