An Austrian village is begging tourists to stay away as it has become the latest destination to fall victim to overtourism. The town was rumored to be the inspiration behind the Disney film Frozen, resulting in fans frequenting the destination.
Hallstatt, located an hour away from Salzburg, is home to approximately 780 residents, but over the amount of visitors have increased from 100 a day in 2009 to 10,000 visitors a day in 2019. That’s six times the number of tourists per capita that Venice receives, as reported in the Independent.
Hallstatt’s Mayor Alexander Scheut says he would like to slash tourist numbers by a third.
“Hallstatt is an important piece of cultural history, not a museum,” he told The Times.
“We want to reduce numbers by at least a third but we have no way of actually stopping them.”
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To help reduce the number of visitors, the village plans to cut the number of tourist buses by a third. Right now, there are a total of 20,000 tourist buses entering the town each year and residents are feeling the impact.
“It’s a catastrophe,” Verena Lobisser, who owns a local hotel, told the Washington Post. “Many visitors seriously think this is a theme park.”
This isn’t the first-time officials in popular tourist destinations have worked to limit the number of visitors.
In 2019, council members in Italy’s city of Venice decided to increase the fee to enter Venice from 3 Euros ($3.42) to somewhere between 6 and 10 euros, depending on the season.
Related: Venice To Start Charging Tourists An Entrance Fee
The reason? Venice’s residents are not happy about tourists overrunning their city and then being stuck with the task of paying for the cleanup.
Related: Venice Might Hit Tourists With $585 Fine For Sitting Down In Public Places