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TOURISM

Pompeii’s ‘School of Gladiators’ opens after restoration

The Schola Armaturarum site reopened today following a three-year restoration project that began after the building’s collapse in 2010.

Published: 3 January 2019 15:45 CET
Pompeii's 'School of Gladiators' opens after restoration
A restorer at work in the Schola Armaturarum before its reopening today. Photo: Pompeii

“Visitors will be able to see what remains of the association of gladiators of ancient Pompeii,” director of the archaeological park of Pompeii, Massimo Osanna, told press as he reopened the Schola Armaturarum site to the public today.

“The team of restorers were able to piece together the frescoes that had crumbled after collapsing in November 2010,” he said, adding that “collapses at the archaeological site of Pompeii are a closed chapter.”

Pompeii has come a long way since 2013, when Unesco threatened to place it on its list of world heritage sites in peril unless Italian authorities improved conditions.

The threat followed several incidents including the collapse of the Schola Armaturarum and a number of walls.

The ruined House of Gladiators after it collapsed in 2010. Photo: Roberto Salomone/AFP

A lack of staff also meant that unsupervised tourists were able to steal or damage parts of the site either by touching and moving relics or by climbing on them.

A travel blogger apologised last year after climbing onto an ancient column for a photo, bragging that there was “no one around” to stop him.

Meanwhile an American tourist was reprimanded by police for shifting one of the site's precious mosaics as he was trying to get a better picture, while a French visitor was charged with attempting to make off with fragments of pottery.

Even well-behaved tourists can be seen as a problem, with some saying the influx of tour groups traipsing through is “wearing out” the ancient site.

There are still not enough staff at the site, Osanna admits, with one hundred guards across a 44-hectare site assisted by around fifty young volunteers.

Mount Vesuvius towers over the ruins of Pompeii. Photo: Mario Laporta/AFP

“They are in any case insufficient, but it was all we could do ourselves,” Osanna said, adding that he’s hoping for more assistance from the government.

However he said there will be more high-tech video surveillance at the site, “to put an end to the phenomenon of people taking selfies on the columns”, said Osanna.

The theft of artefacts is becoming less of a problem after a display of items returned by repentant thieves was created.

READ ALSO: 'Exceptional discovery' at Pompeii: child's skeleton unearthed

The Pompeii ruins, which attract some four million visitors a year, were discovered in the 16th century, with the first excavations beginning in 1748. Remains of around 1,500  of an estimated 2,000 victims have been found.

Intriguing discoveries continue to be made at Pompeii nearly two millennia and scores of excavations later.

Last week, archeaologists uncovered the skeleton of a horse thought to have belonged to a high-ranking Roman military official, as it had been mounted with a harness and “modern” wooden and bronze saddle.

Other surprises unearthed so far this year include the skeleton of a man thought to have been decapitated while fleeing his home, a house with an elaborate shrine; well-preserved mosaics, and a bedroom fresco depicting an erotic scene from the Greek myth Leda and the Swan,

Earlier this year, an inscription was uncovered that suggests the Ancient Roman city might have been destroyed a full two months laterthan previously thought.

READ ALSO: IN PICTURES: Spectacular house with colourful animal frescoes discovered in Pompeii

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Published: 23 August 2023 11:36 CEST
Updated: 26 August 2023 18:32 CEST
Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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