Naples and the hyperturism that breaks the city: now we speak of entry and stop tickets to Airbnb

The group of tourists Cross Piazza San Domenico Maggiore and hastened to the monastery of Santa Chiara and via Toledo; The space with a group that arrives in the opposite direction and that is chased by A « Pazzariello » that offers rites to remove the evil eye. Many of them devour « wallet » pizza slices or portions of « cuoppo » purchased long The infinite succession of fryers and street food clubs that dot the historic center. A frenetic « deaths », which is constantly repeated throughout the year and that Only ten years ago in Naples he was completely inconceivable. And it is the perfect image of the international explosion of the « Naples brand ». A success to which The veiled Christ and the fiction set under Vesuvius contributethe treasures of art but also the stereotypes that risk trapping the city in an eternal past.

Hyperturism is a phenomenon that over the decades has dug the connotations in cities such as Venice and Florence, which has also contaminated quiet dolomite locations. But in Naples The holiday economy has had a vertical take -offnot assimilable to that of other parts of Italy. AND He is breaking the city between favorable and against To the point of invoking urgent countermeasures: The blocking of short rents offers on Airbnb or other platforms (request for the committees of inhabitants of the historic center), The entrance ticket for visitors daily (Confcommercio request), The stop at the opening of Street Food clubs (resolution already adopted by the municipal administration).

It is necessary to arm yourself with patience, examine the numbers and imagine to transfer them to the narrow and fragile spaces of the historic center of Naples. In 2024 there were 14.5 million tourist presences (data of the Observatory of the Municipality), with a growth of the 15% compared to the previous year and even 33% over two years earlier. The forecast for 2025 is to touch 17 million. A large low cost tourism that space has been made in the historical neighborhoods (UNESCO heritage). In January 2025 on the digital platforms there were 15,051 offers of rooms and accommodation for tourists, the triple of Venice. Ten years ago there were a thousand. Unthinkable that A revolution of this dimensions did not become a shock wave.

«It is a model that extracts wealth from the territories without redistributing it. A single -culture with high environmental and social costswhich causes the progressive expulsion of the inhabitants « they wrote Anna Fava and Alessandra Caputi on the urban critical website. Alfonso De Vito is instead a social operator, animator of Committee « We remain inhabitants » The protagonist of public initiatives aimed at preventing the center of Naples from being transformed into a single extensive widespread hotel: «The houses available for residents have collapsed by more than half – he says – e The executive evictions, given certified by the Prefecture, exceeded 10,000. Accommodation for which 1,100 euros per month were paid today are put on the market also at 2,300. And all this happens in areas of the city where the rate of residents was 90% and the empty houses only 10 ». Families – according to the analysis of the committees – have no alternative solutions since the more peripheral areas of the city are already overcrowded. For the « we remain inhabitants » movement, an immediate choice is imposed: The blocking of new authorizations for housing for tourist purposes.

A proposal circulates – not yet made official – which provides for fix the portion of accommodation to be reserved for 30% to tourists in each individual neighborhood of Naples. « A proposal you can discuss on it, » he declares Agostino naive at the summit of the Employment Association (Bed & Breakfast Association and Affittacamere). « But the part of houses reserved for tourists is far from that 30%roof, » he adds. And it energetically defends the tourist model, starting from the constitutional law of ordering as better it is believed to be a private property: «It is the only alternative for the city to the disappearance of industry And it proved to be a source of income for thousands of families: 85% of the offers on Airbnb are made by small owners who have improved the building heritage ». And lists other repercussions that the arrival in mass of visitors had on the city: « Areas such as Spanish neighborhoods or the health district were impossible to attend, today they are destinations of visitors ».

Casomai must be added another reflection: the millions of tourists do not risk condemning Naples to its eternal clichés (the pizza and the mandolin, the degraded bass and the nativity scene, San Gennaro and Maradona)? They do not end up pleased themselves with A Naples-Spanish « rude » and postcard? « The data and reality tell us the opposite » is convinced Teresa Armed, Tourism Councilor of the Municipality of Naples: «After Covid the museums and Places of art of the city have recorded a growth of tickets even 90%therefore it is the cultural offer that acts as a magnet. And also the gastronomic one ». Given the latter certified by the site Spectator Index who for 2024 crowned Naples as a city in the first place in the planet for food quality.

Introduce corrections, move the offer outside the historic center: This is the line traced by Teresa Armed to govern the tourist explosion: «From 2022 we have noticed the effects that was involving the success of the Naples brand, together with an undoubted development And growth: we oriented to reinforce services such as public transport, waste collection, the safety that have gone to the benefit of the tourist but also of citizenship « . But how to avoid the Far West of short rents? «The data indicate us – continues the councilor – that The emergency concerns only two neighborhoods of the cityPendino and San Giuseppe. There you need limits while the offer can be oriented towards other areas of the city ».