Have you ever seen this scenic village in Austria in pictures? Hallstatt is a tiny village, built beside a lake and in the shadows of the Salzkammergut mountains that has attracted millions of tourists every year.
The mayor is unhappy as the village has lost its serenity
But, the mayor of the village is now begging the tourists to stay away from it. A large number of tourists visit the place in search of the perfect photograph. The streets are usually occupied with these tourists most of the time.
Hallstatt has a population of 780 and has seen a steep rise in visitors from China, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The city got its recognition from some popular TV shows which are the reason why it receives 1 million visitors every year. The village saw its first spike way back in 2006 when it was featured in a South Korean TV show Spring Watch. Since then, people have been visiting this scenic spot as Hallstatt is on the verge of becoming one of Europe’s top tourist destinations.
The village has not only tourists but also businesses from distant lands. It was 2011 when a Chinese tycoon invested 700 million pounds building a replica of the village in the southern Guangdong Province. Surprisingly, the village’s residents did not even get an opportunity to have their views before starting the project.
What made the mayor sway away the tourists is because a fire burned a significant number of village’s vintage alpine houses to the ground. The fire caused a lot of damage to the city. The mayor closed the roads into the village and issued a notice for the people from foreign lands. Many of them did not pay attention to the notice and continued with their journey to the village.
The village earned UNESCO World Heritage status back in 1997, at a time when it was visited by a manageable stream of walkers and enthusiasts of Bronze Age history; Halstatt is home to a 7,000-year-old salt mine, the oldest in the world.