The Dolomites, a pristine range of snow-capped peaks and rolling green fields in Italy, is rapidly becoming a jam-packed theme park as tourists and social media influencers flood the landscape to snap Instagram-worthy pictures.
The record number of visitors pose a risk to the natural habitat and its animals, Italian outlet Corriere Della Sera reported Tuesday. The region, Trentino Alto Adige, has already experienced a drastic increase in recent years, with 34 million visitors flocking to the small region in 2022. Locals now say the numbers have ballooned even further.
Brigitte Foppa, a politician with the European Greens party, told the Daily Mail that tourism in the area has been “underestimated for years.”
In 2023, tourism minister Arnold Schuler told CNN that the Dolomites had “reached the limit” of the number of tourists it could handle. As huge crowds queue for the cable car that takes visitors from the town into the mountains, cable car operators in the region have considered tripling chairlift capacity in order to transport more visitors up the picturesque peaks. The number of Airbnbs in the area had also risen by 400 percent over the five years prior. Locals are overwhelmed with skyrocketing housing prices, traffic jams, and the increasing cost of everyday essentials.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site has long attracted hikers and campers, but it has recently dragged in content creators and TikTok-famous celebs as well. This week it went viral for all the wrong reasons, with influencers showing photos and videos of packed trails and mobs of people rather than high-altitude lakes.
Outraged locals are now attempting to turn the tables, by highlighting their own photos of massive crowds swarming the pristine natural range.
One clip showed a hiking trail coming to a standstill, swamped by what looked like hundreds of individuals waiting in line just to get a good glimpse of the mountains.
“Waited 1.5 hours for a rushed shot so we didn’t hold up the line,” one TikTok user posted.
Environmentalists say that the surge in foot traffic could damage local plant and animal life. Even the tourists fed up with the throngs are making their pilgrimage to find and photograph the space.
Several have shared videos as part of a TikTok trend that seeks to expose the less-than-picture-perfect reality of popular travel destinations. Users start by showing visuals and videos of the stunning landscapes with the word “expectation” written over the clip. Minutes later, the video pans out to show a massive line of tourists stuck on the hiking trail as the word “reality” appears on the screen.
Some locals are so outraged that they’re proposing new changes to mitigate the crowds. One local farmer suggested charging a five euro fee (almost $6) to enter the trails.
It’s not the first time Italian locals have slammed tourists for invading the natural beauty. Anti-tourism protestors targeted ski resorts over the winter and Italian locals wrote the words “too much” in bright red letters atop a snowy mountain.
Similar crowds have sparked outrage across Europe. In 2024, 747 million international travelers visited the continent, far outnumbering any other region in the world. Spain, Italy, and France have in particular borne the brunt. The latter—whose capital hosted the 2024 Olympics—received 100 million international visitors, while Spain received almost 94 million travelers (double its own population).
Angry protestors in Barcelona have adopted the water gun as a symbol of the city’s anti-tourism movement. They’ve taken aim at tourists while carrying “One more tourist, one less resident!” signs.
