'Over-tourism' Pompeii Archaeological Park Limited to 20,000 Visitors a Day

The number of daily visitors to Pompeii Archaeological Park in Italy will be limited to 20,000 from the 15th.

The Pompeii Archaeological Park has announced such measures to cope with over-tourism and protect historic sites, Reuters reported.

Director Gabriel Chuchtrigel said that on the first Sunday of the month, the number of visitors exceeded 36,000 per day on the 2nd, and explained that excessive tourism did not harm the site.

Major Italian sites and museums such as Pompeii are free to enter on the first Sunday of every month.

Regular ticket prices start at 18 euros (about 27,000 won), so tourists tend to flock intensively on the first Sunday of every month.

Earlier, Venice, a water city in northern Italy, walked admission fees around holidays and weekends from April to July to disperse tourists.

Pompeii was one of the most prosperous cities in the ancient Roman Empire, but it was ruined in an instant when the Vesuvius volcano erupted in 79 AD.

The first excavation work began in 1748, and has now reached a level where you can vaguely guess the shape of the city in the past.

It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 due to its excellent preservation status and its archaeological value that gives people a glimpse of their lives at the time.