Turnstiles have been installed on paths running up to beauty spots, including the Seceda and Drei Zinnen (Three Peaks) mountain ranges in Italy’s Dolomites by fed-up farmers
Influencers are being kept out of a breathtaking spot by turnstiles.
In a bid to stop Instagram and TikTok travel content creators from luring more people to a beautiful and once serene destination in the Dolomites, farmers in the area have taken action.
The landowners have installed turnstiles on the hillsides leading to spots including the Seceda and Drei Zinnen (Three Peaks) mountain ranges. For the small price of €5 (£4.35), visitors can buy entry to the stunning destinations. The move comes after one pretty town in Austria installed anti-selfie fences to put visitors off.
As well as raising questions about public access to the land and whether anyone has the right to install a hulking metal turnstile on a mountain, it seems that the plan has backfired. Reports of the turnstiles have spread like wildfire in Italy, prompting great flocks of people to pay them a visit. Lines of up to 4,000 people have been seen queuing by the gates.
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Carlo Zanella, president of the Alto Adige Alpine Club, compared the tourists to sheep. “The media’s been talking about the turnstiles, everyone’s been talking about it. And people go where everyone else goes. We’re sheep,” he told CNN.
“I would increase the price from 5 to 100 euros. And close the accounts of travel influencers.” Mr Zanella has taken a hardline approach, demanding that tourists be banned from the Dolomites altogether.
The mountain enthusiast has gripes with modern visitors, arguing that many of them do not respect the peaks or understand how dangerous they can be. He says things have changed for the worse, with the know-how and preparedness of visitors noticeably diminishing in recent years.
“Now I’ve seen people go up to Seceda with sun umbrellas and flip‑flops and get stuck because the cable car closed and they hadn’t checked the lift schedules (…) This isn’t what the mountains should be,” Mr Zanella added.
Lukas Demetz, president of the Santa Cristina Tourist Board, said in a statement that the situation on the mountains has “improved significantly” and that reports of litter issues have been overblown.
The issue of how to deal with large numbers of tourists and their sometimes negative impact on communities is an ongoing one.
Protests sweeping Spain have seen tourists urged to “go home”, but some Soller Valley locals now fear their message has been too effective. One hotelier told the Majorca Daily Bulletin: “We’ve scared the tourists away. I wouldn’t want to spend my holidays in a place where I don’t feel welcome.”
A server at a tourism-dependent local eatery revealed the area had battled to pull in the visitor numbers of bygone years. They said: “Except on weekends or rainy days, there’s not much going on here; we’re just waiting around, and it’s been like this since May.”