The Mayor of Florence, Sara Funaro, has announced a ten-point plan to combat overtourism.
Aimed at improving the situation for local residents, the campaign, which will enter into effect in 2025, includes bans on key safes, golf carts and loudspeakers for tourism purposes. A requirement to display the holiday rental ID number outside properties; checks on tourism services; sustainable tourism campaigns; working with leading online travel agencies to encourage correct behaviour and a data-driven approach to short-term rentals; ongoing discussions with public and private stakeholders; and setting up a commission to plan tourism policies are among the more overarching measures.
In recent days, red crosses with the wording “Let’s save Florence so that we can live here” appeared on key safes around the city centre. The protest was directed at former mayor Dario Nardella, who held a conference titled “Against the G7 on tourism” at Palazzo Borghese in via Ghibellina, ahead of the G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Tourism that is being held at the Palazzo Vecchio on November 13 to 15. “It’s ridiculous that Nardella is holding this event to decry overtourism after he sold out Florence to major real estate investment funds,” the Salviamo Firenze group remarked to local newspaper Corriere Fiorentino.
The ten-point plan follows renewed attempts by the council to reinstate a 2023 bylaw prohibiting the short-term rental of residential real estate for tourism purposes and calls for the Italian government to enact nationwide legislation.
Florence’s tourism figures are set to hit 15 million travellers in 2024.
