From the Telegraph travel section. The article goes on to mention the limits on personal cars access to the Alpe di Siusi, Venice’s long-threatened plans to limit numbers of tourists and charge a daily fee, as well as thoughts that Cornwall could do the same.
The region of Trentino Alto Adige, bordering Austria and Switzerland, is capping tourist numbers this summer after it has “reached the limit” of how many visitors it can handle, according to tourism minister Arnold Schuler.
The northerly region, home to the Dolomites range and the glacial Lago di Braies (Pragser Wildsee), received 34 million visitors in 2022. The resident population is just over 1 million.
The tourism boom has helped with the area’s post-pandemic recovery – Italy had one of the longest and harshest lockdowns in Europe – but some locals have taken a different view. The area’s growing popularity has led to traffic jams and a shortfall of affordable housing, with queues forming at the tourist sites with the highest footfall.
Under the new rules, from July 10 to September 10, people hoping to visit the photogenic Lago di Braies in their own vehicle will have to apply for an online permit. Everybody else will have to travel by public transport, on foot or by bike between 9am and 4pm. This, local authorities hope, will help to reduce queues on the roads and prevent overcrowding on the footpaths around the lake.