Tourist trains will run on new routes in the next year and a half
Residents of the medieval city of Visby, which has become a victim of mass tourism, grumble at foreigners who besiege the administrative center of the Swedish island of Gotland in the summer, risking turning it into a giant hotel-restaurant.
According to local media, residents of Visby, dissatisfied with the excessive influx of tourists, comparing themselves to the inhabitants of the zoo, suggest that the authorities introduce quotas for visiting the city in the summer.
"We're leaving in June, we can't stand the hustle, all this drinking and the rumble of rolling suitcases on the cobblestones. We are witnessing the phenomenon of "hotel" development of the city center. Buildings are being turned into restaurants or rented out to tourists," complains the Distinguished Professor of Ethnology Ou Ronstrom, who lives in Visby.
Meanwhile, along with agriculture, tourism is Gotland's main resource. About 900.000 people visit the island every year, mostly in summer.
Visby is the best preserved medieval city in Scandinavia, it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The main attractions of Visby are medieval churches and a 3.4 km long fortress wall, which has no analogues in Northern Europe in terms of preservation.
