Italy's tourist jewel feels strain of wary travelers

Security concerns driving vacationers to countries they think aren't target of attacks

Hiking the coastal path that links the medieval fishing villages of Italy's Cinque Terre on its northwest coast is a stop-start affair these days.

Nestled between azure expanses of sea and dry-stone terraced mountains that cascade into the Mediterranean, the rocky way is barely 30 centimeters wide in places.

And as visitors arrive in ever greater numbers to see why this corner of the Riviera features on so many travel bucket lists, pedestrian traffic jams made the going slow on a sweltering August morning.

But Chinese student Hardy Yang has no complaints on the crowded path between Monterosso and Vernazza, two of the five villages that make up Cinque Terre.

"Words fail me, it is so amazing," said the 18-year-old as he and his family, from Yunnan province, took a breather. "Are there too many people? No. You know, in China, everywhere you go there are so many people. (For us) there are few people here."

A surge in the number of Chinese visitors is only one of the reasons that the Cinque Terre, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is home to some 5,000 people, attracted 2.5 million tourists last year.

And with instability and security concerns placing countries like Tunisia and Turkey off limits for many holiday operators, the total is set to be 20 percent higher in 2016, according to Vittorio Alessandro, president of the Cinque Terre National Park.

Other iconic Italian settings, like Venice, Florence and the celebrity hangout of Capri, are feeling similar strains, triggering debate about the possibility of capping access.

"The relationship between visitors and residents is in danger of becoming a conflictual one," Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro recently warned.

Making waves

Brugnaro is spearheading a campaign for local authorities responsible for the most saturated sites to be given special powers to limit access - a measure Italy's center-left government is considering.

Alessandro made waves earlier this year when he unveiled plans to monitor the numbers of people entering the 43 square kilometers of the Cinque Terre. Ticket prices to access the coastal paths were raised to 7.50 euros ($8.40) per day and visitors are now made to pay higher rail ticket prices than locals.

The initiative sparked headlines about the specter of quotas leading to tourists being turned away at road barriers or denied access to the trains that ferry the hordes to quay side lunches of 'spaghetti able vongole' (spaghetti with clams).

To date, nobody has been turned away. Alessandro said the objective is only to reduce the numbers at peak times to more manageable levels.

"We don't have gates, we don't have barriers, the park is open, the stations are open," Alessandro said.

"But this is a small and fragile territory and, yes, influxes have to be rationalized.

"This landscape can only be preserved by people living in it, otherwise it becomes nothing more than a cinema set."

Efforts so far have been focused on expanding train services to spread the flow of arriving and departing visitors more evenly.

Train operator TrenItalia kicks back some of its increased revenue to the National Park.