Italian beach caps daily entry to preserve environment

A beach in Italy joins other popular destinations by charging entry, in an attempt to reduce negative environmental impacts

Spotted: Due largely to the exponential growth of international air travel, tourist sites around the world are experiencing staggering increases in visiting numbers. Many are now turning to timed or ticketed entry, or caps on the number of visitors allowed each day. The latest to take this approach is Sardinia’s La Pelosa beach. Local officials have decided to limit daily visits to 1,500 and tourists must purchase a ticket in advance of their visit.

The new rules will take effect before summer 2020. Other well-known sites trying to juggle the benefits of tourism with the ecological stress on local environments include the Italian city of Venice, Machu Picchu and Thailand’s Maya Bay beach. Since early 2019, Venice has charged day-trippers an entrance fee, and the city’s officials are very open about the on-going challenges they face in preserving the city.

Peru’s Machu Picchu has been charging admission and capping the number of daily visitors for years, and in January 2019, the country’s National Institute of Culture updated the charges and times available for entry. However, possibly the most famous example of environmental degradation from tourism is in Thailand’s Maya Bay. Made famous by the film The Beach, starring Leonardo Dicaprio, the beach is closed indefinitely, with the majority of its coral destroyed prior to the closure.

Other methods Springwise has spotted for helping to reduce travel pollution include the world’s first all-electric passenger plane, and a hotel that produces more energy than it consumes.