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The Austrian village of Hallsatt is overwhelmed by the ever-increasing number of tourists who come to photograph it. Getty Images

An Austrian village has appeared in the pages of numerous international newspapers in recent days. Hallstatt, a village nestled in the Alps, once peaceful but now a victim of its success.

On social networks, Hallstatt is sometimes nicknamed "the most" instagrammable "city in the world". And indeed, we find on this network, no less than 617,000 mentions of this village. Hallstatt is nestled between lake and mountain, offering a spectacular view. But this magnificent Alpine village is today a victim of its success. It has less than 800 inhabitants, but attracts a million tourists each year, including many Asians. This mass tourism threatens Hallstatt who today wishes to limit the number of visitors.

Hallstatt or kingdom of Arendelle

The village is home to the oldest salt mine in the world. To this are added the magnificent houses with colorful facades, perfectly preserved. A picturesque setting, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Another reason put forward on social networks in particular is that Hallstatt would have inspired the imaginary kingdom of the cartoon The Snow Queen , the first of which was released in 2013, the second in November 2019. Rumors that the mayor of the town does not believe , Alexander Scheutz, whom we contacted. The increase in the number of tourists, he explains, predates the release of the world famous cartoon. Already in 2012, a copy of the Austrian village was inaugurated in China . The houses, the typical squares and the lake were indeed reproduced identically in a business district of the city of Boluo, in the south of the country. Alexander Scheutz is in any case not delighted with these rumors, because Hallstatt already suffers from an overflow of tourists.

A village beset by tourists

To fight against this phenomenon, the municipality will limit the number of tourist buses, because they often bring travelers who only stay very little time on the spot, sometimes only an hour, the time to make some selfies . Today, Hallstatt welcomes around 80 buses daily, but as of next May their number will be limited to 54 per day, maximum. No way to close to tourism because it is a financial windfall that Hallstatt needs, but rather to regulate it because for the inhabitants the situation is no longer tenable. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough. The mayor, Alexander Scheutz, said that other measures will be discussed in the future.