As stories of tourists behaving badly continue to abound, CNN has analysed some of the reasons why Italy in particular seems to suffer moreincidents than other places.
Sheer numbers?
Citing figures from Italy’s tourist board, CNN notes“Italy is full to bursting. International visitor numbers from January to July 2022 were up 172% on 2021 and even 57% on pre-pandemic records.”
The same source reveals that 2023 is going to be another bumper year; the first quarter, even before the summer had hit, witnessed international arrivals soar again by 86%.
As well as those who arrive by air, many Europeans drive to Italy and those figures are not yet included.
The question is where are all the extra tourists going? Italy’s famous sites cannot get bigger to accommodate them. Without clever footfall management, this means either more tourists crammed into the same size of venue, or more tourists queuing and becoming frustrated.
Post-Covid-19?
As well as the problem of sheer numbers, some point out that some tourists seem to be exhibitinga sense of freedom and entitlement now that they are finally able to travel again.
Eike Schmidt, director of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery is on record in 2022 describing the phenomenon: “It’s your first trip in two years, you’re young and not allowed alcohol in your home country, you’re here for the first time and you might engage in behavior you’d be ashamed of at home.”
That behaviour might include carving your name into priceless monuments, smashing artefacts, riding your vehicle around historic sites, or helping yourself to water from the Trevi Fountain.
Or it might involve complaining about the very traditions of the place you’ve chosen to visit.
Some of this, say for example Venice’s Chief Commissioner Gianfranco Zarantonello and psychologist Dr Audrey Tang, is driven by the search for notoriety and original content for social media, and fuelled by a sense of anonymity and wildness that being on vacation brings, witness therecent invasion of a 16th century Florence fountain for the sake of a photograph, reported by Travel Tomorrow.
Nothing new?
On the other hand, Schmidt and others recognise the anti-social behaviour is nothing new. “I don’t think it’s worse this year – I think what we’ve got now is where we stopped in 2019, and it’s come back because the visitors have come back,” he added.
The data though shows a sharp rise in incidentsinvolving what Venice’s Mayor has called “imbeciles”. There were 47 incidents of canal swimming in Venice in 2022, nearly double 2021’s figure, as well as at least 46 monuments defaced.
Chief Commissioner Gianfranco Zarantonello told CNN it was down to numbers. “They’re behaving as they’ve always behaved, it’s just that this year the numbers have returned to what they were pre-pandemic and that corresponds to an increase in boorish behavior,” he said at the time.
Sometimes Venice isn’t seen as a city. Tourists behave as if it’s the beach.
Gianfranco Zarantonello, Chief Commissioner
Uniquely sensitive sites versus ‘dolce vita’
Zarantonello’s point about how visitors perceive Italy as a destination has been made by others too.
Tom Jenkins, CEO of the European Tourism Association (ETOA), told CNN that Italy is a “uniquely sensitive” destination, where visitors and residents must coexist within “fragile environments and architecture as cities of art”. This can make “an explosive combination” he explained.
Compounding the problem of living cities that are filled with priceless monuments and artworks, is Italy’s reputation for the dolce vita, or good life.Visitors to Italy are not necessarily seeking an immersion in national heritage, but rather a good time, which can be problematic when as Maria Pasquale, author and journalist told CNN, there is a perception that ‘In Italy there are no rules.’
New laws and other methods
Back at the Uffizi, staff worked in 2018 to clean off graffiti and marks left by greasy-handed tourists who choose to eat late at night on their precious stone benches. The “zero tolerance” style policy helped to stop people feeling free to damage the pristine environment, director Schmidt told CNN.
Meanwhile another more direct way to change anyperception of lawlessness might be about to work its way through parliament in the form of legislation intended to introduce swingeing fines for vandalism and damage to artefacts and monuments.
