Article originally published in Stuff 15/11/19. Written by Natalie B Compton.

It's not every day that a tourism board tells the traveling public to stay away from the destination it works to promote. But Visit Faroe Islands is doing just that with its decision to limit tourist access to the island chain, a territory of Denmark, this spring.

The initiative aims to draw attention to the issue of overtourism by closing major parts of the islands for maintenance, from April 16 to 17, 2020, opting instead to host 100 volunteers for the weekend. The tourism board debuted the "Closed for Maintenance" project this year, resulting in "unprecedented success."