Greece to cap Acropolis tourists at 20,000 a day amid increasing European overtourism

• Greece will limit how many tourists can visit the Acropolis each day.
• The move is an effort to curb overtourism that has gripped Europe in recent months.
• Other cultural sites and museums across the world are implementing similar policies. 

Beginning this week, Greece will limit the number of tourists who can visit one of its most popular attractions each day.

The Athens Acropolis archeological site will now cap daily visitors at 20,000. People hoping to visit the historical ruins will have to use a booking website to snag a time slot in advance.

Greece announced the step last month in an effort to curb overcrowding amid a post-pandemic travel surge that has gripped Europe this summer. Popular tourist destinations have been grappling with the weight of overtourism in recent months. Cultural heritage spots and museums alike are making increasing efforts to try and preserve the sanctity of their sites.

Greece's culture minister, Lina Mendoni, told a Greek radio station in August that the country would start limiting tourist numbers at the Acropolis to prevent damage to the site. Mendoni said the site was seeing as many as 23,000 visitors each day, most of whom come in the morning and create bottlenecks and "unpleasant conditions" for other visitors and staff, CNN reported.

The citadel stands above the Greek capital city and is made up of several historic ruins and artifacts, the most famous of which is the Parthenon Temple, built for the goddess Athena.

The new system is currently in its trial stages and set to be put into effect at the Acropolis and other Greek cultural sites in April 2024, according to CNN.

Concerns of irreparable damage to centuries-old monuments are not entirely unwarranted as a jam-packed tourist summer in Europe draws to its ostensible close. Multiple tourists in Italy have been seen defacing the Colosseum, an ancient monument that is thousands of years old.

Italy's tourism minister deemed such naughty tourists "vandals" after a woman climbed into the Trevi Fountain to fill up her water bottle.

Similar preventative measures have been put in place at such popular tourist destinations as the Louvre in France; Angkor Wat in Cambodia; and in Amsterdam's Red Light District, The New York Times reported.