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TOURISM

You might soon need a ticket to visit one of Italy’s most beautiful beaches

A town in Sardinia is considering selling entry tickets to the famed La Pelosa beach as a way to limit visitor numbers and raise funds.

Published: 11 November 2019 18:07 CET
You might soon need a ticket to visit one of Italy's most beautiful beaches
Holidaymakers on La Pelosa beach, one of Sardinia's most famous. Photo: DepositPhotos

Fine white sand and turquoise waters have made La Pelosa, in the town of Stintino on the north-west tip of Sardinia, one of the island's most popular beaches – but authorities have long struggled to protect its natural charms from the thousands of holidaymakers who flock to it each day in summertime.

Now local mayor Antonio Diana is planning the most radical measure yet: a limit on visitors, enforced by means of a paid entry ticket.

After environmental impact studies warned of the potential damage overcrowding could do to La Pelosa, authorities will try capping visitor numbers at around 1,500 per day in summer 2020, Diana told a meeting of the local council last weekend.

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“It will be an experiment,” according to the mayor, who said that the entry fee would help pay for the supervision and maintenance of the beach.

“The ticket will allow us to cover costs at La Pelosa and put the rest of the proceeds towards cleaning and maintaining other beaches. I'm convinced we'll get a good result,” said councillor for tourism Francesca Demontis.

The council has previously tried banning towels and beach bags as a means to stop beachgoers picking up La Pelosa's pristine sand – accidentally or otherwise – and taking it home with them. It also plans to remove the paved road that leads to the beach to make it harder to access by car. 

While some locals have criticized the restrictions on what remains a public beach, the mayor insists that protecting the fragile coastline must come first.


La Pelosa attracts thousands of beachgoers each day at the height of summer. Photo: DepositPhotos

Sardinia sees several tonnes of sand, shells and stones disappear from its picture-perfect beaches every year, whether caught in damp towels or deliberately stolen as a souvenir. Stealing the island's protected natural resources is punishable by a fine of up to €3,000 and even prison time, and customs agents systematically search departing travellers' luggage for smuggled sand.

Stintino isn't the only tourist hotspot in Italy seeking to regulate the crowds. Venice has announced plans to introduce an entry fee for day-trippers from July, while authorities in the Cinque Terre are pushing train companies to help them limit the number of people who can pack into the coastal villages at once.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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