Louvre Museum in Paris Shuts Its Doors Due to Crowds

It’s a sad but important reminder that tourism must be managed, not simply marketed. At Musée du Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, the doors remained shuttered on Monday, prompted by exhausted staff refusing to take up their positions. The latest symbol of overtourism, the home of the “Mona Lisa” is a poorly managed, crumbling gilded palace overwhelmed by its own popularity. CNN reports, “The Louvre welcomed 8.7 million visitors last year — more than double what its infrastructure was designed to accommodate. Even with a daily cap of 30,000, staff say the experience has become a test of endurance, with too few rest areas, limited bathrooms, and summer heat magnified by the pyramid’s greenhouse effect.” “Roughly 20,000 people a day squeeze into the Salle des États, the museum’s largest room, just to snap a selfie with Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic woman behind protective glass.” Read more.