Italy’s top ski resort is a ‘hellish’ flashpoint in overtourism trend

Trends travel fast on TikTok — and not always for the better.

One of Italy’s most popular skiing destinations has been overrun by TikTok tourists following in the footsteps of their favorite influencers.

Viral influencer posts about Roccaraso, a top ski destination in central Italy, led 10,000 day-trippers to invade the resort last week, causing chaos on the slopes, traffic jams and accusations of bad behavior, CNN reported.

After viral posts of snowfall at the resort, tour companies in the city of Naples began to organize cheap tour buses for residents to spend a day in the mountains.

Alongside an influx of cars full of visitors, 220 tour buses made a two-hour, 78-mile trip to the skiing destination, which infuriated the 1,500 local residents and ended up blocking the narrow resort roads.

Visitors paid $20 for the trip, which included a sandwich, and were allegedly ignoring proper ski etiquette and sliding down on makeshift sleds made out of things such as saucepans. Some social media videos revealed visitors lighting barbecues and leaving trash in their wake.

Local media is blaming one TikTokker: Rita De Crescenzo, a popular influencer from Naples.

De Crescenzo has posted a series of videos on TikTok and other social media platforms telling people that they should come see the snow at Roccaraso.

These tour companies and organizers quickly took advantage of the posts, offering deals for the ultimate tourist experience.

Municipalities around Roccaraso were prompted to enforce emergency crowd control measures in the aftermath, including limiting tour bus access.

In a video response, De Crescenzo said it wasn’t her fault that the tour buses were blocking the roads and angering locals.

“I made such a beautiful advertisement for Roccaraso where I was on Monday and Tuesday and the crowd went crazy because I put up wonderful videos,” she said in the post.

Roccaraso mayor Francesco di Donato told CNN that the tour buses were “a real assault” on the area, which made the situation “hellish,” especially for residents who have homes around the resort or guests have season passes.

“Go to Roccaraso for 15 euros without a receipt? Throw your garbage in the snow? What are we talking about?” Francesco Emilio Borrelli, a Green Party politician from Naples, said in a Facebook video.

“People who have passes and follow the rules were made to wait three hours in their cars for these people who didn’t have permission or passes to be there. Not in my name as a Neapolitan.”

Though some visitors clapped back on social media, alleging that locals were discriminating against them because they’re from Naples, di Donato said that their city of origin had nothing to do with the overtourism issue.

“Roccaraso welcomes and wants to welcome more and more tourists, but civil and correct skiers,” he said. “The Roccaraso system is unable to contain the assault of those who come only on Sundays. We cannot put a thousand chemical bathrooms in a ski resort.”

“I am on the street, these people do not have patience, they get nervous, they don’t give a damn about the machines that come. Sooner or later you risk the accident. I say it firmly: they have to face this phenomenon as if it were a soccer match.”