Residents ask if living in Alsace is ‘worth the hassle’ as Christmas visitors block the streets

“Come on, subsequent!” barked the market vendor as she shoved a heat, cinnamon-scented glass of mulled wine into my hand and gestured me onwards. 

There’s a twenty-minute queue behind me, so I perceive that the reputed Alsatian hospitality doesn’t have room to shine at Strasbourg’s overcrowded Christmas market. 

On this metropolis and the encircling area, December is essentially the most touristy time of the yr, with over 5 million in a single day stays recorded within the final 5 weeks of 2023.

The Land of Christmas is struggling underneath the pressure of holiday makers

In any case, Alsace describes itself because the ‘land of Christmas’. In a considerably flowery language, the area’s vacationer board wrote that native cities flip into ‘dwelling work’, the place market stalls promote gingerbread and mulled wine on a backdrop of ‘youngsters’s adoring laughter’ and ‘enchanting’ carol singing. 

For a lot of locals, nonetheless, this Christmas magic has turn into a curse, plaguing their cities and villages with impassable crowds, site visitors jams, and noisy streets. 

“There are occasions while you bodily can’t transfer by way of the crowds at these Christmas markets,” says Daniel Ehret, a tour information lecturer and Alsace native.

“There are lengthy queues in every single place. I’ve even seen fights escape within the toilet queues”. 

Ehret remembers a distressing incident involving an aged girl who, unable to succeed in the bathroom in time, had an accident. “That’s an excessive instance of the scenes of overtourism we see, however what has turn into clear is that we now have stretched these markets to the restrict,” he says. 

Alsace’s Christmas markets are actually being fastidiously managed

For a number of years, locals have expressed their considerations about this overcrowding, which makes it difficult to park, stroll round, and even sleep, because the Christmas markets are sometimes adopted by noisy nighttime revelry. 

A number of villages and cities have taken initiatives to restrict the crowds: Strasbourg reconfigured its huge Christmas market into fifteen smaller sections unfold across the metropolis. 

Kayserberg has restricted the dimensions of its markets, whereas the city of Colmar has printed a crowd calendar much like these produced at theme parks. 

“Individuals can see when the market shall be quiet and select to come back throughout these occasions,” says Éric Straumann, mayor of Colmar. 

“To date, we now have seen a slight enhance in folks in the course of the off-peak occasions, that means there was a slight night out of holiday makers,”  he provides. 

Colmar additionally provides buses to close by villages and their smaller Christmas markets – though these locations, too, are feeling the strain of overcrowding. 

Christmas is ‘a disturbing time for the locals’

The village of Riquewihr is straight out of an illustrated e book of fairytales, with its vibrant timber-framed homes surrounded by vineyard-covered hills. 

However in the course of the month of December, the 1,050 yearly residents are joined by 450,000 guests. 

“It’s a disturbing time for the locals,” says Daniel Klack, the mayor of Riquewihr. “Christmas season requires a variety of endurance.” 

To deal with this downside, Klack has restricted the dimensions of the market to 43 stalls unfold across the village. The village corridor has additionally organised a carpark just a few kilometres away, with shuttles bringing guests into the centre. 

An analogous system operates within the close by city of Kayserberg. Christophe Bergamini,  director of the vacationer workplace of the Kayserberg Valley, notes that guests nonetheless attempt to get as shut as potential to city and sometimes park their vehicles alongside the principle highway. “It creates site visitors, in addition to issues of safety, as you’ve got a lot of pedestrians strolling on this busy highway,” Bergamini says.

All the identical, Bergamini is reluctant to make use of the time period ‘overtourism’.

“What we now have in Kayserberg is moments of excessive crowds,” he says. “Particularly on Saturday afternoons and round nightfall, when folks come out to see the Christmas lights … but it surely has nothing to do with the state of affairs in Barcelona or Dubrovnik,” he says firmly. 

The winter guests make Alsace residents query the place they reside

This overcrowding in the course of the winter months undoubtedly impacts locals’ high quality of life, as Ehret explains that it impacted his determination of the place to reside. 

“Once I purchased a home, I knew I needed to keep away from the centre of cities like Riquewihr,” he explains. “And I’m not alone. Persons are asking themselves whether or not dwelling in these stunning city centres is definitely worth the problem.” 

For Ehret, the state of affairs is quickly reaching its restrict, and he says extra excessive measures shall be wanted. 

“Sooner or later, cities will now not be capable of take in any extra vacationers. And so they must restrict the numbers, like Venice,” he provides, referring to the Italian metropolis’s plans to cost an entrance payment to restrict customer numbers. 

Charging an entrance payment for the markets has been mentioned in lots of cities, however officers are reluctant. 

It’s a “false good thought,” based on Straumann, who explains that it could create a bottleneck on the completely different entrances to the city, resulting in massive queues that might be inconvenient for locals and guests alike. 

There’s additionally the issue of sealing off each entrance to the previous city centres, as Bergamini notes. Klack, agrees, saying that charging for the entry “isn’t actually within the spirit of the occasion. It could make the market really feel like a theme park.” 

One factor is for positive: the overcrowding downside won’t go away quickly. 

Most Alsace Christmas markets now not run promoting campaigns, but their fame continues to attract guests from France and overseas. 

No matter measures had been taken to deal with the crowds, the mayors agreed on one factor: up to now this yr, numbers are greater than ever.