Pompeii is the latest popular Italian attraction to take measures to curb overtourism with the ancient ruins limiting visitor numbers to 20,000 per day and introducing personalised tickets from 15 November 2024.
The tourist cap comes as Pompeii, eradicated by the Mount Vesuvius eruption in AD79, saw a record four million visitors to the UNESCO World Heritage Site across the 2024 Northern Hemisphere 2024 summer.
A maximum of 20,000 tickets to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii will be released daily with specific time slots during the peak summer season and personalised to include the full names of visitors.
A one-day entry ticket currently costs €22 (around AUD$36), or opt for a small-group tour for guided access.
Additional measures under the €105 million The Great Pompeii project include providing three free shuttle buses to encourage park visitors to visit other ancient sites connected to Pompeii, including Stabiae, Oplontis and Boscoreale.
The archaeological park’s director, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, told the Guardian that visitors to the main site exceed an average of 15,000-20,000 per day and the new daily cap would prevent numbers from rising.
“We are working on a series of projects to lift the human pressure on the site, which could pose risks both for visitors and the heritage [that is] so unique and fragile,” Zuchtriegel said.
“The measures to manage flows and safety and the personalisation of the visits are part of this strategy.
“We are aiming for slow, sustainable, pleasant and non-mass tourism and, above all, widespread throughout the territory around the UNESCO site,” he said.
In April 2024, Venice became the world’s largest tourist city to trial charging entry to dissuade day-trippers and curb overtourism.
The €5 (around AUD$8.13) levy, which ran on 29 peak days and ended in July, will return in 2025 with Venice officials considering doubling the tourist tax after this year’s successful summer trial.
