Queues stretching for kilometers for cable cars, rampant camping, and litter strewn everywhere. On certain days, the Dolomites Mountains can face crowds that rival the hustle of Milan during peak hours. This overwhelming influx creates intolerable conditions for regions with a fragile socio-natural equilibrium, pushing residents to take extreme actions to bring awareness to a problem—overtourism—that is not limited to cultural cities like Venice but also plagues mountainous regions, reports Avvenire.
Following another „Passion Sunday,” Osvaldo Finazzer, head of the Committee for the Protection of the Dolomite Passes, voiced his frustration and displeasure in a powerful declaration.
In essence, he conveys: for us, the inhabitants of the Dolomites, it’s preferable to forfeit the UNESCO World Heritage status awarded to the Dolomites in 2009, which has contributed in part to the issue of overcrowding in the region, to restore a tranquil existence.
„Perhaps it’s time to relinquish the UNESCO designation of the Dolomites, which has inflicted substantial harm on our mountains, among other things, and return to the diligent pursuit of delivering, providing, and endorsing quality services as we traditionally have, instead of merely presenting postcards,” states Finazzer. He points to Lake Braies as a case of the deterioration the mountains endure.
„The fact that it served as the backdrop for the popular series ‘Un passo dal cielo’ escalated the location’s notoriety, and social media fueled the fire, creating a vicious cycle,” says the committee’s report. “The television series highlights a spot, social media magnifies its appeal, overtourism boosts its fame further, which amplifies the problem of ‘overtourism,’ eventually leading to access restrictions, attributing blame to overtourism.”
Recently, significant attention was drawn to the initiative by the landowners managing the path leading to Mount Seceda in Val Gardena. They erected a turnstile that charges thousands of tourists who traverse daily.
This contentious initiative has, however, effectively underscored a phenomenon that is causing serious cohabitation challenges between the throngs of tourists and residents, who are fed up with the constant strain. Even the Italian Alpine Club, while reasserting that mountain tourism should remain free and open to everyone, has stressed the „impacts of uncontrolled mass tourism in mountainous regions.”
And not only in mountains, as Finazzer himself underscores in his provocative plea. „The Amalfi Coast or Cinque Terre face similar situations,” he insists, „areas marketed only as postcard imagery, doomed to international recognition and now both victims and captives even with limited traffic zones considered for the Dolomites.”
Perhaps it’s time to ponder whether we wish to promote the postcard representation of the UNESCO-listed Dolomites or cultivate a quality tourism economy that offers superior services, encourages tourism to remain in the region, engage with the trails, and appreciate the identity and culture of the locales? The two concepts, postcard imagery and quality tourism, cannot harmoniously coexist, as demonstrated in Braies, the Dolomites, Amalfi Coast, or Cinque Terre,” Finazzer concludes.
Photo: © Kenny Simpson | Dreamstime.com
