HERE IS CAPRI ISLAND

The Capri case

The island of Capri is the typical example of a “honeypot”, a place attracting a great number of tourists for its beauty.

The data report peaks of 18.000-20.000 people a day in summer. This number exceeds by far the so called “carrying capacity” of the island, that is its

capability of receiving tourists.

This situation has a negative impact on the quality of life and on the

environment of the island, leading to an increase in litter levels and water pollution and in a general deterioration in the quality of services usually offered to local people and resident tourists.

Moreover the so called “hit and run” tourists receive a false idea of the island.

Two associations “CapriEXcellence” and “Fondazione Capri” were

established in the last few years. Both of them have focused their attention on the study of the island’s

problems and of their possible solution.

Their primary goal is to encourage the island’s cultural development, to defend

and to preserve its uniqueness, as a natural, historical and tourist heritage, “promoting the island of Capri on both a national and international scale, supporting all those activities which encourage cultural tourism, even in those periods of the year when the island is, traditionally, hardly populated”.

The famous Via Krupp

The Capri Foundation does not consider the territory “simply as a context but as an active participant in the realization of the activities in which the promotion of the historical, architectural and environmental heritage of the island can not be separated from the need to ensure its preservation”.

A beautiful view of Capri

The associations have also analysed the driving importance of tourism, as a "primary economic value" for the community.

They have also taken into consideration the efforts carried out by local operators to offer a "tourism of high quality and cultural level", respectful of the historical tradition of Capri.

Both the associations consider as inevitable and urgent the regulation of

day-trip tourist flows, whose indiscriminate arrivals cause problems and damages the image of one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Words like "violence and damage" have been used to define the

problems caused by this unregulated mass: “tourists crowd the island’s street, creating friction and obstruction along the small village , invading the marina , taking the funicular and then going back in the evening , producing unwanted waste”.

And, as a consequence, tourists who spend longer periods on the island

do not receive what they expect and daily “hit and run” tourists "get a distorted vision of the island reality”.

The Faraglioni

Members of the island community have recently suggested a toll payment for day-trip tourists which should be used either to improve receptive structures and to restore the enchanting fascination of the “Sirens’ Island”.

Here is the Blue Grotto,

famous all over the world.