The all-Italian dilemma of toxic tourism

Two days ago a video shot on the Strada della Forra at Lake Garda, one of the most beautiful scenic road routes in the world, went viral, completely paralyzed by two rows of cars going in opposite directions. It is a video that speaks well of Italy's problem with the phenomenon of mass tourism, which can be summed up, in short, in the concept of "too many people and too little space." The debate on the commodification of the beauty of our country has become central in recent days, with the arrival of the summer season and the arrival of the hordes of tourists initiated after the already legendary fiasco of the Open to Meraviglia campaign, but especially after the news that the mayor of Portofino has banned with fines the assemblages of tourists in the alleys of the Ligurian village, which have become impassable. It is a real dilemma. Italy depends on tourism but Italians hate tourists: already for a long time Venice has ceased to be a real city, turning into a kind of Renaissance theme park, while in Florence a citizen who wanted to visit the Gallerie dell'Accademia would have to stand in line for something like two hours on any given day. Things are no better in Rome, with the scenic Trevi Fountain now hidden by a human carpet constantly crowding every free inch of the square in front of it.

Mass tourism, like any form of mainstream culture, certainly brings business - but it also brings degradation and emptiness, commodification and mortification. Lately then, a video format called "Instagram vs. Reality" has been spreading on social media, showing first the perfect photos in classic influencer poses (if you don't know what they are, you are probably the first to take them without realizing it) and then the behind-the-scenes video of the photo, devoid of color correction, crowded with dozens of other presences who are taking similar photos disfiguring a scenario now devoid of romance or intimacy. Almost as if those same Millennials who kicked off the culture of Instagram-friendly travel and low-cost flying, now in their thirties, are realizing the flaws in a mystified and mystifying narrative that not only deftly edits out the less pleasant sides of certain locations, but also poisons their charm altogether, turning places of history and culture into the backdrop for selfies that will end up buried in the photo galleries of their smartphones. One example out of all? The Tower of Pisa - whose original function as a bell tower is ignored by many. But also Florence's Ponte Vecchio, Pompeii, Capri's Piazzetta, Trinità de' Monti, Taormina, the San Gregorio Armeno complex and Naples' Quartieri Spagnoli are places that Italians themselves avoid because they are now strangled by a toxic tourist presence - in the absence of which, however, many small economic ecosystems would collapse. 

The reason for this co-dependence is that mass tourism has gone from supporting the local economy to deforming it, until the local economies themselves have adapted to exist according to the needs of tourism. The result is the depopulation of these same places: as of today almost half of the beds in Venice are dedicated to tourists and Portofino has just over 300 residents not counting those who have residency there without living there while a recent estimate speaks of more than 10,000 apartments available on AirBnB in Florence alone. Just last year, the mayors of Florence, Bologna and Bergamo put forward legislative proposals to save historic centers taken hostage by hit-and-run tourism while this month Confedilizia and 12 other real estate organizations proposed a five-point document to the Ministry of Tourism to regulate the short tourist rental market while aldermen from 11 of Italy's most important cities meeting in Bologna proposed limiting the number of houses for rent to tourists, to avoid the concentration of rentals in the hands of individuals or associations, and to give municipalities a greater degree of freedom in the management of permits - all areas where deep regulatory gaps exist. Beyond economic and livability factors there are also considerations of the sustainability of mass tourism, which is now believed to be responsible for 8 percent of global annual carbon dioxide emissions. Planes, cars, hotels, and resorts are real devourers of energy and resources as well as the culprits of many emissions, which have been thought to be cut by a tax on kerosene, or aircraft fuel, which could limit consumption but also make tourism an elite industry.

Obviously, it is unthinkable to regulate who can and cannot visit mass tourism destinations, or to create limitations based on access prices, thus making these locations elitist. One possible idea, with complex implementation, is to redefine the very role of tourists by transforming casual consumers into conscious consumers. The attempt has been made in Milan by James Bradburne, director of the Pinacoteca di Brera, who has replaced museum tickets with subscription cards that allow visitors to return to the museum within three months of purchase with the idea of creating an actively involved community and a more contemplative type of fruition. Some doubts remain about its implementation: first, because there is no price distinction between the new subscription and the old ticket and therefore the tourist does not feel any real difference; second, because on the Pinacoteca website it says both that the subscription must be done online and that one can buy the ticket on site creating some ambiguity. Be that as it may, the concept proposed by Bradburne is perhaps the most interesting and least obvious compared to the more intuitive but often belated solutions of high surveillance - which always comes after the damage has been done. Always the Brera museum director, however, has spent many years exposing the problem. In June 2021, talking with Apollo Magazine, used harsh but true words: «Mass tourism was a mistake that created a fragile economy, peaks in visiting, cultural participation that was very trivial and superficial. It turned Italy from a nation of creative designers to a nation of winemakers and restaurant waiters».