[IMG=20812-6587]Throughout August, the Italian mass media - followed by its Russian counterparts – caused fear amongst their readers with stories of killer seaweed, spreading along the Ligurian coast as a result of the summer heatwave.
This variety of seaweed can cause diarrhea, coughing, and high temperature. It is even possible to fall victim to the seaweed without entering the sea – the seaweed releases toxic fumes into the atmosphere.
According to Italian print media, at the beginning of August, 10 people were hospitalized showing symptoms of toxic poison. Resorts on the stretch of coastline between Cuarto and Nervi warned: ‘Divieto di balneazione’ (‘No Swimming’). Last year, the spread of the seaweed resulted in an epidemic with 180 people hospitalized.
Horwever, Russian tour operating companies working in the Italian market expressed their surprise at this news. Ksenia Koshkareva from the Italian Department of Mondo Tours commented that ‘We can’t confirm this information; at the moment we have clients in Liguria – the tourist flow in August has not been affected, and we haven’t received any information about this from our partners in Italy, or any complaints from our clients’. Furthermore, Olga Gerasimova, Head of the Italian Department of ICS Travel Group, removed all doubts early in August when a BANKO correspondent asked for her comments; she stated that ‘there is no warning information from elsewhere in Italy; there are no problems in either the Adriatic or Tyrrhenian Seas’. Gerasimova repeated her re-assuring words on August 25th, emphasizing again that there is no cause for concern.
