Tourists ripped off at popular landmark by 'impossible' ticketing schemes attract investigation

Many travelers who sojourn Rome, Italy, find themselves astatine 1 of the astir iconic architectural marvels successful the world: the Colosseum.

And present tourists visiting the famed Colosseum whitethorn person an easier clip of it, arsenic Italian authorities person concluded a crackdown connected ticketing policies that made it much hard for visitors to entree the landmark. 

The Italian Competition Authority recovered that agencies were exploiting tourists by utilizing practices that made it harder for regular visitors to bargain basal online tickets, according to The Associated Press (AP).

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The Colosseum was Italy’s most-visited landmark, attracting implicit 12 cardinal travelers successful 2023 alone, according to AP. 

"The probe was launched successful July 2023, aft the Authority gathered accusation indicating that the online acquisition of tickets to entree the Colosseum Archaeological Park was fundamentally impossible," the enactment said successful a property release. 

Italian ticketing agencies were deed with a $22 cardinal good for making it "essentially impossible" for visitors to get basal tickets to the Colosseum successful Rome. (AP)

The fines against companies totaled $22 million, with the Cooperative Culture Society bureau receiving the largest information astatine astir $8 million, AP reported. 

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The radical was nabbed for selling tickets that came bundled with tour-guide offers oregon line-skipping abilities — which forced tourists to bargain tickets astatine importantly higher prices.

Authorities said it was "essentially impossible" for tourists to get straightforward tickets to the Colosseum. (Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Authorities said the radical "failed to instrumentality capable steps to antagonistic automated summons hoarding … It [also] kept a sizable stock of tickets for bundled income tied to its ain acquisition tours, which generated sizeable profits."

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The Cooperative Culture Society managed summons purchases to the Colosseum from 1997 to 2024.

Approximately six cardinal Americans traveled to Italy successful 2023, according to the State Department.

The Colosseum successful Rome attracts millions of visitors each twelvemonth from each implicit the world.  (iStock)

Built betwixt 72 and 80 AD, the Colosseum is considered a testament to the architectural and engineering skills of the Roman Empire. It was primitively known arsenic the Flavian Amphitheater, according to the location's website. 

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The gathering has a aboveground country of six acres.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.