To preserve its natural beauty and combat overtourism, La Pelosa, one of Sardinia’s best beaches will 
limit the amount of people allowed on its shores starting in 2020 by implementing a ticketing system. Tourists are drawn to the northwest Sardinian beach’s turquoise waters and white sand, and during the summer, as many as 6,000 people per day arrive to sunbathe and swim.
The town council of Stintino, the closest city, will cap the visitor count at 1,500 adults per day beginning at the start of summer season in 2020; it will not count children. Officials arrived at this number after conducting studies to determine how many people the beach could sustainably handle every day.
“This is the most popular beach on Sardinia — everyone wants to come here. But it’s a very precarious geological equilibrium, so we’re doing this work to guarantee its future. Six thousand people is not sustainable anymore,” Stintino Mayor Antonio Diana told CNN.
Visitors will have to buy tickets for La Pelosa in advance; though authorities are still deciding how the tickets will be distributed, they are considering launching sales through an app. The move will be in place during peak season for the long term.
“We don’t know how much the ticket will cost, but we think it’ll be around 4 euros [$4.40] per day,” said Diana.
This doesn’t mean you can’t go to the beach at all, though. Says Diana, “We have a slogan: “La Pelosa una volta ma per tutti”; “For everyone but one time only.” You can’t go seven out of seven days on your holiday, for example; maybe you could go two or three in seven.”
La Pelosa has implemented other sustainability measures in the past, including closing access to fragile sand dunes and prohibiting smoking and vendors on the beach.
By Kathy McCabe
Photo: “Stintino” by Bricke is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
