Reading: Tourism and Small Communities

A Hallstatt is a village on a lake in Austria. Fewer than 800 people live there. In high season, though, it can receive up to 10,000 visitors in a single day. On the busiest days, the visitors greatly outnumber the residents, and a village that is home to fewer than 800 people has to share its streets and its lakeshore with a crowd many times bigger than the community itself. This is what is meant here by a town that has become a postcard: a place that people travel to in large numbers. The question for the residents, and for the authorities, is what to do about it.

B In 2023 the residents decided to make their feelings clear. They protested by blocking the tunnel into the village, and they asked for two things: a limit on the number of visitors per day, and a ban on tour buses after 5 p.m. Today, tour bus operators have to book time slots before they arrive, and the mayor has said that the number of coaches per day has halved. Earlier in 2023 there had been another, more awkward response. A wooden barrier was briefly put up at the most popular photo spot. It was taken down after criticism on social media.

C Hallstatt is not the only place trying to manage its visitors. In 2024 Venice began charging day visitors an entry fee of 5 euros on 29 chosen days. People staying overnight in the city's hotels, residents of the Veneto region and children up to 14 do not pay. The scheme then grew. In 2025 the fee applied on 54 days, and the price depended on timing: 5 euros if the visitor booked early, 10 euros if not. In 2026 it applied on 60 days. Put simply, the longer the scheme ran, the more days it covered: 29 in 2024, 54 in 2025 and 60 in 2026.

D Is the fee working? The figures for the first year are easy to state. In 2024 about 450,000 day visitors paid, bringing in about 2.2 million euros. More than 1.5 million people visited Venice during those 29 days. The people who paid were only part of that total, since some visitors, such as overnight guests, did not have to pay. Critics said the fee had not noticeably reduced the number of visitors. City officials said early 2026 data suggested fewer crowds on the busiest days, but they called the findings preliminary. For now, then, the evidence points in two directions.

E In my view, neither a fee nor a bus timetable can solve the problem on its own. A fee raises money and may make some visitors think again, but the critics' point is hard to ignore if the crowds stay the same. Booking systems, like the one for tour buses in Hallstatt, at least tell a town how many people to expect. I would argue that the best approach combines tools: a limit on numbers, a price and a way to plan arrivals, all tested year by year. It seems unlikely that one town's solution will fit every other town, but the experience of Hallstatt and Venice suggests that doing nothing is the one choice that residents will not accept.