Among the locals’ grievances were claims of being “regularly insulted and threatened by illegal parkers” and traffic clogging access through the town. The residents of the lakeside village said they were now outnumbered by annual tourists, 1800 to 1.
“Alarm bells are ringing,” said protest organisers, Bürgerliste Hallstatt.
Their demands were for a cap on daily visitors and a tour bus curfew after 5pm.
“Nobody can handle the masses. Hallstatt is too small for the many people who come,” said the town’s mayor Alexander Scheutz. The mayor suggested that even a cap on tour-buses might not be enough to solve their overtourism crisis. Parking continues to be a challenge for residents.
The tunnel, which was completed in 2012, opened the lakeside town up to mass tourism.
Last week the Austrian tourism minister and state secretary Kraus-Winkler told the Kleine Zeitung that the town had not done enough to manage the volume of tourism.
The mayor said he was “outraged” to have had such little support to deal with the issue of overtourism.
“It was shocking that a state secretary should blame us instead of offering support or assistance,” he told radio station Ö1. As far as Scheutz was aware, minister Kraus-Winkler had never visited the town.
Police told news agency APA that the protests lasted roughly 15 minutes on Sunday afternoon and were without incident.
In May this year there was backlash against another tourism-curbing protest in Hallstatt.
Residents erected an anti-selfie fence to obscure views from a popular photo spot. The barrier was later disassembled at the request of mayor Scheutz, who said it would be replaced with signage, asking tourists to be respectful of locals.
