Interesting short video clip on Hallstatt with and without tourists: "it's oh so quiet in the alpine village of Hallstatt, Austria and its 800 residents (kinda) like it."
Tweet and video by Deutsche Welle:
https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1251491913473105921
They want fewer tourists who spend more. Good luck.
It's a charming village. We were there one afternoon. Pretty much exhausted the "tourability" of this pretty place.
Paul, towards the end of the video, some of the residents explain that they don't like either extreme, no-tourism nor overtourism, and they want to find a new middle ground when international tourism eventually starts to trickle back, which is quite reasonable.
The problem is the bus tourists, arriving in droves, walking quickly through the crammed city center, maybe buying some junk made in China, and leaving shortly afterwards. This is an annoyance for guests who stay longer, and for the businesses not seeing any significant revenue from bus tourists.
Therefore the number of busses per day had been limited, the entry ticket has been raised, a time slot system has been introduced, and the minimum stay for bus tourists has been extended to 2½ hours.
At the current situation all this is moot, of course. But Hallstatt would like to see tourists staying for a night at least, taking their time to enjoy the beauty of this town.
I visited twice, about twenty years apart, both times towards the end of September on a nice day. There was a noticeable difference in terms of crowds but not unbearably so ( last time about 8 years ago).
We returned because we were fairly close by and I had upgraded to a much better camera. Unfortunately, there was a huge construction crane at the bottom end of the village.
Wmt1, is the time slot system strictly for daytrippers using buses? And yes, whether it be Rothenburg, Assisi or Hallstatt, plenty of knick-knacks made in China.
Similar problem as in Venice. Beautiful city and location, spoiled by overcrowding.
is the time slot system strictly for daytrippers using buses?
It was planned to enforce the new bus regulations end of February 2020. I don't know what the legal situation is at the moment.
The time slots refer to the arrival time only for tourist busses. The departure time must be 2½ or more hours later.
Tourists arriving by car or public transport are not limited.
The blonde woman talks reasonable
