How mass tourism is endangering the Dolomites | DW Documentary

How mass tourism is endangering the Dolomites | DW Documentary

The dolomites one of the most stunning natural landscapes in the world places like the Three Peaks have long drawn admirers but these days the crowds and traffic jams can be overwhelming on peak days there are more than 13,000 visitors it’s our first time here it’s a

Famous place you can tell by the amount of people it’s packed incredible but take a look The View speaks for itself the dolomites are a UNESCO world heritage site so they’re very beautiful but the burden on nature and the local population has reached a Tipping Point if it exceeds a certain level of

Course tolerance goes down and the people who live here but who don’t directly profit from the whole thing they don’t just criticize it they’ve even started tote It a typical morning in season the entrance to the 8 km long road to Lake bras is busy Mountain guide avina is a member of the local traffic commission access to the lake has been restricted and he wants to see for himself how it’s working not much going on today

Yesterday was busy and the day before yesterday too the day before yesterday we were full by 9:00 a.m. it’s going well they’re less nervous this year this one’s better than last everything is usually full by half 9 depending on how it empties out later guests can reserve parking spaces and

Drive in so it’s not about keeping people out it’s about organizing things in the in such a way that first and foremost the locals still have a decent life and that the tourists who do come find it to be more or less as they imagined it prags is one of the first

Municipalities in South T to introduce a control system like this one for visitors the reason almost permanent traffic jams during the high season and overp parked Meadows now drivers without a reservation are directed to a makeshift parking lot where they can try to find a space online we’ve never been there before I

Wanted to take my daughter on a short hike up a small mountain and just have a relaxing day but now it’s getting a bit complicated we had to book an additional shuttle for €1 per person to get to the lake is that okay Mass handling I’d say they know how to make their

Money it’s also possible to take a bus it runs every half hour from the nearby train stations in and doo but very few people do at the end of the valley lies the famous Lake bras for years this Natural Beauty has ranked among Instagram’s top hotpots photos circulate all over social

Media South T is quite well known so we thought we should take a vacation here the I think this is the best view in Italy with the Blue Lake and in the background you can see does it’s the perfect view um view this is the perfect view in our

Pre- weding Shir it’s less crowded than I expected uh still a lot of space to move so I’m totally fine with it we know it’s from uh Instagram and Google and YouTube and then uh we come from nland to come here uh from from here and yeah

We use a car to come here for 12 hours we drive Ain Steiner grew up here as a professional Mountain guide he depends on tourism but preserving this nature is crucial too it’s fitting to use the term flooded or maybe exploded to characterize the situation on the ground tourism has

Developed continuously in well-known areas of the world or even in South Tero in general but the situation here has really grown exponentially in just a few years and accordingly there are challenges that have come with it also in terms of Transport because we were not prepared for such a large number of

Visitors one irony Aven Steiner himself contributed to the tourism explosion albeit indirectly when he acted as a stunt man in a popular TV series This we completely underestimated the impact I did especially I’m a bit to blame for the whole thing it was filmed here and then a lot of Italian tourists came here in the first few years afterwards for an even more picture perfect backdrop the series transplanted The Three Peaks Early the next morning ainer is preparing for a mountain tour he’s taking two women from the area on a true nature experience even in this touristy area we’re allowed to come along with our camera in addition to the early hour the bad weather is contributing to the fact

That it’s quiet this morning at Lake Bri Yes so our rain front is supposed to Passover then it will get better we’re headed out with Elin he’ll take us out on a cool hike you might not find on your own can’t wait the lake is this area’s obvious hot spot is what most tourists come to see

What’s often forgotten is this is also the starting point for a good number of mountain tours in the aen chooses one of his special wild Trails quite literally off the beaten path we live from tourism of course and that’s also important there are thousands of people here every day but I

Think nature will suffer further if even more infrastructure is built for tourists he fears that more tourism could scare off his target market hikers and Mountaineers looking to experience pristine nature of close we wanted to understand the situation better so we set out on a trip through the dolomites and almost

Immediately come to a stop the access road to the Three Peaks was already closed that morning due to overcrowding the mountain could only be reached on foot or by bus UNESCO commissioned a study in 2018 to explore conditions here the study looked at individual hotspots and determined the limits of their carrying

Capacity in other words how many tourists can a place tolerate the study found that Lake Bas could tolerate 2,000 visitors per day but on an average day in August this limit was exceeded sixfold and on peak days in 2018 more than 177,000 people people crowded Here the prague’s municipality aims to have a maximum of 5,000 people at the lake at any one time measures like these traffic controls are meant to help but do they actually work or do restrictions on cars lead to even more traffic congestion merely Shifting the problem elsewhere a traditional village in south

T roll here there are almost 6,000 beds for guests and 3,360 residents the hotel Zant is located in the noi toak District this was once a place where people stopped to change horses on the way to Venice today the hotel with 130 beds is among the best hello

Stephanie cabat zanta runs this hotel and one of his daughters works at the reception it’s a f family business zanta is also a politician and vice president of the tourist board over the past 50 years entrepreneurs like him turned what was once a farming region into the tourist destination it is

Today celebrities flock here and now let’s go to the [Laughter] Pope that was wonderful we brought the Christmas tree to Rome then I played soccer with brightner FC Bayern was my guest at the time Beck too it was just extraordinary with these people the fourstar hotel is fully

Booked but all guests are out and about enjoying the beautiful local nature habat Zant is constantly working on new ideas the wellness area needs a lot of space so that people don’t feel crowded in any way they need a lot of breathing room and by opening up to Nature this

Breathing room is twice as big there’s this spaciousness it’s not just about the space it’s about the nature however he needs enough paying guests to sustain this high level of comfort and the guests need beds this could be a sticking point as the province of South Tio instituted a bed

For free designed to limit the number of Hotel Beds in the region the bed freeze came about as part of the Region’s tourism 2030 plus development concept the brainchild of councelor Arnold Chula he manages tourism in South tro he explains that new beds can only be added when old ones are lost

The the measure is radical this upper limit will have an effect it is already having an effect and that means we have to reorient ourselves the growth rate we’ve been seeing will no longer be possible it makes no sense and is counterproductive because it’s not only the healthy development of Tourism

That’s important the approval of the local population is needed too the number of overnight stays in South T has risen by some 40% in the last 30 years from around 23 million to more than 33 Million the number of Hotel Beds remained comparatively stable in the same period but there has been a shift from smaller operations to Luxury Resorts renowned Alpine researcher Vanna betzing questions the effectiveness of restrictions that Focus primarily on the number of beds the bed freeze does not solve a

Whole host of problems in tourism at all like the fact that overnight guests in South Tero are staying for shorter and shorter periods and that small businesses are dying out namely the two and three star hotels run by locals which tend to be down to earth and operate relatively

Sustainably meanwhile the large Resorts the four or five star hotels are booming these are all negative developments that are not influenced At All by the bed freeze day tourism is also booming and it’s not affected at all in other words the bed free would be

One good measure but it would have to be followed by other measures and that’s not happening the owner of the fourstar hotel zanta is not overly worried I believe that this is certainly a new challenge for South to rooll at the moment we’re seeing a lot of political

Zigzag but I think it will resolve itself in the end I believe the economy can’t be steered and managed the economy will develop on its own and make the best of this situation that’s why believe this is much ad do about Nothing the mountain guide ainina and the two hikers have now reached open terrain the rain has led up and there’s no sign of the crowd down by the lake if you know your way around it doesn’t take long to get to a place where there are fewer people of course

Of course as locals we especially like it if we can avoid the crowds even in peak season we’ll stay on the path for a while walk along the trail and then Branch off cross over without a path along the grassy Ridge to the climbing route some

CL ainer wants to make things even more exciting today with a special climbing route on the way to the summit Solitude and and Tranquility the contrast to the crowds 500 M below at Lake bras couldn’t be Greater I think word has gotten around that the area is extremely popular with tourists and probably the Mountaineer who really wants to get out into nature does their research perhaps they hear that there are so many people here and then think to themselves I’m not going there for mountaineering

Anymore from my point of view it’s almost gotten quieter up here on the mountain the rocky Summit route opens onto a spectacular view but then there’s rain again and a thunderstorm the wind and weather conditions make further Ascent impossible natural world heritage up close but what does receiving the UNESCO designation actually

Signify the SE the meaning has gone a little sideways I have the feeling that a lot more people are coming here because of it what that means is more people drive their cars over the passes and don’t really stop to look at the area or experience it by hiking that’s

Why the UNESCO idea hasn’t quite caught on a shift in scenery a visit to Lake kza not far from Bano this beautiful attraction has been off limits for years that was the only way to protect it this famed Mountain Lake in the dolomites can only be viewed like an

Exhibition in an open a museum Marina hona has brought her family here today for years now the architect has been campaigning to protect the region and its nature from overdevelopment she’s a municipal counselor member of the Alpine club and is passionate about local Heritage conservation in recent years the area

Around Lake Kara has repeatedly been the site of conflicts over proposals for a new cable car and other development projects somehow I’m amazed at what is happened in recent years in terms of new buildings and conversions and expansions I’m surprised at how Nature has to be subordinated I have the feeling that I

Have to do something about it because if I remain silent I don’t feel good but when I point out that not everything that’s going on is okay it feels like I’m doing the right thing you can’t always accept everything today marinaa plans to meet representatives of the most important nature and Landscape conservation

Organizations in South T they’ll adopt a Manifesto for the protection of the dolomites then they’ll present this Manifesto to lawmakers in the province the more we install the more we destroy our very foundations and psychologically I think we’re losing so much because we’re just focused on more

How can we build more stand out more be the center of attention even more compete even more with other ski resorts with other mountain resorts it’s pure itive thinking and I think that’s what’s destroying people it ruins tourism it’s not good for people new facilities at tourist spots

Attract ever bigger crowds the latest project planned for the Mountaintop a seven-story glass tower the plan was met with great resistance from nature conservation associations and the UNESCO World Heritage Foundation the idea is now being re thought by the province of South Tio but signs of construction work

Can still be seen at every turn the activists work for different nature and Heritage protection associations they’ve chosen the kahuta as the place to compose their statement it stands under the landmark Rosen gten mountain range part of a landscape that is being more and more heavily developed in a push for

More tourism the group talks about how to stop the development and how to reach as many people as possible they are simply staging our landscape it doesn’t need staging some Sans think it’s not enough the important thing is that this is not just a gut feeling studies prove

It every survey shows that people come here because of the landscape because of the authenticity because of the mountains so we’re basically ruining the basis of our own quality of life on the one hand and tourism on the other From they also discussed the new tourism concept which they don’t think will make much difference the papers always talk about the importance of Nature and Landscape conservation and Environmental Protection but in the end the problems are buried in the details and the legisl and certain when ites to implementation

And the problem is then these big Ideas no longer apply in the last couple of decades especially economic interests have gained the upper hand the development of the Alps is one direct result and something the South trolean Alpine conservationists want to put a stop to the aim of the manifesto is to wake

Up the population although some people are already tuned in to these discussions but there is still a lack of awareness in politics and Business it’s unacceptable that for example the province of South Tero is financing 75% of this cable car and no climate check was carried out we already have cable cars that can transport more people up the mountains every day than the number of people living in South Tero and there are already some 35

Additional projects waiting in the wings when I hear about the Olympics and the rumors that are buzzing around that the ski areas in the dolomites are to be merged into the largest ski resort in the world I just don’t understand it what are these people thinking from forgate the Rosen Garten mountain range

Is one of the crown jewels of the UNESCO world heritage site it has served as an advertising backdrop for South t for decades now there’s a new artificial Lake here under the mountain peaks a reservoir for artificial snow we meet mayor Marcus deori in the Resort Village since 2010 he’s headed

The municipality of vovin which includes the lake kza area how does he deal with the criticism many visitors tell us that they don’t even notice that there are winter Resort operations here because the slopes are actually located on Meadows they’ve always been Meadows so they’re not the huge Forest

Pasts that have simply been carved out like in other ski resorts the renov of the ski area is now almost complete we want people to come to us we’re a welcoming Community we just need to control the development a little so that it doesn’t get out of [Applause]

Hand the state road will be relocated starting next year it will run to the far end of the parking lot and the road here will simply serve as a distribution point for pedestrians and cars heading to the parking lot so next year the situation here should

Be a bit more streamlined and no longer as difficult you’ll be able to get across the street you’ll know where to park parking spaces will also be nicely organized it’s sort of organized now but only in a makeshift way he’s here now because his office got a call saying the parking lot was

Littered the mayor decided to go see it for himself he cares deeply about the image of his municipality and he doesn’t want tourism in this community to be discredited either a couple of tissues and so on nothing unusual it will all be gone by tomorrow morning the information we received made it sound

Worse well false alarm another site signs of Destruction caused by storm via which knocked down millions of trees in the dolomites in October 2018 we can see the impact of VI here we’re back on track now I’d say we’re somewhere between cleaning up and then doing the necessary safety maintenance and repair work again it was perhaps a little worse the first year because because the areas were completely brown the color of the earth under the

Trees now it’s starting to turn green again and some people don’t even notice it anymore so the community is moving on in fact a major tourism event is on the horizon the 2026 Winter Olympics the games will take place both in Milan and in Cortina dameto the city is located in

The Italian province of belluno not too far from South T new ski slopes have already been built for the occasion in South T the councelor for tourism Arnold schula has opted for a different approach there will be no more new ski lifts here we’ve reached our limit and

We have to recognize that we are at full capacity already as I said we want to remain an attractive tourist destination nobody comes here on vacation to sit in traffic jams or standing Cues South T roll is not alone in its struggle with the Dark Side of Tourism all throughout the Alps the relationship between nature and tourism is increasingly fraught cultural geographer Vanna betzing has followed these developments over decades he LS aspects of South T’s new tourism concept of I think it’s good that

Situation is laid bare in a tourism concept like this one the strength and weaknesses of Tourism noise stench waste heavy traffic the high cost of housing and land these are all the major problems of Tourism which are addressed very clearly in this concept I would like to see something

Like this done in Bavaria and other Alpine regions this kind of unsparing assessment of Tourism but will measures be implemented In The Same Spirit and whose interests will prevail in the end in toak the hotel run by habat Zant and his son yurgen is an example of a

Tourism concept that focuses on growth it’s a recipe for success that’s practically part of the family’s DNA it’s crucial to keep investing year after year if you don’t do that you won’t be able to keep up the business needs to keep up somehow become more modern more interesting more

Professional and we’ve actually shown that to this day the problem is that are quas right now for everything there’s a quot for the number of beds and for people in the hotpots in other words we’re legislating a bit too much for me a free market economy a social market economy means

That an entrepreneur can develop freely in every area I agree with certain rules but just going around and imposing quotas I think that’s the wrong approach today a book launch is taking place here at this Scenic location Malena gona is among the attendees she wants to meet the Auth I wanted to connect with you about the big mobility issue in his book M Costa himself a hotelier from corvara has written a scathing critique about the development of Tourism he believes that South T is at a Tipping Point why don’t we close the doite passes because the people people in

Charge lack the [Applause] courage I’m also a colleague of yours and I have some advice and a question I don’t like the fact that we who work in the tourism industry are blamed for everything that goes wrong we’re essentially spitting into a plate we’re all eating from because we

Depend on tourism some more some less and as for the bed free why do we want to build bigger and bigger hotels that doesn’t help we can’t find any more employees and are only causing ourselves problems after Decades of continuous growth people here feel an urgent need for discussion

About a bed freeze and the future of Tourism as a whole it’s about Mass tourism we have a small area we can’t cater to everyone here we have to set a limit we have to restrict Mobility especially we want guests to come for the beauty of nature

First and foremost not for the saunas or another swimming pool or another steam bath that’s all nonsense we don’t need any of that I drove at 6:00 a.m. last week to enjoy the Gardina pass and cell pass in peace and quiet and today I had to drive up at 2:

P.m. and it was terrible cars motorcycles buses cyclists everywhere plain and simple this is not how it should be my idea would be to follow the American model where you pay admission to enter a park a real National Park so that it doesn’t become an amusement park

Where you have fun and it’s PR practically a playground instead it’s a place where nature is respected because we’re part of Nature and we have to protect ourselves if we don’t protect nature then nature survives quite well without us I think so it’s about more than just overcrowding at the hotpots could access

To the mountains be blocked are not antisocial quas mean that if I want to go to the New Year’s concert in Vienna I have to register 3 years in or if I want to go to bhan or the beautiful Monte Christo Island in Italy I simply have to reserve in advance and

That means I also appreciate the area I would stay longer spend more time there because this fast mass tourism doesn’t do anything for people and it doesn’t do anything for us the people living here about a month later we visit maku Pat at his fourstar hotel yakoba the bed freeze has been adopted

And the municipality is now collecting statistics unlike his colleague in tobl he welcomes the decision in favor of more regulation I think that the bed freeze has come at the right time A lot has happened here in South T over the last 10 or 20 years A lot has developed

Sometimes for the better sometimes to an extreme we have to understand that it will eventually come to an end marus p is proud of his hotel which Bears the unmistakable signature of his father a wood carver he is delighted that his daughter will soon be attending hotel management school so she can take

Over the business later on the transition to the next generation doesn’t work in all families and there are already large corporations waiting to buy up businesses so the real south T roll is getting a little lost for me what we should be most afraid of is selling off our homeland that’s a big

Problem the larger the hotels become the more outside capital is involved and the more the locals are squeezed out of the market these local businesses have long been indicative of the quality of tourism in South TR that kind of Tourism was down to earth the interesting thing is the new

Tourism 2030 plus concept formulates exactly that as a goal it doesn’t call for a marketing strategy but rather a living Space strategy tourism should become part of the living space of the locals and not the other way around the locals should not become window dressing for the tourist

Resort on this day in September an event demonstrates one possible approach on Zonda bike day the dolomites pass roads around the zela massive are close to car traffic it’s close yes yes Molina Rona is also here with her husband in children an event for everyone not just for

Tourists lots of locals already right Florian it’s mainly locals who are out and about there’s a mix quite a lot of people use it for climbing although not today because it’s snowing normally it’s total chaos on the passes Motorcycles Cars Without End so you can cycle or climb in nature without It is it’s the greatest thing for any cyclist when passes like these are blocked to traffic this cyclist and his friends have taken part in the event before he’s thrilled to be back this is our third day here all told we’ll be there for four or 5 days and of

Course today is the Highlight if they’re up for it cyclists have four mountain passes 53 km and a good 1600 M of altitude ahead of them Malina and Florian’s Sons also have fun despite the cold and tough uphill ride it really is such a community feeling the way everyone enjoys this time the snow is

Great the mountains are great dream a total dream so beautiful with the snow for over 15 years this event has been held as a part of an appeal to stop traffic on the pass roads more more often a step in the direction of a gentler kind of Tourism the ideas

Gaining more and more supporters Bravo terrific well done they did a great job and the road closure doesn’t prevent this mountain eery from getting a lot of business 2 hours later down in the valley the cars have reclaimed the roads Gat Vani works in the tourism industry

And lives here in SVA valgardena he tells us about how people’s attitudes have evolved these are our Friends when the sonda bike day was organized for the first time there was resistance especially from the people running the mountain Huts some of them threw broken glass on the road to prevent the event from taking place after many years they’ve been able to serve so many people and they’re happy the event

Exists Gat vany knows that every innovation has its opponents especially when there’s a fear of losing business that’s why he’s taking taking a different approach with his project we don’t want fewer people we just want people to move differently and use environmentally friendly and sustainable means of

Transport simply to reduce the impact on the environment and on our population he is pushing for a low emission Zone in the area this would reduce the share of motorcycles and cars in total traffic from 92 to 4 3 2% by 2030 public transport and cycling on the

Other hand would increase from 8 to 58% South T trentino and belluno have agreed on common transport goals to be implemented from 2024 it could be a turning point in transport policy with far-reaching impact across this Alpine region but the policies haven’t taken effect yet today Mountain guide aviner is instructing

Climbers under conditions that he doesn’t especially enjoy it does affect me but I have the feeling that I’m perhaps more sensitive than others there’s a super nice climbing area here easily accessible but very close to the road and that means Noise for me as a mountain guide teaching someone something it’s very important to have peace and quiet to be able to concentrate and also to have the feeling of being up on the mountain that’s why I prefer to be up on the mountain pasture rather than

Here for many locals the peak season is the most stressful time of the year it’s over now and time to take stock the checkpoint at the entrance to the bras Valley has been dismantled did the vehicle restrictions help control visitor numbers there were concerns everything would be blocked by the valley entrance

On the stretch of road were driving along now that didn’t happen there was always a bit of an opening so that no traffic jam formed and the goal of limiting the flow of visitors was in fact achieved feeling the for many years the bras Valley has not

Been so well perceived by tourists and locals alike this year’s efforts have certainly proved very Successful so this is how it could work South T roll is taking the first steps to tackle unbridled tourism to improve the lives of locals and to protect its natural heritage perhaps it could serve as an example for the entire Alpine Region

Mass tourism in South Tyrol is endangering the unique beauty of the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The region has just 530,000 inhabitants, while as many as 33 million overnight stays are recorded every year. Too many, according to locals.

Tourism in South Tyrol is getting out of hand. In the high season, villages and mountain passes are completely congested. For many visitors, the dream of seeing the ‘Three Peaks’ up close ends when police are forced to close the mountain’s access road due to overcrowding. Access to another attraction, the Pragser Wildsee lake, is also regulated: An Italian TV series was filmed here around 10 years ago. Then, images of the beauty spot were beamed around the world on social media. Now, too many people want to visit.

Mountain guide Erwin Steiner, a member of the traffic commission, is committed to reducing vehicle traffic — and preserving the nature that constitutes his livelihood. But there are plans afoot to further expand the tourist infrastructure — with a view to hosting the 2026 Olympics. Conservationists like architect Marlene Roner are fighting to preserve this World Natural Heritage Site. These two activists team up with representatives of the Alpine Association and local heritage organizations. Against the stunning backdrop of the Dolomites, they adopt a manifesto dedicated to protecting the mountains.

With the South Tyrolean government’s Tourism Development Concept 2030+, the debate over how to deal with the region’s natural heritage has grown heated. In particular, the plan to cap the number of beds has met with resistance from the hotel and restaurant industries. What is a World Heritage designation actually worth? Does it really help to protect a unique landscape – or just serve to market it?

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