2023, a tax in Venice

Publicity stunt or real way to avoid the overflow of tourists? The Venice city council voted on September 12 for a 5-euro tax targeting passing visitors – those who do not sleep in the city of the Doges. The measure will be tested in the spring and summer of 2024 for around thirty days. In 2020, the mayor had already promised the creation of porticos, paid entry and the establishment of compulsory reservations to visit the historic center, drowned in tourists (up to one hundred thousand per day in summer). No follow-up. At the end of July, UNESCO considered placing Venice on the list of World Heritage in Danger, judging the measures taken so far “insufficient”.

2019, strict quotas at Machu Picchu

Two years after requiring tourists to have professional guides to better supervise and preserve Machu Picchu, the Peruvian authorities decided, in January 2019, to restrict visiting hours of the sites to a maximum of four hours per day. The wear of the stones of this jewel of Inca history owes as much to natural erosion as to the large million annual visitors. In May 2019, the window is even reduced to three hours for the temples of the Condor and the Sun, and for the pyramid of Intiwatana. After the Covid-19 crisis, the establishment of daily visitor quotas – set at four thousand, then five thousand – annoyed traders and tourists.

2018, reduced access to Maya Bay

Her fame almost killed her. Popularized by the film The Beach (2000), by Danny Boyle, Maya Bay, on the island of Phi Phi Ley, in the south of Thailand, was closed in June 2018 by the country’s authorities. Biologists have warned of the disappearance of coral reefs and underwater life in this heavenly setting. Attracted by the white sand, turquoise waters and cliffs, around five thousand tourists flocked every day to the parade of tour operator boats. For more than three years, access to the bay has been prohibited. Coral is replanted, species, such as blacktip sharks, are reintroduced. In 2022, the bay reopened, but swimming is prohibited.

1996, titanic works at the Pointe du Raz

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Pointe du Raz, with half a million annual visitors, feared the waves of tourists more than those of the ocean. The trampling of visitors threatens the most famous of the Breton capes, on the ground, the grasses and plants have disappeared. The promontory has lost its charm, with concrete shops and creperies built hastily in the 1960s. The Conservatoire du littoral, a public structure, bought the land in the mid-1990s and negotiated with hundreds of owners to demolish businesses with bulldozers and rebuild them further away. The operation costs more than 50 million francs (the equivalent of 11.2 million euros).

1963, towards a faithful replica at Lascaux

In 1963, the Minister of Cultural Affairs André Malraux announced the temporary closure of the Lascaux cave. The “Sistine Chapel of prehistory”, discovered by a walker in 1940, is suffering from a mysterious “green disease”. Tiny algae have been proliferating on the walls for three years. Scientists are called to the rescue. Verdict: this mecca of Upper Paleolithic art, open to the public since 1948, suffers from overcrowding. The lighting of the cave and the breathing of visitors (122,250 in 1962) threaten the paintings which are more than 15,000 years old. Lascaux will not reopen to the public. Since then, several replicas have been built, including Lascaux 2 in 1983.