Instagram photo

There are so many places that tourists want to see at their leisure and absorb the beauty of. Japan's Mt Fuji has however now become the place to do your Instagram photo rather than a site of beauty and cultural importance.

The same has become a problem with Rome's Trevi fountain, it's just too popular. Tossing a coin in the fountain, which goes to charity, will now cost an extra €2, which will go to the government although that will mainly be used to manage the area

A similar fee has been implemented for access to Venice.

The fee is anticipated to raise €6 million, a vast sum of money for a vast number of tourists, 3 million. Given that it will apply for 12 hours a day a quick calculation gives each tourist just over 5 seconds to step up, smile, click and leave although if they were to have 10 ‘instagram platforms’ available you would get a minute.

Is this the wrong solution to the tourist problem, given it won't reduce the numbers? Should we use a ballot to reduce numbers? Should such sites be valued more for the history you can hear and the culture you can learn about rather than the image that you can post online?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but it takes more than five seconds to capture and understand the importance of over 250 years of history.

Dennis Fitzgerald,
Melbourne, Australia