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Tourism can do wonders for small communities, but if the last couple of years have taught us anything, it’s that popularity among international travellers can be both a blessing and a curse.
That’s certainly how residents of Vlkolínec seem to feel. The village, tucked away in central Slovakia, was granted status as a Unesco World Heritage site back in 1993, and the body describes it as a ‘remarkably intact settlement of 45 buildings with the traditional features of a central European village. It is the region’s most complete group of these kinds of traditional log houses, often found in mountainous areas.’
However, resident numbers have shrunk by 50 percent over the last three decades, and the current permanent population of just 14 people are staggeringly outnumbered by the 100,000 annual visitors who travel to see the village.
But, it’s not necessarily the number of people who visit that’s the issue – it’s more how they behave. One local told The Mirror that ‘Unesco has turned us into a tourist ‘zoo’’ and that they feel their lives are being ‘crushed’ by the crowds, with anti-social behaviour like sneakily taking photos through windows or entering private gardens being reported.
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Hardly sounds like a fun living situation, does it? Despite the village’s appeal being largely down to the fact that it is a lived-in place and not some vacant ‘open-air museum’, according to heritage expert Miloš Dudáš. Vlkolínec’s most senior resident, Anton Sabucha, said that Unesco’s ‘strict regulations’ have made day-to-day activities like growing crops and keeping pets impossible.
‘Make sure they remove us from Unesco,’ he told Travel Tomorrow. ‘We would live better.’
But, can Unesco take all the blame for this dramatic shift in the residents’ lifestyle? Well, no – the agency has said that while the village is ‘vulnerable to the impacts of tourism’, that’s also down to ‘the increase of temporary residents acquiring property for recreational purposes.’
It’s also worth noting that plenty of destinations all over the planet have been granted Unesco World Heritage status, and many instead champion the body’s operations. Peru’s Ministry of Culture actually described Unesco as ‘the only competent body to promote the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage.’
Stay tuned for updates on whether Vlkolínec sheds its 33-year old title, and in the meantime, have a look at all the countries that could really use more visitors this year.
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