Two Italian cities have joined to produce new rules and new ways for promoting tourism with less strain than it has placed on them in the past, picking up on Italian Prime Minister Draghi’s call for a new model that would respect ‘cities of art.’
Both cities have had issues of popular sentiment against overtourism, and both are now seeing what life is like with even fewer visitors than they would like. Anticipating a return, they are proposing changes in the powers they have to regulate and respond. They see their plan as a model for other cities as well.
Some of the plan appears a bit punitive—the power to levy instant fines on misbehaving tourists or vandals and “smart control rooms with increased video surveillance.” Other portions have more to do with shaping how visitors interact with the cities by allowing better regulation of tourist rentals and regulations limiting tourist-facing businesses in some areas to “preserving the craft and neighbourhood shops in the historic centres.”
Many of the proposed changes will require permission from the central government, which has in the past been less than supportive of such efforts, including blocking several past Venetian attempts to limit large cruise ships in its delicate waters.
