(Manarola, 20 Feb 16) Those who believe that the Cinque Terre National Park shows hostility towards tourists are wrong. Tourists themselves, together with the inhabitants, pay the high costs of mass tourism.
We would like to welcome them as if they were in our homes where, when many guests arrive, the first thing we do is to count the chairs.
The headquarters of tourism and their branches make up a product which denies the tourists the opportunity to peacefully enjoy the beauty of Cinque Terre. Such an irrational pursuit of profits is combined with the consequences of bad practices: too numerous groups, unauthorized guides, low-quality offers.
Only the territory, and no one else, has to decide how and how many people it can welcome depending on the available places, on the waste management possibilities, on the maximum load the paths can bear and on the sustainability in general, considering the opportunities of the tourism deseasonalization and quality (it is not about the consumer price, it is about quality).
We ask these headquarters to come and talk with us, instead of selling us.
It is not because we want to assert ourselves, but because we take into great consideration the safety, the beauty of the places and all of the tourists.