The tourists are out of control. Can they be stopped?
- Tourists have defaced the Colosseum and approached bison at Yellowstone this summer.
- The behavior has resulted in fines and even injuries, and yet officials struggle to stop it.
It's hard to overstate how ridiculous tourists have been this spring and summer.
Two separate people have been caught on video defacing the Colosseum in Rome, an ancient amphitheater that has stood for 2,000 years, attracts six million visitors annually, and clearly is not improved by carving you or your girlfriend's name into it.
Meanwhile, tourists in the US, not to be outdone, are treating Yellowstone National Park like an adult playground.
Plenty of videos show tourists getting too close to bison, despite the park service warning visitors to remain at least 25 yards away from the 2,000-pound beasts. In June, a video showed a woman stepping off trail to stick her hand in a hot spring only to scramble away in shock, shouting, "It's hot!" And in May a bison calf was euthanized after a tourist pulled it out of a riverbank. The man later said he was trying to help the calf.
There's only so much that government officials can do to deter this behavior.
In Italy, officials have vowed to charge anyone who defaces the Colosseum, which could result in fines of €15,000, or $16,850, and up to five years in jail. In the US, the National Park Service focuses on education, using signs and rangers to warn tourists against stupid behavior, as well as fines — the man who moved the bison calf was charged and fined about $1,000.
Neither the fines nor the risk of severe injury seems to be enough to deter this behavior, even when the stakes are life-or-death. Search and rescue officials in the US have reported an increase in calls for help in recent years, especially since the pandemic, with visitors getting lost on public lands or even dying from heat and dehydration while hiking.
But as long as more people are traveling and visiting national parks, the problem is only likely to get worse.