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Austrian hamlet of Hallstatt – victim of overtourism

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

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With its frozen vistas and sparkling lakes, the Austrian hamlet of Hallstatt is known as a real-world inspiration for Disney’s hit musical Frozen.

 

But the 16th century settlement has witnessed unbearable levels of tourism, being flooded with selfie-taking tourists who seem more interested in their Instagram profiles than local businesses and culture.

 

Hence, Hallstatt’s tourism chiefs are thinking of a campaign that is expected to put quality of tourism over quantity by restricting the number of visitors and encouraging them to support the local economy.

 

The new campaign due to be launched in May 2020, will cap the number of tourist buses to 50 per day, and tourist groups spending their money on local restaurants and cafes will be prioritized.

 

Visitors will also be asked to stay for at least two hours and twenty minutes, and explore the hamlet’s true history, which has nothing to do with Disney princesses. For example, the hamlet is home to a 7,000 year-old salt mine, which is the oldest in the world.

 

“Many visitors only have a short time and only come to take some pictures,” said Michelle Knoll, the office manager for Hallstatt’s tourism board.

 

“The number of tourists is simply too much,” Knoll added.

 

Few rogue tourists have wreaked havoc in Hallstatt, which has a population of just 780 people, since it became associated with Frozen.

 

Churches reportedly had to hire bouncers to shoo away tourists who were disrupting services by taking selfies. In extreme cases, visitors were caught taking photographs of mourners at funerals.

 

Hallstatt’s new tourism campaign was conceived after its Mayor Alexander Scheutz, urged tourists to stay away from the hamlet as their sheer numbers were destroying the fabric of daily life there.

 

“Hallstatt is an important piece of cultural history, not a museum,” Scheutz said earlier this month.

 

“We want to reduce numbers by at least a third but we have no way of actually stopping them,” he added.

 

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