PALERMO, Italy - In a rundown neighbourhood of Sicily's capital Palermo, a whitewashed old farmhouse that accommodates pilgrims now offers two rooms to tourists for bed and breakfast after a renovation.

As foreign visitors flock to Sicily, last year Brother Mauro Billetta, head of the parish in the Danisinni neighbourhood, decided that revenue from B&B guests could help lift the area out of decades of neglect. Two months ago he also opened a cafe at the farmhouse, overlooking the vegetable garden.

"That was our main goal from the start: To open up this part of the city, and also to tourists," said Mauro, sitting in his brown robes in his office at the parish church.

While residents in Rome, Florence and Venice have staged protests, complaining of overcrowded streets and housing shortages due to rising holiday rentals, it's a different story in poorer southern Italy. In Sicily and other parts the tourism boom is helping make some neighbourhoods safer and bringing much needed cash to deprived areas, although residents see risks ahead if it is not controlled.

Danisinni is walking distance from Palermo Cathedral and the Norman Palace, two of the Unesco World Heritage sites in the Sicilian capital, which welcomed over 800,000 visitors in 2023, up 16 per cent from 2022.

"Our houses became more valuable and some of the businesses that opened in recent years, like the restaurants, are good for the residents as well," said Aurelio Cagnina, while walking his dog near his home by Palermo's ancient port of La Cala.

However, some city residents are starting to complain that local authorities are failing to regulate the tourist boom. Short-term rentals are on the rise - more than 180,000 of Palermo's visitors in 2023 stayed in non-hotel accommodation, up 44 per cent from 2019, official data shows - and residents say the growing night life has brought an increase in drug dealing.

"The lack of intervention is setting the stage for irreversible transformations. The so-called 'showcase' historic centre is what is happening," Palermo resident Massimo Castiglia said. He reflects fears voiced by residents in Florence and Venice that their city centres will become amusement parks as locals are priced out by visitors.

Preservation strategy 

A rebound in air travel after the pandemic and more low-cost direct flights have led to a surge in visitor numbers to Europe's tourism hot spots, causing friction in parts of Spain and elsewhere, not just Italy - where tourism accounts for more than 10 per cent of gross domestic product.

Spending by foreign visitors in Italy rose 19 per cent in 2023 to a record 51.4 billion euros (S$74.6 billion), according to The World Travel & Tourism Council's latest data.

Sicily drew 5.5 million tourists in 2023, up 14.5 per cent on 2022, according to local government data, and more than the island's resident population of 4.8 million.

"There is no risk of overtourism. The idea that the historical areas will become a desert, sold out to short-term rentals does not exist in Palermo at present," said Alessandro Anello, councillor responsible for tourism in Palermo.

Yet he acknowledged a strategy was needed to preserve the city's character. The municipality was considering building student quarters in the city centre, he said, and last month it passed rules to prevent the opening of more mini food markets for the next 18 months.

"Otherwise, there would be a risk that it becomes an open-air street food market," Anello said.

Revamped image 

Tourism has helped Palermo to revamp its image after difficult decades that long overshadowed its beauty.

Memorial plaques in honour of the victims of the Cosa Nostra Mafia wars of the 1980s and 1990s are scattered across the city, sometimes hidden among shiny shop windows or restaurants serving typical Sicilian food.

A car bomb exploded in 1983 in a residential street near the elegant Viale della Liberta boulevard, killing anti-mafia magistrate Rocco Chinnici, two police officers escorting him and the doorman of the building where he lived.

Claudia Lombardo, who rents apartments to tourists with her daughter a few metres from the site, believes much has changed since then.

"There is a different air, a more open mentality, and I believe the opportunity to interact with tourists has helped a lot," she said.

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Source: Reuters