Pompeii is facing another explosive threat — cruise ship tourists, who are destroying the ancient site as they traipse en masse through it, according to a United Nations official.
“Cruise tourists are wearing out the ruins of Pompeii. The entrance steps of the Temple of Apollo, in particular, have been ruined by the influx of tourists,” UNESCO official Adele Lagi said at a conference held by the nonprofit group I Love Pompeii.
By contrast, about 3 million tourists trample through Pompeii every year.
“Tourists should know that there’s an untapped potential: Herculaneum receives 300,000 visits annually, the Villa Poppea only 30,000,” she said.
The conference was held to discuss the planned railroad hub at Pompeii that would connect the ruins to major Italian cities and other archaeological sites.
An I Love Pompeii spokesman said the rail hub could “bring great benefit not just to Pompeii but to other sites in the area,” by distributing the flow of tourists more evenly among the key sites, the site reported.
But a press spokesman from the site there was no need to turn tourists away from Pompeii.
“High numbers of tourists concentrated in a single place does cause damage, but the way to avoid that is to redirect the itineraries within Pompeii and promote different parts of the site, such as the exhibitions and less-visited areas,” she said.
Pompeii, once a thriving Roman city, was buried by ash and pumice after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.