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TOURISM

‘Don’t dress up as a Roman’: Rome to punish tourists for messy eating and bad manners at historic sites

Authorities in Rome have introduced a new set of rules aimed at curbing the bad behaviour of tourists in the Italian capital.

Published: 8 June 2019 10:22 CEST
'Don’t dress up as a Roman': Rome to punish tourists for messy eating and bad manners at historic sites
Men dressed as centurions near the Vatican. Photo: AFP

The rules, which were implemented recently in Rome, aim to cut down on antisocial behaviour and disrespectful treatment of the city’s cultural history and monuments.

Updated from legislation originally written in 1946, the measures include a ban on messy eating near monuments and singing on public transport, as well as against making money by posing for photos dressed as centurions in tunics and leather breastplates.

The rules also include bans on wheeled suitcases and buggies being dragged down historic staircases.

Walking around bare-chested, pub crawls and “nuisance drunks” are also targeted by the rules, while people who wrap their mouths around the nozzles of the city’s drinking fountains could also find themselves censured.

Illegal street trading and ticket touting outside tourist attractions have also been banned, while locals will no longer be allowed to hang their laundry out to dry between neighbouring buildings – a sight as common in the city as its ancient edifices.

The nature of the punishment for the offences – whether a rebuke from police or a fine – is currently unclear, but authorities have said “severe fines” will be given for people who bathe in the city’s fountains, The Guardian writes.

“Old regulations have been updated to adapt to the needs of a modern society,” Marco Cardilli, deputy chief of staff and security delegate at Rome’s council, told the newspaper.

Rome is not the first Italian destination to take action against unruly tourists.

Earlier this year, officials in Cinque Terre threatened to fine holidaymakers up to 2,500 euros for walking along its scenic trails in flip flops, sandals or other unsuitable footwear.

In Venice, visitors caught snacking, sunbathing or taking a dip in canals risk being kicked out of the city and banned from returning.

The city has also has also introduced a booking system to encourage visitors to reserve entry in advance, following on from its decision to begin charging tourists an entry fee in an effort to manage numbers.

Rome has already banned tourist buses from its historic centre.

READ ALSO: New calls for Venice to ban cruise ships after harbour crash

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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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