The gamification of cultural tourism?

The arrest of a tourist for climbing the statue of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence throws a new light on the debate about the gamification of tourism (and many other areas of everyday life).

Apparently the female visitor (nationality unknown), climbed the statue because she was dared by a friend to touch Neptune's genitals on a pre-wedding visit to the city. These kinds of games and dares are becoming increasingly common, particularly as growing numbers of stag and hen parties flood European cities.

Go on, I dare you...

The idea of climbing statues and other daring stunts are promoted by posts on Instagram and websites such as Sisbehaving.com, which extols the virtues of 'mounting things' - mainly statues.

This can also be seen as part of the gamification of tourism, which is also being actively pursued as a marketing strategy by many DMOs around the world. A recent article in the Journal of Vacation Marketing noted that “Destination gamification has emerged as a significant strategy for enhancing tourist attraction.”

It seems that many places will only have themselves to blame if they attract more statue-climbing and other daring 'cultural tourists' in future.