Florence cracks down on overtourism just as Italy hosts G7 tourist ministers in Renaissance city

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Florence cracks down on overtourism just as Italy hosts G7 tourist ministers in Renaissance city

2024-11-13 02:15 Last Updated At：02:20

ROME (AP) — The city of Florence took new measures Tuesday to crack down on overtourism, just as the Italian government hosts the Group of Seven tourism ministers in the Renaissance city and seeks to significantly boost the country’s place as a top visitor destination.

Mayor Sara Funaro’s Cabinet approved a 10-point plan that, among other things, would ban key boxes on buildings in Florence’s historic center as well as the use there of loudspeakers by tour guides, a statement from City Hall said.

The keyboxes — small boxes with a digital pad that are used by owners of short-term rental apartments to easily leave keys for visitors — have become something of the symbol of local Florentine anger at tourists, whose numbers have rebounded after COVID-19.

In a recent protest, Florentines taped red Xs over the keyboxes, outraged at the transformation of the city center and its magnificent palazzi and narrow streets into a collection of short-term vacation rentals that have displaced local residents and the long-standing businesses that served them.

According to national statistics bureau ISTAT, 2023 saw the most visitors ever in Italy with 134 million arrivals and 451 million people staying in hotels or other registered lodgings. The number of visitors opting for non-hotel lodging grew nearly 17% compared to 2022, ISTAT said in a June report.

Italy ranks fourth on the U.N. World Tourism Barometer of international tourist destinations, after France, Spain and the United States. The tourism industry contributed some 10.5% of Italy’s gross domestic product in 2023, according to Statista research.

Florence, long run by the center-left, last year announced a ban on new short-term private rentals in the center in hopes of stemming the exodus of locals. It has repeatedly pressed for a special regulation from the national government, currently headed by right-wing Premier Giorgia Meloni, to cap the number of days a property can be rented out at 120.

To date, only Venice has been permitted to limit short-term rentals. The lagoon city has been drowning under overtourism for years and this year began imposing a day-tripper tax to try to regulate tourist flows.

The right-left political divide over Florence and its tourism woes could come to a head precisely as Italy hosts the G7 tourism ministers starting Wednesday in Florence.

At a warm-up event this weekend, Tourism Minister Daniela Santanche acknowledged some art cities were suffering from too many visitors. But she said that overall Italy is hardly taking advantage of its tourism potential and needed 50 million visitors more a year.

Lamenting Italy’s fourth-place position on the list of the world's top destinations, she said Italy needed to sustainably grow its tourism potential with quality offerings.

“We can grow much more, we can develop much more and the industry of tourism can truly become the leading industry of our nation,” she said.

Protests erupt in Paris over pro-Israel gala organized by far-right figures

2024-11-14 10:34 Last Updated At：10:40

PARIS (AP) — Protests erupted in Paris on Wednesday against a controversial gala organized by far-right figures in support of Israel. The event, intended to raise funds for the Israeli military, included Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich among its invited guests.

The demonstrations came on the eve of a high-stakes soccer match at France's national stadium against the Israeli national team, overshadowed by tensions around the wars in the Middle East. Authorities in Paris announced that more than 4,000 police officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed for the game.

Smotrich, a vocal advocate of Israeli settlements, had been expected to attend Wednesday's gala, dubbed “Israel is Forever,” which was planned by an association of the same name. The group’s stated goal is to “mobilize French-speaking Zionist forces.”

After days of growing criticism of the event, Smotrich's office confirmed Wednesday that the minister would not travel to Paris to participate.

But the invitation to Smotrich drew sharp criticism from local associations, unions and left-wing political parties, prompting two protests in the French capital. The minister, a hard-line settler leader, has been accused of inflaming tensions in the West Bank and drew international condemnations this week by saying he hopes the election of Donald Trump will clear the way for Israeli annexation of the West Bank — a step that would extinguish Palestinian statehood dreams.

The French Foreign Ministry called Smotrich’s remarks “contrary to international law” and counterproductive to efforts to reduce regional tensions.

“France reiterates its commitment to the implementation of the two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, which is the only prospect for a just and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the ministry said in a statement.

Critics also pointed at Nili Kupfer-Naouri, president of the “Israel is Forever” association, who sparked outrage in 2023, after the Israel-Hamas war started, when she tweeted that “no civilian in Gaza was innocent.”

On Wednesday night, several hundred protesters marched through central Paris, denouncing the event as a “gala of hatred and shame.”

“Imagine if an association were hosting a gala for Hezbollah or Hamas — there’s no way the police would allow that,” said Melkir Saib, a 30-year-old protester. “The situation is just unfair.”

The march was largely peaceful, but some demonstrators broke windows at a McDonald's along the route.

A separate group, including Jewish leftist organizations opposed to racism and antisemitism, gathered near the Arc de Triomphe chanting slogans against the gala and Smotrich.

French authorities defended the event, with Paris police chief Laurent Nunez stating that the gala posed “no major threat to public order.”

The protests came days after tensions flared in Paris and Amsterdam related to the conflicts in the Mideast. A massive “Free Palestine” banner was displayed during a Paris Saint-Germain Champions League match against Atletico Madrid, while violence broke out in Amsterdam last week targeting fans of an Israeli soccer club.

Florence cracks down on overtourism just as Italy hosts G7 tourist ministers in Renaissance city

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Florence cracks down on overtourism just as Italy hosts G7 tourist ministers in Renaissance city

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