For the first time, this summer, the Calanques National Park will introduce a pass to limit the number of visitors to the Calanque de Sugiton.
In Marseilles, some of our readers applaud, in the name of preserving the environment.
Others, however, are calling for facilities for locals, and fear that tourists will deprive them of this emblematic site of the Phocaean city.
Feedback is planned for the fall.
This is a first in France.
Faced with the hyperfrequentation of the Calanque de Sugiton, threatened with erosion due to the 2,000 people who frequent the site during the summer, the Calanques National Park has decided to restrict access to this emblematic Calanque of Marseille.
From now on, the visit will be made only by reservation on June 26, July 3 and every day from July 10 to August 21.
Three days before their arrival, at 9 a.m. and until 6 p.m. the day before, visitors must reserve a pass on a reservation platform, implemented by the Marseille start-up Troov, and this, no more than eight times during the restriction period.
After entering your name, first name, email and telephone number, this pass, valid for five people for the whole day, generates a QR code to be presented to two security agents present in the restricted area, or to the police who will range controls.
Only 400 people will be able to access this 9.5 hectare area which includes the beach and the back beach.
“The objective is to limit the erosion of the pine forest, to maintain the capacity for renewal of the landscape and to avoid putting an irreversible process”, details François Bland, the director of the Calanques park.
"It's a shame but necessary"
A measure that divides 20 Minutes
readers
.
“It's a shame but necessary, says Jean-Paul.
The crowds in the middle of summer degraded the site, and removed all the charm and beauty of the site.
"The protection of this natural space, as for Porquerolles, remains essential, abounds Murielle.
Saving them remains the priority.
» « Exceptional natural sites must be preserved at all costs in the same way as a work of art, acclaims Fabienne.
Such sites are deserved.
»
“A bus or a cinema does not accommodate more passengers or spectators than they can accommodate, notes Sabine.
If you want a guaranteed place, you reserve.
No one finds this outrageous.
If it can preserve the site, this measure is a very good idea.
“I find it reasonable to establish a visit permit, judge Sam. In 2019, I was in the creeks.
I saw so many vacationers throwing their picnic trash and even baby diapers, cans everywhere.
It was hopeless.
»
A pass for the Marseillais?
However, the measure raises some concern.
“It is very good to establish this visit permit, given the intensive invasion of our creeks, concedes Guenoden.
Above all, I hope that it won't be the tourist coaches who will benefit first… I find it very sad that we have to come to this kind of situation.
These creeks have been protected for years by the Marseillais.
»
"It's very good to limit access to the creeks to preserve the natural heritage, claims Elodie.
However, I think that it would be necessary to arrange some provisions for that does not disadvantage too much the Marseillais with the profit of the tourists.
Indeed, as a tourist, we will anticipate our excursions more, sometimes several weeks in advance, whereas as a local, we plan our walks from one week to the next, sometimes less.
It would be a shame if all the entrances were taken over by tourists and there was no more room for the locals.
Why not separate quotas?
“It already existed under the mayor, Mr. Defferre, remembers Paule.
We went to the town hall to get the document and at that time, we had to be resident in Marseille.
»
Fall feedback
An option that the Calanques National Park says it did not choose, believing that the creeks belonged to everyone.
“Scandalous, Hubert is offended.
This park has removed the Marseillais playground.
“It has been ten years since the national park appropriated our natural heritage by imposing more and more restrictions on the people of Marseilles who are becoming more and more unbearable day after day, plague Nicolas.
By what right can we be restricted from free access to nature, especially when we have respected it for generations?
We have never needed a national park to keep our site wonderful.
I therefore find this measure odious and unfair.
“Many people will find themselves in front of the barrier without having booked online, predicts Guillaume.
Not sure it discourages them that they can't find another means of access.
»
The park insists on the experimental aspect of this measure, which will be the subject of scientific monitoring and a sociological survey of visitors, before feedback scheduled for autumn 2022. “The experimentation will be successful if there is an emblematic renaturation of the site and if the citizens have adhered to this measure", considers François Bland.
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