Overcrowded, overpriced and badly managed: Why I’m done with Italy

Poor tourism infrastructure, poorly managed tourism businesses, and inadequate tourism policy and planning. Politicians are uninterested in addressing the problems of an industry that accounts for over a 10th of GDP

di Brian Johnston

Last month in Venice I spent three hours sitting in a plane on the tarmac. The airport of one of the world’s most-visited cities didn’t have enough staff to load baggage.

Worse, passengers had spent a previous hour packed into a corridor waiting for a bus to take us to the plane because there weren’t enough drivers, either. But no one told us that. When an irate passenger demanded an explanation, an airline rep simply turned her back.
Of course, none of this prevented Venice accepting a stream of aircraft full of the visitors that keep the city afloat. And having relieved them of their money with shoddy, overpriced services, it didn’t prevent Venetians moaning about overtourism, either.

Is Italy too crowded? No. In 2022, Italy attracted 50 million tourism arrivals, ranking it fifth in the world. But that’s less than one tourist per head of population (59 million), which doesn’t even get Italy into a top-20 list.

Iceland is first with 6.6 tourists per inhabitant, Malta second with 5.3. Even tiddly Singapore gets more than twice the tourists of Italy, relatively speaking. When’s the last time you heard Singaporeans complain about overtourism?

The real problem is Italy itself.

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