In many countries, overtourism has become a problem. With more people visiting, many regions are becoming overrun by tourists, leaving them to deal with the negative impacts of mass tourism, which causes pollution and damage to the places and sites.
An Alpine Town Protests
Hallstatt, a small Alpine town in northern Austria, is famous as the setting for several films. Scenes from the musical Sound of Music were shot here. The city served as the idea for the imaginary country of Arendelle in Disney's 2013 movie. The lakefront Pfarrkirche's much-photographed steeple has appeared on computer screensavers, South Korean TV dramas, and over a million Instagram posts. This has led to hordes of tourists descending on the town every year.
Now, residents of the Austrian town, which is a World Heritage Site, are fed up of day-trippers. They have held protests to fight back against overtourism by blocking the road leading to their Instagram-famous hamlet.
The village in the Austrian Alps has only 750 permanent residents but gets more than 10,000 visitors every day, many of whom are from Asia. The town is only accessible by a single road, which can become congested during peak vacation season.
Activists are now pressing for a restriction on the number of private automobiles and tourists allowed in Hallstatt every day.