Destination takes drastic measures to ban selfies

Hallstatt, a picturesque town in the Austrian mountains, has taken drastic measures to stop tourists taking selfies.

The town, famed for idyllic views and glacial trails, erected a wooden fence to block part of the view from tourists.

Hallstatt attracts over a million tourists a year with many heading to the popular viewpoint to snap a selfie.

The destination has become even more popular since the view was rumoured to have inspired the popular Disney movie, Frozen.

While the fence has since been taken down, it’s part of a series of measures designed to freeze out tourists.

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Hallstatt’s mayor, Alexander Scheutz, told Austrian papers that people in the town want to be left alone.

The town has already introduced daily limits on the number of cars and buses allowed in Hallstatt but these are regularly reached.

Although the fence has been taken down, the town’s mayor said he would like a banner to be erected to remind tourists that people live in Hallstatt.

An official said a final decision on the fencing would be made based on the feedback of the intervention. 

Hallstatt isn’t the only destination to be getting increasingly fed up with selfie snapping tourists.

Officials in Portofino in Italy have banned tourists from lingering too long in certain popular spots.

Tourists could even be fined as much as 275 euros (£238) if they’re caught ‘lingering’ to take selfies in the popular hotspot. 

The town’s mayor said they wanted everyone to be able to enjoy the view and felt that “overcrowding” was increasingly leading to “dangerous situations”. 

If Hallstatt’s view is too good not to snap a selfie at, tourists could instead venture to Guangdong in China, where a near-exact replica of the town has been built.