By Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN
Roccaraso is one of two ski resorts which has seen crowds descend following posts by a TikTok influencer. Photo: ANSA / AFP
A war between a TikTok influencer and Italian ski resorts has escalated after she urged her two million followers to "invade" one destination because she was blamed for causing chaos at another.
Buses packed with daytrippers were stopped by police before they could leave Naples on Sunday in answer to the call from Rita De Crescenzo - a TikTok star whose strong Neapolitan accent and outlandish appearance have endeared her to legions of local social media fans.
The crowds had been headed to Ovindoli, a small ski town in central Italy, when they were intercepted in an attempt to prevent a repeat of scenes two weeks ago when the nearby resort of Roccaraso was inundated by 10,000 visitors inspired by online posts from De Crescenzo.
Skiers, many of whom were not accustomed to the rules of the piste, were accused of leaving mountains of garbage in Roccaraso, barbecuing on the slopes, and making it difficult for regular skiers who have season passes to access the chair lifts.
De Crescenzo rejected accusations that she was to blame for the chaos in Roccaraso, telling her followers, who increased by 100,000 after the first incident, that she should get paid for giving the resorts free publicity. She then told them to head to Ovindoli.
Capitalizing on the call, several Neapolitan tourism agencies offered tickets to the hills for around $20 including lunch and ski passes. Others, apparently, just provided the transport.
Trouble was avoided, however, after police stepped in following warnings from the mayors of Roccaraso and Ovindoli that buses would be turned away, according to authorities in Naples.
Neapolitan police said they stopped several buses that were not authorized to enter either of the ski resorts. Two were stopped because of the absence of booked tickets for the resort, meaning no one onboard had ski passes, a spokesperson with the Neapolitan police told CNN.
Warm temperatures that melted most of the snow on lower elevations also helped stymie what was set up to be another weekend of TikTok trouble in the mountains.
Army on standby
Angelo Ciminelli, the mayor of Ovindoli, said after what happened in Roccaraso two weeks ago, he pre-empted the onslaught. "We had thought about adopting these measures before the challenge," he said. "But we had no choice after she challenged her followers to come here."
The ski areas, in central Italy's Abruzzo region, have always been popular alternatives to travelling north to the Alps or Dolomites, but Angelo Caruso, head of the province, says they had never envisioned that social media would have such an impact.
Caruso ordered hundreds of law enforcement officers and called on the Italian army for backup to stand guard at various checkpoints approaching the mountain to turn anyone away who hadn't reserved a ski pass, hotel or who lived there.
The TikTok trend, he says, is luring "hordes" of people who have no real interest in skiing but want to post their own version of the experience on their social channels, which often ruins the experience for ski enthusiasts.
Rita De Crescenzo's TikTok fame has also inspired a slew of other Neapolitans to try their hand as influencers. This has also caught the attention of Italy's Guardia di Finanza (financial police), which says it is investigating a number of the tourism agencies who allegedly sold passes and bus tickets without reporting profits to tax authorities. Influencers are also being investigated to see if they also earned a cut without reporting earnings.
- CNN
