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Not all publicity is good publicity. Especially when it leads to 10,000 daytrippers invading a ski resort, chaotic scenes on the slopes, extreme traffic snarl-ups, accusations of bad behavior and emergency crowd control measures.
That’s what happened at Roccaraso, one of Italy’s most popular skiing destinations, on Sunday after viral influencer posts on social media about bumper snowfalls prompted tour companies in the coastal city of Naples to lay on cheap tour buses for bored residents to enjoy an outing in the mountains.
Cue the invasion, with 220 tour buses making the two-hour, 130-kilometer (78-mile) trip, alongside cars full of curious day visitors, blocking the resort’s narrow roads and angering its 1,500 local residents.
The tour groups — who paid $20 for the trip, including a sandwich — are accused of causing mayhem on the slopes by ignoring ski etiquette or sliding down on improvised sleds made from, among other items, saucepans.
There were also complaints after some visitors were seen in social media videos lighting barbecues for warmth or to cook food. Others were accused of leaving trash.
Sunday’s events prompted municipalities around Roccaraso, located in central Italy’s Abruzzo region, to introduce crowd-control measures, including limiting tour bus access to the area.
Local media credit — or blame — Rita De Crescenzo, a popular influencer from Naples, who has posted a series of videos on TikTok and other social media platforms in recent weeks inviting people to experience the snow.
Capitalizing on the popularity of her posts, several budget tour companies and organizers then started offering the deals, some even quoting her.
‘The crowd went crazy’
De Cresenzo responded in a colorful post Wednesday, saying it wasn’t her fault that buses had blocked the roads. “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’s mayor, Francesco di Donato, told CNN that the unauthorized tour buses were “a real assault” on the area, which made the situation “hellish” for many, especially those who have homes around the resort or who have season passes.
He said that on a normal two-day winter weekend, the area normally saw about 20,000 skiers and a further 15,000 who sled and trek. The 10,000 additional tourists on Sunday alone created a security risk for the whole area.
Concerned about reports from tourism bodies that twice the number of day trip deals have been booked for this coming Sunday, February 2, he has summoned the prefecture of the regional capital L’Aquila to ensure proper traffic police and security forces.
Francesco Emilio Borrelli, a Green Party politician from Naples, posted a lengthy Facebook video in which he scolded the day-trippers and tour organizers.
“Go to Roccaraso for 15 euros without a receipt? Throw your garbage in the snow? What are we talking about?” he said. “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.”
Some of the day-trippers shot back on social media, accusing the locals of discrimination because they are from Naples. Roccaraso’s mayor denied their city of origin had anything to do with objections.
“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.”
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