Every day, the correspondents’ club describes how the same current event is illustrated in two countries.
More and more tourist destinations are trying to limit the influx of visitors, especially with the start of the summer tourist season. While many cities welcome the return of tourists after the Covid pandemic, this flood of vacationers has its share of negative consequences. Noise pollution, damage, threatened biodiversity, real estate speculation, etc.
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In the North of Scotland, a tombstone on a tourist site has been closed to the public due to excessive attendance: the Culloden site has become in recent years a meeting place for fans of the American series Outlander. A place that commemorates the Battle of Culloden: in April 1746, the prince in exile Charles Stuart, Catholic, tries to reconquer the throne of England from which his grandfather was driven out. He fought with his Jacobite and Scottish allies at the Battle of Culloden, where his troops were destroyed.
It is this universe that is explored in the series of novels Outlander written by the American writer Diana Gabaldon, adapted since 2014 in series. The site then becomes a place of pilgrimage, tourists flock in droves, take selfies and lay flowers on the tombstone of the Fraser clan, pro-Stuart, ultra popular thanks to a character from the series. So much so that the National Trust for Scotland is forced to prohibit access to the tombstone twice, in 2018 and last month, to protect the environment, recalling also that the remains of a thousand soldiers lie under these graves. Especially since this weekend marked the 277th anniversary of the battle.
Same problem in the small Italian village Portofino and its 400 inhabitants. For “regulate tourist flows”, the mayor recently signed an ordinance to prohibit tourists from stopping to walk in certain areas, during the entire summer period, between 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Indeed, nearly 7,000 tourists rushed to this small port during the last Easter weekend, causing pedestrian traffic jams in the city center. Tourists who do not comply with the order will be fined up to 275 euros, a threat that is above all a deterrent.