Tickets to visit the ruins buried by Mount Vesuvius, which have attracted 4 million tourists this summer, will be limited to 20,000 per day.
Pompeii, Italy. Photo: Pixabay
Pompeii will limit visitors to 20,000 a day and introduce personalized tickets from next week in an effort to deal with over-tourism and protect the world heritage site, officials said.
This summer, a record 4 million people visited the remains of the ancient Roman city, which was buried under ash and rock after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, writes theguardian.com.
The director of the archaeological park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, said that visitors to the main site currently exceed an average of 15,000-20,000 each day, and the new daily cap would prevent further increases in numbers.
“We are working on a number of projects to reduce human pressure on the site, which could pose risks both to visitors and to the heritage which is so unique and fragile”, stated Zuchtriegel.
Park admission tickets will be personalized beginning November 15 to include visitors’ first and last names. A maximum of 20,000 tickets will be issued each day at specific time slots during the summer.
Park administrators try to encourage tourists to visit other ancient sites related to Pompeii, including Stabiae, Oplontis and Boscoreale. by providing a free bus within the Greater Pompeii project.
“Measures to manage flows and safety and personalize visits are part of this strategy,” Zuchtriegel stated. “We aim for a slow, sustainable, pleasant and mass-free tourism and, above all, spread over the entire territory surrounding the Unesco site, which is full of cultural gems to discover.”
In April, Venice became the first major tourist city in the world to impose an entrance fee as part of a test aimed at discouraging day-trippers and due to return next year. The €5 charge, which applied for 29 peak days and ended in July, was also an emergency response by local authorities to avoid the UNESCO heritage site being blacklisted.
