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Venice and Cruise Ships: A Delicate Balance

Last month, a 2,500-passenger ship entered the Venetian Lagoon — the first since the pandemic began — reanimating the debate on the negative effects of mass tourism.

By Anna Momigliano

In early June, the MSC Orchestra, a 2,500-passenger cruise ship, entered the Venetian Lagoon at dawn, sailing through St. Mark’s Basin, past the Doge’s Palace and the still-quiet St. Mark’s Square. It continued its journey through the Giudecca Canal and then docked on Venice ’s main island.

It was the first time a cruise ship had entered the lagoon since the pandemic hit Italy in February 2020.

In a place that is heavily dependent on tourism , and where cruise travel contributes about 3 percent of the local gross domestic product, many in Venice welcomed the ship.

But others did not. Among the latter were 2,000 protesters who met the MSC Orchestra when it sailed on its reverse route two days later. Some were on small boats on the Giudecca Canal; others chanted anti-cruise slogans from the waterfront.

“I hope we made some of the passengers wonder if what they were doing is wrong and think about the social and environmental impact of their vacation,” said Jane da Mosto, a biologist and activist who took part in the protest on a small boat.

The pandemic has put Venice ’s legendary international tourism influx on hold for more than a year. In doing so, it has sparked an animated debate on how mass tourism has negatively affected both the lagoon’s environment and Venice’s character. In this debate, cruise ships have become a metonym for overtourism.

The pandemic hiatus has given the city — which is celebrating its 1,600th birthday this year — a chance to reflect on how tourism’s exponential growth has eroded its social fabric, driving non-touristy businesses and residents out. In the past four decades the city’s historical center (what most Americans mean when they say “Venice”) has lost half of its residents, now down to 50,000.

“The situation is dramatic, there are no houses,” said Maria Fiano, 46, a high school teacher who runs OCIO, an organization that monitors Venice’s housing. According to her estimates , 42 percent of beds in the center are rented to tourists, which landlords find more profitable, leaving many locals struggling to find a place.

But not every tourist has the same cost-benefit ratio. While day trippers — including many of those who are cruise passengers — amount to 73 percent of visitors, they contribute only 18 percent of the tourism economy. The proportion is inverted for people who spend at least one night at a hotel; they represent 14 percent of visitors, but 48 percent of the business.

In March, the local government of Veneto, Venice’s region, approved a plan vowing to curb hit-and-run visitors and attract more slow-paced ones. They also hope to wean Venice off its over-dependency on tourism, creating new places of employment, including a hydrogen plant, a project still in its embryonic phase, and a recently launched accelerator for renewable energy businesses. “It’s the first time that local authorities formally recognized that mass tourism cannot go on like this forever and that depopulation is a serious problem,” said Fabio Moretti, the dean of Venice’s Academy of Fine Arts, which was involved in the plan along with other academic institutions and the Boston Consulting Group.

‘An act of violence against the city’

The presence of large ships in the lagoon, especially those in the immediate vicinity of Venice’s most precious sites, has raised eyebrows at UNESCO and sparked protests by residents since 2012. They argue that mammoth, fuel-guzzling ships are physically incompatible both with Venice, a two-square-mile island, and the lagoon that surrounds it. (A 2019 study published in Nature asserted that the wakes created by large vessels induced the erosion of the shoreline and, through the “continuous resuspension of sediment in the area,” could redistribute industrial pollutants already present in the lagoon.)

It’s not so much the number of visitors they bring overall — only 7 percent of the 27 million tourists who visited Venice in 2019 were cruise passengers, according to a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group — but the fact that they bring thousands of them all at once, overcrowding the city’s historical center while contributing little to its economy.

On average each cruise passenger injects about 200 euros into Venice’s economy, according to the same study, but most of that money goes to port taxes and other services, such as laundry and refueling, rather than city-center businesses like restaurants and museums.

“I’ve never interacted much with cruise tourists, they are rarely seen in places like mine,” said Andrea Degnato, 37, who manages a wine bar called Cantina Arnaldi.

Indeed, because they are often in too much of a hurry to linger in a wine bar, cruise visitors are seen as the opposite of the kind of tourists who would make Venice tourism more sustainable.

“People are unloaded here as a sack of potatoes, they hang around, thousands of them, just a couple of hours, buy a slice of pizza and go back,” said Silvia Jop, 37, a Venetian who works in cinema and cultural events. “If you add this to environmental damages, it’s an act of violence against the city.”

But she also acknowledges that cruises provide work to thousands of people, such as cleaners and porters, although most of them tend to be from the nearby mainland. “Their right to have a source of employment must be respected,” Ms. Jop said.

‘Like having an elephant in a china store’

For centuries, the Venetian Lagoon protected Venice. Built on a cluster of islands, the city could not be attacked from land, and the lagoon’s hard-to-navigate shallow waters and muddy seabed discouraged invaders from sea, who risked getting stranded. Thanks to this inaccessibility, Venice maintained its status as a maritime power throughout most of the Middle Ages.

But today Venice can be reached on cruise ships weighing up to 95,000 tons, docking directly in the heart of the old city.

“It’s like having an elephant in a china store,” said Diego Calaon, a scholar of ancient topography at Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University. He noted that, in its heyday in the late Middle Ages, Venice had a policy of preventing large vessels from docking on its shores, noting that they were much, much smaller than modern cruise ships.

Stretching 30 miles across the Adriatic and shielded from the open sea by two narrow islands, the lagoon is a shallow body of salt water , often less than 5 feet deep, crisscrossed by deeper trenches created by erosion or dug by man. It is only through these canals that vessels of a considerable size can navigate — and, even so, with difficulty: In 2019 a cargo ship was stranded in the eastern part of the lagoon, near Chioggia.

Venice’s historical center, a fish-shaped island in the middle of the lagoon, is skirted by one of its deepest canals, the Canale della Giudecca, where cruise ships currently pass, docking in the island’s main port, the Marittima. But this route is narrow, and dangerously close to the city. In another incident in 2019, a cruise ship lost control and crashed into a dock , injuring at least four people.

“We see only two solutions. Either these huge ships are kept out of the lagoon altogether, or the industry adapts to our environment and sends smaller ships,” said Tommaso Cacciari, a spokesman for the No Big Ships Committee , a grass-roots organization that since 2012 has been fighting the presence of cruise ships in the lagoon.

A new home for ‘the monster’?

On paper, cruise ships are already banned from Venice, if not from the lagoon entirely. In 2012 Italy’s Parliament approved a bill that banned ships over 40,000 tons from parts of the lagoon close to Venice’s main island. But the same law also says that the ban will be applicable only after a viable alternative route is found. Almost a decade later, authorities still haven’t found that alternative.

“We are kept in a limbo,” said Francesco Galietti, the national director for Italy of the Cruise Lines International Association. He added that as soon as the Italian government finds a solution, the industry is ready to comply with whichever alternative route is chosen. “Any solution that makes sense would work for us. The only thing we care about is keeping Venice as a home port for the Eastern Mediterranean.”

But anti-cruise activists argue that it’s unfair that the current law is conditional on finding a new port: “It’s like having a monster knocking on your door and, rather than chasing him away, you worry about finding a new home for the monster before forcing him to leave,” said Ms. da Mosto, the activist.

There are two main proposals: rerouting vessels toward Marghera, the lagoon’s main commercial port on the mainland, or building a port outside of the lagoon.

The problem with Marghera, said a representative of Venice’s Port Authority, is that “it’s a commercial port for containers, it’s not built for passengers.” Also, since Marghera is inside the lagoon, critics say that rerouting cruise ships there will do little to contain environmental damages.

As for building another port altogether: On April 1, Italy’s government approved the allocation of funds for a feasibility study for such a project. But the process of developing the plans for the project alone is expected to last until mid 2022, the Port Authority said, leaving little hope that a new port would provide a solution in the short or even medium term.

Halting cruise traffic until a new port is ready would take an economic toll. Before the pandemic, the cruise industry employed, directly and indirectly, 4,200 people in the area, according to the Port Authority, and brought revenues of 280 million euro (over $332 million), although most of that money does not go to Venice’s historical center.

In the meantime, UNESCO is getting impatient. Last month the agency released a report urging Italy’s government to prioritize “the option of banning large ships from the Lagoon altogether” and to set a time frame to “temporarily reroute ships” toward Marghera or elsewhere.

The agency also announced on the same day that it is considering adding Venice to its list of endangered World Heritage sites. “The recommendations for inscription on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger are not sanctions but alerts to find solutions,” a representative for the agency said in an email statement, mentioning “mass tourism, especially with the presence of cruise ships” as one of the organization’s concerns.

But several government officials, speaking anonymously because Italy’s factitious coalition government is divided on the topic, said they’re feeling pressured by UNESCO and, more broadly, by the negative publicity Venice received when cruise ships returned after the pandemic. Recent protests have brought the attention of the international media on the issue, and Venice is hosting a G20 summit between July 8 and 11.

The summit will provide an opportunity for a hiatus. Authorities have issued a temporary halt on large cruise ships until at least July 18, citing a combination of security measures ahead of the summit and the upcoming Festa del Redentore, the annual festival celebrating the end of the plague that devastated the island in 1576.

Sources in the Italian government say progressives in the coalition are trying to push an extension on the temporary halt until the Marghera port is at least partially ready and hope the international attention brought by UNESCO’s rebuke and by the upcoming summit will help them put pressure on the issue. “We’re feeling the eyes of the world pointed at us,” said one official.

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Good or bad? The truth about the cruise ships in Venice, Italy

Protests against cruise ships in Venice made it to the world’s largest and most reputable news networks many times between 2010 and 2020.

The relationship between Venice, the Venetians, and the cruise ships docking in Venice is a very sensitive subject, so it is critical to analyze and break it down in order to understand it better.

As one might expect, when it comes to Cruise Ships or “Grandi Navi” (literally “Big Ships”), Venetians are divided into two groups: those in favour of Big Ships and those opposed to Big Ships entering the Venetian Lagoon.

Both groups have reasons to justify their positions, so we’ll stick to listing facts as the best way to discuss this difficult issue.

When it comes to cruise ships in Venice, size matters

In most cases, the disparity in size between the ships and Venice creates the most direct and strong impression on onlookers.

Is this perception based on facts? Are cruise ships truly too big in comparison to Venice?

The size of Venice and its Lagoon, and the number of inhabitants

A few things to know to understand the (tiny) size of Venice:

• The total area of Venice is slightly less than 8km2, roughly twice the size of Central Park in New York.
• The Saint Mark’s Bell Tower, Venice’s tallest building, stands 99 meters tall.
• The majority of buildings in Venice are under 20 meters tall.
• The lagoon in which Venice is located has an average depth of around 1.2 m.
• Venice has a population of fewer than 50.000 inhabitants.

The size of cruise ships

Here’s some information to understand the size of modern cruise ships:

• Since the first purpose-built cruise ship in 1970, ship sizes have steadily increased.
• The first cruise ship, named “Song of Norway,” was built in 1970. It was 188m long, 24m wide, weighed 18.000t, and could accommodate 1.100 people.
• The “Harmony of the Seas,” built in 2016, is 362.15 meters long, 66 meters wide, and 70 meters tall, with a draught of 9.3 meters, a gross tonnage of 226.963 tons, and a capacity of over 9,000 people. The gross tonnage has increased by more than 1300 percent compared to the “Song of Norway,” or 500 percent compared to the Titanic.
• 38 of the 47 new cruise ships scheduled to be built by 2021 will weigh more than 100,000 tons.

A first decree, in 2013, prohibited ships with a gross tonnage above 96.000t from passing through the Saint Mark’s Basin.

If you’re wondering how big a ship of 96.000t could be, consider the MSC Magnifica. This ship measures 294 meters in length, 32 meters in width, has an 8-meter draft, can carry up to 4.600 passengers,… and is just under the 96.000 tons limit!

Finally, in 2021, the Italian Government passed a new decree that prohibited ships above 25.000 tons to pass right in front of Saint Mark’s in Venice.

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While the size of cruise ships is immediately apparent to our senses, their impact on the local environment cannot be seen with the naked eye but can be measured.

The city of Venice is currently not compliant with EU directives regarding the location and number of air quality control centres. There should be more air quality control centres in Venice than there currently are.

Nonetheless, the data available already provides an idea of the impact and effects of pollution caused by large ships.

Venice background pollution

Consider two important facts to understand many Venetians’ confusios about Venice’s extremely poor air quality:

• The entire surface of Venice is inaccessible to cars, making it the world’s largest pedestrian city.
• Venice is the Italian leader in ecological mobility due to its public vs. private transportation ratio: a much higher percentage of people use public transportation compared to the rest of Italy, reducing each individual’s environmental footprint.

Nonetheless, the background pollution in Venice’s air is higher than it should be. The main contributors are public transportation boats and sightseeing boats known as “granturismo”: water transportation regulations are far laxer than those on land!

Indeed, maritime companies are permitted to use low-cost fuel with a high sulfur content (1.500 times that permitted for land vehicles!) and are under no obligation to use a particulate filter. Filters that reduce emissions by 90-99% would cost 5.000 € per boat, a sum that could be repaid with less than 600 one-way tickets.

The impact of cruise ships on the air quality in Venice

According to the Italian Senate, […the regional agency for environmental prevention and protection has demonstrated that the cruise ships traffic in Venice is the major responsible for atmospheric pollution …], [… every ship pollutes as much as 14.000 cars , also while being docked. Moreover, an estimation performed by the Veneto Cancer Institute states that “ in Venice and Mestre there is a statistically significant excess of lungs cancer compared to the rest of Italy “].

This is an extract of Act n. 1-00199, published on the 13th of December 2013 by the Senate of the Italian Republic .

It is worth noting that this refers to fine dust : the situation for other highly polluting elements is even worse!

Official measurements in Venice are performed in Sacca Fisola, a low-populated area upwind of the harbour.

EU directives , however, impose at least two monitoring centres in the heart of populated areas , and Venice doesn’t comply with the law on this matter.

Ambientalists turned towards the environmental organization NABU , to ask for measurements to be performed in the heart of the city, which is downwind the harbour: those values turned out to be  5 to 6 times higher than the already alarmingly high measurements in Sacca Fisola.

NABU’s measurement registered both the background pollution in different parts of the city and the spike concurrently to the passage of cruise ships . The level of PM 2,5 after the passing of a cruise ship Nave reached 150 times the level of PM 2,5 of clean air .

“I know there are regulations out there!”, you might think. Yes, there are, but not for everybody.

Since the enforcement of the standard Euro V in 2009 , the max amount of sulfurs in fuel was reduced to 10 ppm, or 0,001% .

That’s great! This, however, counts only for land vehicles such as cars and trucks.

The fuel allowed on ships at sea can  contain up to 3,5% sulfur : that is 3.500 more sulfur than the one allowed in fuel for land vehicles.

While moored , ships are allowed to use fuel with up to “only” 1,5% sulfur, which is still 1.500 times more polluting than the fuel used by cars and trucks .

Do ships burn fuel while docked in the harbour?

Yes, they do, because the port in Venice (as most ports around the world) can’t provide enough electricity for keeping the services and amenities running onboard the ships. Therefore, ships keep their engines running to produce electricity.

A cruise ship docked in Venice keeps the motor running 24h a day and burning a fuel that is 1.500 (one-thousand five-hundred) times more polluting than car fuel. 

Many nations worldwide, including Italy, lack laws enforcing the use of filers on cruise ships. As a consequence, many cruise ships don’t make use of particulate filters and catalyst converters , which would decrease emissions by (over) 90%.

The cost of filters, called scrubbers, for a medium-sized cruise ship is around 1 million € . Considering that the average cost of a cruise ship is around 350 million, the cost for the purchase of filters would represent just  0,3% of the total cost. 

There are two main reasons for which cruise companies chose not to make use of scrubbers :

• Filters would take up space that companies prefer to reserve for entertainment instead.
• The current laws allow cruise ships to approach the coast even without filters if they have “clean” fuel . Clean fuel on ships, however, contains up to 1500 times more sulfur than land fuel does.

In order to answer the concerns raised by Venetians regarding the pollution caused by cruise ships, companies have signed and publicized their “Venice Blue Flag” voluntary agreement , with the promise to make use of BTZ fuel when approaching Venice. BTZ fuel is an oil with less than 0,1% sulfur , far below the Italian national requirement of <1,5% when in urban areas.

We salute with excitement such a of voluntary agreement!

Unfortunately, despite their announcements, upon inspection by the port authorities companies have been fined for not even respecting the national requirements and using instead fuel containing 2,8% sulfur  (Venice, 18/07/2015). How reliable!

Let’s make this last information very clear:

• Cars fuel has a 0,001% limit
• The Italian Law imposes a 1,5% limit on ships within 12 miles from the coast (the limit raises to 3,5% beyond 12 miles)
• Cruise ship companies promised to respect a voluntary 0,1% limit

But upon inspection, companies were found to be using fuel with 2,8% sulfur, a value 2.800 times higher than the one allowed for cars and well above the Italian Law.

Effects on the local environment

Besides the aforementioned air pollution, there are several other effects caused directly by Cruise Ships or human intervention looking to accommodate ever growing cruise ships in the lagoon.

Effects on Venice

Three main impacts of cruise ships in Venice are the displacement of water and the consequent erosion of the lagoon, the corrosion caused by pollutant, and the digging of canals in the Venetian Lagoon which is a very delicate environment.

• Displacement is the mass of water moved by the submerged part of the ship, and it’s the parameter that allows a ship to float . Gross Tonnage, which is what the Laws refer to, is the measure of the volumes of a ship, not its mass. There is no direct relationship between Gross Tonnage and Displacement. However, the displacement in cruise ships is roughly around 50% of its gross tonnage : a 100.000t ship will move 50 million litres of water. Even though performed relatively slowly, the movement of such a massive amount of water erodes the hundreds and even thousands of years old foundations of the palaces and the streets of Venice. Big ships are not the only cause of this phenomenon, of course. Heavy (and too-fast-moving) motor traffic is to be blamed also for the holes (yes, real holes) being carved in the foundations.
• The pollution  caused by the fuel used by cruise ships as well as motorboats mixes with the air produces NO2, CO2, and SO2 which damage  severely not only the “natural” environment and the health of living beings but also corrodes severely the works of art and the palaces of Venice.
• The heavy digging of the canals to let Big Ships into the Venetian Lagoon increases the amount of water that enters and exits the lagoon during tides . The direct and most obvious effect on the city of Venice is the increase in number and intensity of High Waters, or Acque Alte , which partially flooded the city.

Effects on the Lagoon

We mentioned above the consequences that digging canals have on the city of Venice. What were the effects of human intervention on the lagoon ?

• The lagoon used to have an average depth of 40cm until less than 100 years ago. The digging and deepening of canals led to the erosion of 70% of the natural sediments and an increase in depth to an average 1,2m … that’s an increase of +200%.
• The increased amount of water led to the erosion of the sandbanks of the lagoon. Sandbanks are home to Venetian wildlife : fishes, birds, small rodents, and plants. Since the digging of the canals started, the habitat of local species has decreased drastically .

Dangers and risks of collisions

The most immediate fear of Venetians and Venice lovers when it comes to the passing of Big Ships in the heart of Venice, is the risk of collision .

The rules established to reduce this risk are very strict and applied with great attention:

• Every cruise ship is halted at the entrance of the lagoon of Venice, is boarded by two captains of the Venice Port and is manoeuvred all the way until it is safely docked in the harbour.
• Every cruise ship is preceded and followed by two tugboats that can  intervene in the case of an emergency .

These rules have indeed granted great safety to the city of Venice over the years, but have not prevented entirely accidents. Some of them could have been devastating to the city.

Will cruise ships tragedies no longer occur in Venice?

No, only forbidding cruise ships to pass in the basin of Saint Mark will assure Venice to be completely safe from cruise ship related accidents.

Just like everything else, from trains to planes, the risks are calculated, reduced as much as possible, and often prevented . Yet, accidents do happen , it’s a matter of statistics and probability. Whether a mechanical or electrical dysfunction, terrorism, human error or deliberate choice, tragedies are a reality.

In the past years, between 500 and 600 cruise ships docked yearly in Venice. This means that cruise ships cross the Basin of Saint Mark between 1.000 and 1.200 times every year , just in front of the Doge Palace on one side, and San Giorgio on the other side. In 20 years , big ships will have passed 20 to 24.000 times through the heart of Venice . One, only one, single accident in the Basin is one of those 2o.000+ crossings could mean a tragedy from which Venice would never recover.

The possibility of accidents is small , but the consequences would be devastating .

Up to this point, all considerations speak clearly against Big Ships.

Why then, are there people in favor of cruise ships?

Impact of the cruise ship business on the local Economy

The Venice Cruise Ship Terminal employs 4-5.000 workers locally , which is over 4% of the workers of Venice , and a total of 7-8.000 workers in all of Italy. The economic impact of the port represents 3-4% of the Venice municipality GDP .

Venice acts mainly as a homeport . A homeport is a port from which a cruise ships’ journey start or ends. Cities that have home ports benefit from greater economic expenses than cities working as transit ports do since it is more likely for cruisers to be spending one night in town before or after their cruise. In 2015, the port of Venice has welcomed close to  1,6 million passengers.  The above data and its implications were taken from a  report about the benefits of the port , commissioned and funded by the Venetian port itself.

On the other hand, since Venice has experienced a sudden increase of cruise passengers , an overwhelming number of souvenirs shops and low-price-and-quality restaurants have opened , targeting day (or hour) trippers. This kind of business has contributed greatly to the increase of rents and the disappearance of many local shops and activities , as well as artisans’ shops and authentic traditions.

Impact of the Cruise Ships on the National Economy

An important business connected to the cruise ships industry is the making of these big ships . The Italian public company Fincantieri is one of the biggest shipbuilding companies in the world , specializing in cruise ships, warships, and 60+m yachts. It has several construction yards in Italy, as well as in the U.S., Brazil, Norway, Romania, and Vietnam. One major construction point is in Marghera (Venice), and it gives work to thousands of workers and 350 businesses. The number of subcontractors increases this industry’s relevance even further.

Fincantieri in 2015 employed directly 7.700 people in Italy and over 22.000 people all around the world, generating revenues of 4,2 Billion €. 

It is clear that a part of Italy’s economic interests and job opportunities are tightly bound to the cruise ships business .

Current situation and Government interventions

Laws and decrees.

Technically, since 2013 a Decree called Clini-Passera prohibits big ships over 40.000t to pass by the basin of Saint Mark . Only technically though, since the decree also requires the presence of alternative routes for ships over 40.000t, in order to be effective . As long as the city of Venice will  not provide alternatives , this limit is automatically increased to 96.000t . Before 2013, the upper limit used to be 130.000t.

This situation, however, is probably better than if the 40.000t limit would be respected since, currently, the only ships small enough to respect that limitation are  old ships with obsolete engines . These “small” big ships might indeed look less invasive to the eye, yet they pollute the air more than bigger and more modern ships do .

Until early 2021, the only limitations to cruise ships passing through the basin of Saint Mark are the use of fuel with less than 1,5% sulfur (1500 times higher than the percentage allowed on land) and a gross tonnage below 96.000 tons .

That did not satisfy civil society groups who demanded cruise ships be banned from passing through the heart of Venice. Indeed, ships up to 96.000 tons still represent a massive size compared to the city’s dimensions.

At the same time, the 96.000t limit did not satisfy cruise companies, since most of the new ships being built were over 100.000 tons and wouldn’t be allowed to pass in front of Venice . Seeing Venice from above was considered to be the highlight of the cruise ship journey, and is, therefore, the strongest cruise ship ticket selling argument .

Finally, in 2021, things changed: From the 1st of August 2021, ships weighing with a size above 25.000 tons can no longer pass in front of Saint Mark’s Square!

In 2021 some things changed for Cruise Ships in Venice

A new Italian Law passed in July 2021 stated that ships above 25.000 tons can no longer pass in front of Saint Mark’s Square starting August 1st 2021!

This, however, does not mean that cruise ships can no longer enter the Venetian Lagoon.

On the contrary, the local and national administrations are considering increasing the width and depth of an existing canal inside the Venetian Lagoon to let much bigger cruise ships dock in Marghera, nearby Venice.

Therefore, while we welcome the new Law, it only solves one problem: the risk of collisions.

The huge impacts of cruise ships on our delicate local environment and the enormous pollution caused are not addressed at all.

Projects and proposals

Despite the new law of 2021, the Italian Government is taking into account three proposals to improve to the current situation.

Two of them, called Contorta Project and Trezze Project , focus on the digging of existing canals in the Venetian lagoon ; The third, called the Venis Cruise Project , focuses on building a new docking terminal at the entrance of the Lido channel connecting the Adriatic sea to the lagoon.

Increasing the width and depth of canals in the Venetian lagoon is fiercely opposed  by environmental groups since it will alter and worsen, once more, the fragile state of the Venetian lagoon . In order to make big ships pass, the canals would be dug a dozen meters deep, allowing a much greater amount of seawater to enter or exit the lagoon during tides. The digging of one of these canals would result in the destruction of even more sandbanks , or “barene”, and an  increase in the frequency and intensity of High Water , or Acqua Alta, in Venice.

The creation of a new docking terminal is opposed for several reasons. From a logistic point of view , the common remark is that it will be necessary to create yet another means of transportation for millions of people from the cruise terminal to the centre of Venice. Cruise ships oppose this project. A new docking terminal would prevent companies to sell the view-of-Venice-from-above , and would spoil the investments made during the past decade to become the majority shareholder of the Venice Port.

A further project suggests cruise ships should make use of the already existing “oil canal” or “Canale dei Petroli”, which is used since 1969 by mercantile ships to reach the industries of Marghera. This project would require no intervention on the Venetian Lagoon, but the making instead of a new Port in Marghera and the conversion of the current Port into social housing. The Marghera Port would be the only location adapt for cold-ironing, or   shore connection , providing enough electrical power to docked ships, making it possible for their main and auxiliary engines to be turned off, dramatically cutting the cost of air pollution.

We tried to provide you with plenty of information to describe the relationship between Venice and the Big Ships. Whichever is your position on this matter, we respect it.

The opinion of others

We understand the problems that would be caused by posing a limitation to cruise ships, and we understand that several people are bound to this business and depend on it. We respect those who strongly support the cruise ship business as it currently is.

We are aware that many people depend on the activities coming from the Venice Port , and that the ever-growing protests of the local communities are felt like a great threat and danger to their jobs.

In a land where unemployment is high, pay is low, and social help is less-than-ideal, this is exactly the leverage used by those who could make a change but wish instead to keep things as they currently are,  only to increase their profit despite damaging severely the health of the local population and the environment.

Our Opinion

We are very critical of the current situation.

We just can not and will not accept the great, constant and terrible pollution caused by these ships and the promotion of mass tourism that contributes to the disappearing of local businesses and authentic shops in favour of mass-produced plastic souvenirs that target day-trippers.

We understand and respect the importance of this business and the jobs it generates  but we believe it must change in order to respect something that matters more than the profit of a few: the health of all the Venetians, the protection of Venice, and the respect of the environment.

We have a dream

We wish for the preservation of the current jobs , but we also wish for some major changes that will respect Venice, the lagoon, and the Venetians.

Which changes do we believe should absolutely be undertaken ?

• Ships should be obliged to use filters .
• Close to cities, fuel allowed on ships should respect the same parameters as the one allowed on land .
• Once docked , ships should switch off their motors and receive electrical power from the Port itself.
• Ships should not pass in front of Saint Mark . Entertainment and profit should not win over safety.
• No new canals should be dug or enlarged . The Venetian Lagoon is delicate and should be preserved.

We believe in our dreams, and we will try to push for a change in every way we can.

Congratulations on making it through this long and technical article!

If you’re eager to learn more about Venice as well as to find great information to plan your visit to the city while making a positive impact on the local community, check out the following resources:

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After Banning Cruise Ships, Venice Puts a Cap on Day Trippers

By Marianna Cerini

Venice has often been likened to an open-air museum—and starting next year, it might feel like one, too.

On August 21, the local administration of La Serenissima announced that, from the second half of 2022, it will limit the number of visitors to its narrow calli and iconic piazzas. To regulate access, the city will introduce electronic turnstiles at different entry points, a dedicated booking app, and an entrance fee of €3 to €10 (about $3.50 to $11.80) for anyone visiting for the day (costs will vary depending on the season). Residents, students, and commuters will be exempt from the added cost, as will travelers who book stays in local hotels (who already pay a city tax of up to €5 a night).

The measure is the latest effort to preserve Venice’s fragile ecosystem, and curb the overtourism it suffered from in pre-pandemic years. It follows the ban on large cruise ships that came into effect on August 1, and the recent decision by the Italian government to make the lagoon a national monument , so as to place it under enhanced state protection.

“We want to reposition Venice as a place people don’t just come to for a few hours, but experience for a few days, and with a deeper awareness of its urban, social, and cultural fabric,” says Simone Venturini, Venice’s Tourism Councilor. “By introducing a ticketing system we can limit crowds, shift away from the ‘day-tripper model’ that’s been so detrimental to the city, and hopefully win back the overnight guests that have stopped coming because of overtourism.”

Plans to tax visitors to Venice aren’t new , nor is the turnstile idea, which was briefly implemented in 2018. But following Italy’s reopening to tourism this past summer, Venturini says that this time they’re here to stay. “We’ve spent the past two years developing a long-term strategy to make tourism more sustainable both for those who visit and those who live in Venice. I’m confident that this integrated approach is going to ensure a better future for our city.”

Francesco Pugliese, owner of boutique hotel Avogaria , in the Dorsoduro district, agrees. “It was time to do something drastic,” he says. “And if that means turning Venice into a gated destination, I am ok with it. We need a filter or we’re going to collapse. That’s the reality of things.”

It’s a dire statement, but a quick look at the figures backs it up.

In early August some 85,000 people passed through Venice’s historical city center —whose population is 55,000—in a day. In 2019, there were peaks of 110,000. Before the pandemic, around 30 million tourists arrived annually, 73 percent of which were daily visitors (including cruise passengers) but only made 18 percent of its tourism economy. Meanwhile 70 percent of Venetians have left Venice in the past 70 years.

“It’s unsustainable,” Pugliese says. “Our streets, squares, and palazzos aren’t structurally built to cope with such high volumes of people—especially when so many come only to take a selfie in St. Mark’s Square .”

For Gioele Romanelli, owner of design-forward apartment-hotel Casa Flora , institutional regulations over the flow of visitors could also benefit the way visitors engage with Venice. “Venice isn’t just monuments and sights. It’s locals too—artisans, family-owned restaurants , artists, and local shops. When you’re here for a day, you don’t really have time to explore any of that. I think a slower, more discerning and responsible way of seeing the city can only be positive.”

But the ‘limited entry’ has also drawn criticisms from locals. Some residents, as well as Italian media and politicians, have described the move as the next step towards turning Venice into a “theme park.”

Monica Sambo, a Venice City Councilor and head of the local Democratic Party council group, believes turnstiles and daily fees won’t make a difference in improving the city’s tourism industry.

“Turnstiles don’t really limit arrivals—you’d have to place them everywhere around the city’s access points, which isn’t currently in the pipeline. If anything, it’ll just mean visitors will enter from areas that may have escaped the crowds until now, transforming those into new busy spots, likely with very long lines to get in. The extra fee doesn’t resolve the mass tourism issue either. Sure, some people might be deterred from coming in just for a day-trip, but is that enough to create a more sustainable ecosystem?”

Either way, change has to happen, and fast.

“We need to rethink how everyone approaches Venice,” Romanelli says. “The city is so much more than what it’s become today. Whatever method we use to highlight that is good for me.”

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Venice formally bans large cruise ships from its historic city center

Jul 13, 2021 • 2 min read

Venice will divert cruise ships from its city center © Alexander Spatari/Getty Images

In a bid to preserve the artistic, cultural and environmental heritage of Venice,  on Tuesday the Italian Government announced an upcoming ban on large cruise ships from the historic area.

According to the country's culture minister, Dario Franceschini, the decision was influenced by Unesco's call to reconcile the challenge of preserving the lagoon with the economics of cruise and freight activity. 

The ban will come into effect on August 1. This means that ships weighing more than 25,000 tonnes will no longer pass Saint Mark's Square for the Giudecca canal or share the space with gondolas and water taxis in the city center.

In a tweet, Franceschini said he is "proud of the commitment". 

A #Venezia dal 1 agosto le grandi navi non passeranno più davanti a San Marco per il canale della Giudecca. Approvato il decreto legge in consiglio dei ministri. Orgoglioso di un impegno mantenuto. @UNESCO @AAzoulay pic.twitter.com/1HXIwpbHbZ — Dario Franceschini (@dariofrance) July 13, 2021

Cruise ships have attracted negative attention in Venice over the last few years, particularly when a 13-deck MSC ship collided with a tourist boat docked on the Giudecca Canal in 2019, injuring several people. The event sparked protests city-wide, with many Venetians calling for a total ban on large cruise ships in the lagoon .

When tourism was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the absence of boats meant that Venice's canals sparkled with unusually clear water . Huge schools of fish could be seen swimming around, and swans enjoyed having the clear water of the Serenissima to themselves.

The decision to ban cruise ships will please many residents of Venice, who have expressed concern around sustainable tourism and environmental issues in recent years. Previous initiatives to prevent cruise ship traffic entering the area have not come to fruition, but this ban   will formally address the issue.

In April, the government diverted large cruise ships away from Venice's historic center. Cruise ships were instructed to dock in the industrial port of Marghera, but  according to Reuters that port is not suitable for large passenger and freight liners. A new location is currently being sought. 

This article was first published on April 2 and updated on July 13, 2021.

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Venice's plan to charge tourists descended into chaos, showing how much of a headache overtourism has become

• Last week, Venice introduced a 5 euro, or $5.40, fee for day-trippers to mitigate overtourism.
• The fee is part of a trial that's running until July 14 and will apply on 29 "peak" days.
• The move sparked protests, highlighting the problems city officials face when tackling overtourism.

Venice is one of many cities grappling with the effects of overtourism as its number of visitors has bounced back from pandemic-era lows.

When cities become overrun with tourists, officials are often tasked with finding ways to make them more livable for residents.

Officials in the Italian city took action last week by implementing a trial fee of 5 euros — about $5.40 — for day-trippers on certain days. But the residents it aims to help aren't all happy about it.

While the hoards of tourists that descend on Venice's narrow streets can be a headache for people who live there year-round, many locals don't believe that charging people is the answer.

About 500 people protested the fee after it came into effect on Thursday. Some of them clashed with riot police; others held up signs and banners saying, "No to ticket, yes to houses and services for all," The Guardian reported.

Opponents claim that the fee, which kicks in on 29 "peak" days from April 25 to July 14, is against the principle of freedom of movement and is too low to deter tourists.

The fee's introduction immediately caused frustration — and not just among locals.

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The Guardian reported that some visitors were confused about how to prove they'd registered. Though overnight visitors were not required to pay the day fee, some didn't realize they still had to register their exemption.

The office of Simone Venturini, the city's tourism councilor, did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Venturini previously said the plan wasn't designed for the purpose of raising cash, and that the money raised would only cover operating costs.

Tourists visiting Venice on peak days need to buy a ticket online or at booths to enter the city. Those who fail to register risk being stopped by a ticket inspector and charged between 50 and 300 euros. On Thursday, the city's municipal council said that 113,000 people registered, of which 15,700 were paying guests.

Locals don't need to pay the fee to enter the ticketed area, but they do still need to book online, which has become a point of contention.

One opponent to the measure said on Thursday that Venice was "becoming a museum, a theme park," Reuters reported. Photos show some protesters holding up signs saying, "Welcome to Veniceland."

Other examples of overtourism crackdowns include Amsterdam's city council voting to ban cruise ships from docking in the city center. The move aims to reduce big crowds and limit environmental damage from the ships.

Amsterdam also launched a campaign to reduce the number of "messy" young, male British tourists traveling to the city to party and take illicit drugs.

In other cases, officials in Fujikawaguchiko, Japan, opted to erect an 8-foot-tall mesh fence to discourage tourists from flocking to take photographs of Mount Fuji . The officials said it was a last resort after tourists crowded the area, left trash, and ignored traffic laws.

Elsewhere, a town in Austria that inspired the film " Frozen " also installed a fence to deter tourists from taking selfies. The temporary wooden fence was one of several tourist-curbing measures trialed in the 800-person town of Hallstatt, where the number of visitors can reach up to 10,000 a day , the BBC reported.

Other tourist hot spots have implemented caps on the number of daily visitors. In September, Greek officials introduced a 20,000-person daily cap on visitors to the Acropolis in Athens. Several US national parks also have daily caps.

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Special report: the impact of cruise on Venice

Anthony Pearce speaks to Galliano di Marco, director general of Venice Cruise Terminal, about plans to deal with the impacts of tourism in the face of protests

As anyone who’s visited the Piazza San Marco in summer will attest, Venice can feel unbearably busy. There’s an intensity to tourism in the Italian city, and it’s not gone unnoticed by the fast-departing locals or Unesco, which granted the city World Heritage status in 1987. In May, it threatened to put Venice on its danger list – usually reserved for sites in warzones – because of the impacts of tourism on the environment, the city’s “building fabric and cultural context”.

Tourism may bring millions of pounds and thousands of jobs to the city, but Venetians are angry. This year, 18,000 people signed an unofficial petition to ban large ships from the lagoon; while groups such as No Big Ships continue to grow. Whether it’s down to pollution, overcrowding or gentrification, Venetians are leaving at an alarming rate: 50 years ago, more than 150,000 people lived in the city, just 54,000 do so now; 28 million people visit each year.

Aside from the queues outside the Basilica San Marco, cruise is the most visible sign of tourism in the city, and nearly every article on the Unesco warning came accompanied by images of cruise ships looming over the city. But how much is cruise to blame?

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When I sit down with Galliano di Marco, director general of the city’s imposing cruise terminal, which is large enough to host 10 ships, I’m surprised to hear him agree that Venice is overcrowded. “We do have an issue with the number of tourists – it’s too much,” he says, but is quick to point out that cruise represents only five per cent of total tourism. “Venice gets 28m tourists a year; we are down to 1.4m. When we talk about there being too many tourists, this is nothing to do with my passengers.”

The cruise lines, he says, agreed to self-limit themselves, and ships above 96,000GT no longer visit the city – meaning the number of cruise visitors has dropped. “The biggest ships cannot come to Venice – that’s why we’ve lost 500,000 customers,” he says. “We are losing passengers and money, but we realise this is something we have to do to give to the town.”

Di Marco says most tourists come by train, car and bus, but understands why Venetians “don’t like to see these big ships” in the Giudecca Canal. 

His solution, which Unesco is in favour of, is to divert ships around the back of the city, down the Malamocco–Marghera channel, which has been used primarily by commercial ships. Campaigners are pushing for a new terminal away from the city, but di Marco thinks this is the ideal solution. Optimistically, he says it will be in place by 2020 or 2021 and will affect all ships over 40,000GT.

A spokesperson for No Big Ships said it “opposes any dredging and excavations in our lagoon”, claiming that it places the city and the whole area at increased risk from the sea.

The battle, for now, continues.

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Large cruise ships banned from entering Venice Lagoon

UNESCO welcomes the Italian government's decision to ban large cruise ships from the Venice Lagoon. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee urged Italy in 2014 to ban large ships and oil tankers from entering the Venice Lagoon. Sometimes weighing up to 40,000 tonnes, they undermine the Venice lagoon and its ecological balance. The decree-law announced by the Italian Government is a very positive step in the implementation of the recommendations made by the World Heritage Committee.

While a UNESCO/ICOMOS/Ramsar Convention advisory mission, conducted in January 2020, considered that the redirection of cruise ships to a temporary terminal in the port of Maghera could be a temporary solution, the Organization will also remain attentive to the solutions put in place by Italy, which is considering, in particular, the possibilities of using the existing canals (the industrial canal to Port Marghera and the Canale Vittorio Emanuele III) to bypass the historic centre.

In the spirit of the international safeguarding campaign launched after the historic floods in Venice in 1966, UNESCO will provide all the necessary assistance and support to Italy to protect the Outstanding Universal Value of this World Heritage property in the long term.

Venice, one of the most beautiful historic cities in the world and an emblematic World Heritage site since 1987, has been threatened on several fronts for many years. It faces complex and systemic problems, such as the impact of high tides and wave motion on the foundations of historic buildings, the negative human-induced effects on the ecosystem of its Lagoon, and the transformation of its historic vernacular habitat for commercial and tourist reasons leading to the exodus of inhabitants, among other issues. Before the COVID-19 crisis, mass tourism, especially cruise tourism, was also a major threat to the city and its environment.

Rough seas or smooth sailing? The cruise industry is booming despite environmental concerns

Professor and Director, Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Toronto Metropolitan University

Teaching Faculty, Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University

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Cruise ship season is officially underway in British Columbia. The season kicked off with the arrival of Norwegian Bliss on April 3 — the first of 318 ships that are scheduled to dock in Victoria this year. Victoria saw a record 970,000 passengers arrive in 2023, with more expected in 2024.

The cruise industry was badly hit by the suspension of cruise operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Fuelled by heavy consumer demand and industry innovation, cruising has made a comeback. It is now one of the fastest-growing sectors, rebounding even faster than international tourism.

While many predicted a difficult recovery , a recent industry report shows a remarkable post-pandemic rebound . Two million more people went on cruises in 2023 versus 2019, with demand predicted to top 35 million in 2024.

But environmental issues plague the sector’s revival. Are they an indication of rough seas ahead? Or will a responsive industry mean smooth sailing?

Cruising has long been criticized for being Janus-faced : on the surface, cruises are convenient, exciting holidays with reputed economic benefits. But lurking underneath are its negative environmental and social impacts .

Unprecedented growth

Newly constructed mega-ships are part of the industry’s unprecedented growth. Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world , with 18 decks, 5,600 passengers and 2,350 crew.

MSC World Europa with 6,700 passengers and 2,100 crew, P&O Arvia with 5,200 passengers and 1,800 crew, and Costa Smeralda with 6,600 passengers and 1,500 crew also claim mega-ship status.

Those sailing to and from Alaska via Victoria will be some of the estimated 700,000 passengers departing Seattle on massive ships three sport fields in length.

Baby boomers represent less than 25 per cent of cruise clientele. Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z have more interest than ever in cruising, with these younger markets being targeted as the future of cruise passengers.

The Cruise Lines International Association asserts that 82 per cent of those who have cruised will cruise again . To entice first-timers and meet the needs of repeat cruisers, companies are offering new itineraries and onboard activities, from simulated skydiving and bumper cars to pickleball and lawn bowling.

Solo cruise travel is also on the rise, and multi-generational family cruise travel is flourishing, explaining the extensive variety of cabin classes, activities and restaurants available on newly constructed and retrofitted ships.

However, only a few cruise ports are large enough to dock mega ships. Cruise lines are responding by offering off-beat experiences and catering more to the distinct desires of travellers.

In doing so, there is a move towards smaller vessels and luxury liners , river cruises and expedition cruising . Leveraging lesser-known ports that can only be accessed via compact luxury ships offers more mission-driven, catered experiences for the eco-minded traveller.

Cruising and environmental costs

Cruise ship visitors are known to negatively impact Marine World Heritage sites. While most sites regulate ballast water and wastewater discharge, there are concerns about ship air emissions and wildlife interactions .

Cruise ship journeys along Canada’s west coast, for example, are leaving behind a trail of toxic waste . A study by environmental organization Friends of the Earth concluded that a cruise tourist generates eight times more carbon emissions per day than a land tourist in Seattle.

Also, a rise in expedition cruising means more negative impacts (long-haul flights to farther ports, less destination management in fragile ecosystems, last chance tourism ) and a rise in carbon dioxide emissions.

Toxic air pollutants from cruise ships around ports are higher than pre-pandemic levels, leaving Europe’s port cities “choking on air pollution .” Last year, Europe’s 218 cruise ships emitted as much sulphur oxides as one billion cars — a high number, considering the introduction of the International Maritime Organization’s sulphur cap in 2020 .

Rough seas ahead or smooth sailing?

Royal Caribbean said its Icon of the Seas is designed to operate 24 per cent more efficiently than the international standard for new ships. International Maritime Organization regulations must be 30 per cent more energy-efficient than those built in 2014.

But despite the industry using liquefied natural gas instead of heavy fuel oil and electric shore power to turn off diesel engines when docking, industry critics still claim the cruise sector is greenwashing . As a result, some cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona and Venice are limiting or banning cruise ships .

Environmental critiques remain strong, especially for polar expeditions . The industry must respond and increase sustainability efforts , but their measures remain reactive (i.e., merely meeting international regulations) rather than proactive. In addition, by sailing their ships under flags of convenience , cruise companies evade taxes and demonstrate an unwillingness to abide by a nation’s environmental, health and labour regulations.

In any case, environmental concerns are escalating along with the industry. Travel agents and industry figures are aware of these impacts and should help promote cruise lines that demonstrate a commitment to sustainable practices.

Local residents need to expect more from port authorities and local governments in order to cope with cruise tourism . Cruise consumers should recognize the environmental costs of cruising, and demand accountability and transparency from cruise lines.

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Impact of the Venice cruise ship ban

Last week, the cruise industry was shaken up with the news that Venice has banned large cruise ships from entering its Guidecca canal .

Minister for transport Mr Toninelli announced last week in a parliamentary hearing that large cruise ships (weighing 1,000 tonnes or more) will as of next month be rerouted to Fusina and Lombardia terminals. By next year, a third of cruise ships will be rerouted.

However, given the close proximity of the two alternative terminals to Venice’s city centre (both are located inside the lagoon), this shouldn’t have too much impact on cruise ships and passengers going forward, as they will still be able to travel into the city centre easily.

Because of this, this has raised concerns and speculation as to whether the new measure will address the environmental concerns that have continuously been stressed by residents and critics, who argue that these ships are damaging the historic city’s ancient foundations and are contributing to overcrowding.

This ongoing dispute came to a head last June when MSC Cruises’ 2,675-passenger vessel crashed into a wharf and tourist boat in Venice , resulting in five people being injured. A few weeks later, another vessel narrowly avoided smashing into the shore during a violent storm. Both incidents reignited calls for a ban.

However, according to Ralph Hollister, associate tourism analyst at GlobalData, while the new measure will reroute cruise ships away from the centre, this isn’t likely to achieve the objective of protecting the city’s centuries-old buildings and limiting overcrowding.

“Rerouting cruise ships away from Venice’s centre will give local residents the impression that their complaints have been taken on board,” comments Hollister. “However, it is probable that redirected tourists will commute to the central islands via large coaches and taxi services instead.

“This will spread the issue of over-tourism to new areas outside of the centre, creating traffic congestion that will pollute suburban areas.

“The combination of utilising ports away from central Venice and a new measure requiring day-trippers to pay an entrance fee up to $11 from September are unlikely to effectively combat over-tourism. Mass visitation remains important for the local government; tourism is worth 11.4 per cent of Venetian GDP.

“The local government may continue to ride the tourism wave until the effects become irreversible to the city’s fragile structure.”

Along with Hollister, other people have also raised their concerns about the effectiveness of the new measure, including We are Here Venice, a company which advocates the safeguarding of Venice and evidence-based approaches to policy-making.

Following the announcement last Wednesday (7 August 2019), it tweeted: “The government decision about MOVING cruise ships is like changing the position of the cream teas buffet when we’re running out of food! The problem has not been resolved YET.”

Similarly, CLIA released a statement announcing it has been in talks with Italian authorities for a long time about using alternative routes and urges them to make a decision so plans can move forward.

“CLIA cruise lines have been actively engaged in discussions for a considerable time about using the Vittoria Emanuele Canal as the preferred alternative solution. We have been cooperative in simulations and studies that supported the Comitatone recommendation.

“CLIA urges all parties in Venice to reach a conclusion to start the preparation work to prepare the Vittoria Emanuele Canal so we can begin to reroute the larger ships.”

Therefore, given these raised concerns, it remains to be seen whether this new measure will achieve its aim and benefit Venice and its residents in the long-term.

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Venice launches world first tourist entrance fee in bid to fight overcrowding

VENICE, Italy — Ancient and beautiful, this city is sometimes referred to as an open air museum — and now visitors to Venice will have to pay an entry fee after the tourist hub on Thursday became the first in the world to introduce a charging system for day-trippers.

In a bid to thin out the crowds that throng to see the canals, bridges and striking architecture during vacation season, day-trippers will have to pay 5 euros ($5.35) to enter the lagoon city on 29 peak days, mostly on weekends, as part of a trial phase until July 14. 

Tourists who have booked at least one night at a hotel in the city will be exempt from the charge, as will residents, workers and students in the city. Visitors under age 14 will also be exempt. But like the day-trippers, they will also have to ensure they have registered online and received QR codes.  

Those without smartphones will have to go to the city’s Santa Lucia train station to buy tickets. 

Among the thousands of people lining up at the station for a ticket Thursday was Donna Porter-Mutchler, a tourist from Tennessee, who told NBC News she thought the charge was “a wonderful idea.”  

“Venice deserves to be taken care of,” she said. “I think it’s more than worth it. I come here often, and I’ll pay every time.” 

While there will be no limits on the number of people who can register, officials hope the fee will put people off on days it applies. 

“We are not looking to collect money, tax people or introduce a police state,” Simone Venturini, Venice’s tourism councilor, told NBC News. “We are being democratic about it, but the important message is: ‘Please, if you are a day-tripper, choose another day.’”

While there are no turnstiles at the city’s entrance points to make sure people have passes, inspectors will make random checks and issue fines of 50 to 300 euros to anyone who has failed to register.

Prominent signs across the city and a TV and newspaper advertising campaign have been launched in Italy and some other countries to let people know about it. And with the help of artificial intelligence , Mayor Luigi Brugnaro has also recorded a video message in several languages to inform tourists about the charge.  

Officials in the city estimate an average of 50,000 people a day visit Venice, an influx that almost matches the resident population, some of whom are unhappy about the new charge.  

“Venice has turned into Disneyland, where tourists are catered more than residents, and charging $5 is not going to stop anyone,” Federica Toninello of the Social Assembly for Housing and the Solidarity Network for Housing in Venice said Thursday. “It’s just propaganda.”

Others, like tourist guide Luisella Romeo, said they were concerned about the use of personal data collected by the new system. “That’s an invasion of privacy. Those details will remain in the system for five years and could be given to third parties, public and private,” she said. 

But officials in the city, which narrowly escaped being placed on UNESCO’s “World Heritage in Danger” list last year, in part because the United Nations body decided that it was not addressing concerns that its delicate ecosystem risked being overwhelmed by mass tourism, have insisted that something needed to be done. 

Three years ago, large cruise ships were banned from sailing into the Venetian lagoon , and the city has also announced limits on the sizes of tourist groups.

While the charge in Venice is still in its experimental stage, other popular Italian tourism destinations, like Lake Como, which has struggled with overcrowding for years, are watching closely.

Only time will tell whether it ends up dead in the water.  

Claudio Lavanga is Rome-based foreign correspondent for NBC News.

Venice residents protest as city begins tourist entry charge

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Town considers the future of cruise ships in South Carolina

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Mount Pleasant Town Council members met to discuss the future of potential cruise ships being able to dock and disembark at Patriots Point.

This has become a controversial topic for the community and town council after the South Carolina Ports Authority decided to end a homeport cruising contract with Carnival Cruises to instead focus on the redevelopment of Union Pier.

Community members spoke during the public comment session Monday and said that they wanted cruise ships in Mount Pleasant because of the economic impact.

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Benjamin Flowers Jr, the Vice President of the International Longshoreman Association Local 1422 in Charleston, said he was concerned about the number of jobs people would lose if the town didn’t allow for cruise ships to come to Mount Pleasant.

“We’re here because we’re concerned, number one, and I’ll be honest with you, we’re concerned about over 500 to 800 jobs per week that we might lose if Carnival leaves the Port of Charleston,” Flowers says. “The cruise, it really affects us because it’s a lot of job loss, it’s a lot of tax base that’s going to be lost from the community.”

He added that it’s important to keep being a part of the tourist industry and supporting the jobs for the community.

“We don’t want to see their jobs go away either, but as I mentioned, because of state law and availability of land and lack of infrastructure, those cruise ship-related jobs aren’t going to be able to come to Mount Pleasant,” Mayor Will Haynie says.

At the meeting, a representative from Patriot’s Point said there is no available land that they could use for cruise ships.

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“This is the first time in my nine years as an elected official in Mount Pleasant that I have seen people advocating for something on someone else’s land. If the state ports authority or the Patriot’s Point development authority wanted cruise ships there, they would be in here talking about it,” Haynie says.

It was also discussed that there is a state law for Patriots Point that prohibits the use of anything related to passengers or cargo of ocean-going vessels. Haynie says that they have tour boats and water taxis there, but that those are not ocean-going vessels that take passengers away from Charleston.

Others who spoke during the public comment session expressed concerns about the increase in traffic. However, Jazzie Clay, a Charleston native and member of the ILA, doesn’t think that would be an issue.

“As far as the traffic, the traffic is going to be thick regardless of where, or what is in Charleston. They’re building everywhere, so what is the difference of building a hotel, an apartment complex, or relocating the cruise ships to Mount Pleasant?” Clay says.

Clay says she wouldn’t be opposed to the cruise ships being relocated to any other spots in the Charleston area, but she didn’t understand what the problem was for Mount Pleasant.

Town Council Member Guang Ming Whitley was not in favor of the cruise ships coming to Mount Pleasant and asked why Mount Pleasant should want to take this on.

“For me, the question is why did Charleston stop doing it?” Whitley says. “They didn’t want the cruise lines disembarking and embarking from Charleston, and that’s the primary issue here, is them thrusting upon our town and then we’re trying to be forced to take on what Charleston didn’t want.”

Haynie says that this discussion has not gone away and that they are trying to put it to rest and get the pressure off Patriots Point.

He says now they are waiting to hear back from the South Carolina Ports Authority as they requested for them to lay out their plans on the future of cruise ships.

Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

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Rough seas or smooth sailing? The cruise industry is booming despite environmental concerns

by Frédéric Dimanche and Kelley A. McClinchey, The Conversation

Cruise ship season is officially underway in British Columbia. The season kicked off with the arrival of Norwegian Bliss on April 3—the first of 318 ships that are scheduled to dock in Victoria this year. Victoria saw a record 970,000 passengers arrive in 2023, with more expected in 2024.

The cruise industry was badly hit by the suspension of cruise operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Fueled by heavy consumer demand and industry innovation, cruising has made a comeback. It is now one of the fastest-growing sectors, rebounding even faster than international tourism.

While many predicted a difficult recovery , a recent industry report shows a remarkable post-pandemic rebound . Two million more people went on cruises in 2023 versus 2019, with demand predicted to top 35 million in 2024.

But environmental issues plague the sector's revival. Are they an indication of rough seas ahead? Or will a responsive industry mean smooth sailing?

Cruising has long been criticized for being Janus-faced : on the surface, cruises are convenient, exciting holidays with reputed economic benefits. But lurking underneath are its negative environmental and social impacts .

Unprecedented growth

Newly constructed mega-ships are part of the industry's unprecedented growth. Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world , with 18 decks, 5,600 passengers and 2,350 crew.

MSC World Europa with 6,700 passengers and 2,100 crew, P&O Arvia with 5,200 passengers and 1,800 crew, and Costa Smeralda with 6,600 passengers and 1,500 crew also claim mega-ship status.

Those sailing to and from Alaska via Victoria will be some of the estimated 700,000 passengers departing Seattle on massive ships three sport fields in length.

Baby boomers represent less than 25 percent of cruise clientele. Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z have more interest than ever in cruising, with these younger markets being targeted as the future of cruise passengers.

The Cruise Lines International Association asserts that 82 percent of those who have cruised will cruise again . To entice first-timers and meet the needs of repeat cruisers, companies are offering new itineraries and onboard activities, from simulated skydiving and bumper cars to pickleball and lawn bowling.

Solo cruise travel is also on the rise, and multi-generational family cruise travel is flourishing, explaining the extensive variety of cabin classes, activities and restaurants available on newly constructed and retrofitted ships.

However, only a few cruise ports are large enough to dock mega ships. Cruise lines are responding by offering off-beat experiences and catering more to the distinct desires of travelers.

In doing so, there is a move towards smaller vessels and luxury liners , river cruises and expedition cruising . Leveraging lesser-known ports that can only be accessed via compact luxury ships offers more mission-driven, catered experiences for the eco-minded traveler.

Cruising and environmental costs

Cruise ship visitors are known to negatively impact Marine World Heritage sites. While most sites regulate ballast water and wastewater discharge, there are concerns about ship air emissions and wildlife interactions .

Cruise ship journeys along Canada's west coast, for example, are leaving behind a trail of toxic waste . A study by environmental organization Friends of the Earth concluded that a cruise tourist generates eight times more carbon emissions per day than a land tourist in Seattle.

Also, a rise in expedition cruising means more negative impacts (long-haul flights to farther ports, less destination management in fragile ecosystems, last chance tourism ) and a rise in carbon dioxide emissions.

Toxic air pollutants from cruise ships around ports are higher than pre-pandemic levels, leaving Europe's port cities "choking on air pollution ." Last year, Europe's 218 cruise ships emitted as much sulfur oxides as one billion cars—a high number, considering the introduction of the International Maritime Organization's sulfur cap in 2020 .

Rough seas ahead or smooth sailing?

Royal Caribbean said its Icon of the Seas is designed to operate 24 percent more efficiently than the international standard for new ships. International Maritime Organization regulations must be 30 percent more energy-efficient than those built in 2014.

But despite the industry using liquefied natural gas instead of heavy fuel oil and electric shore power to turn off diesel engines when docking, industry critics still claim the cruise sector is greenwashing . As a result, some cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona and Venice are limiting or banning cruise ships .

Environmental critiques remain strong, especially for polar expeditions . The industry must respond and increase sustainability efforts , but their measures remain reactive (i.e., merely meeting international regulations) rather than proactive. In addition, by sailing their ships under flags of convenience , cruise companies evade taxes and demonstrate an unwillingness to abide by a nation's environmental, health and labor regulations.

In any case, environmental concerns are escalating along with the industry. Travel agents and industry figures are aware of these impacts and should help promote cruise lines that demonstrate a commitment to sustainable practices.

Local residents need to expect more from port authorities and local governments in order to cope with cruise tourism . Cruise consumers should recognize the environmental costs of cruising, and demand accountability and transparency from cruise lines.

Provided by The Conversation

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Cruise ship worker accused of attacking, stabbing people with scissors on board vessel

JUNEAU, Alaska ( KTUU /Gray News) - A South African citizen was arrested by the FBI in Juneau Tuesday after he allegedly stabbed a cruise ship passenger and several employees who attempted to stop him.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alaska said 35-year-old Ntando Sogoni was employed on the Norwegian Cruise Lines ship Encore and was observed by other staff attempting to launch one of the ship’s lifeboats. He was then taken by security to the ship’s medical facility for an evaluation.

In the medical center, Sogoni reportedly physically attacked a nurse and a security guard. He then allegedly entered an examination room, grabbed a pair of medical scissors and attacked a woman receiving treatment, stabbing her in the arms, hand and face. When two security guards intervened, the court documents allege he stabbed one in the head and one in the back.

Once he was under authority’s control, Sogoni was held in the ship’s jail before being taken into custody and being charged with assault with a deadly weapon in maritime and territorial jurisdiction. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. A federal district judge will determine the total sentencing.

Court documents say that the employee had just joined the ship’s crew at its Seattle port of call on May 5. The incident occurred approximately 16.5 miles from Vancouver Island. There is no word on whether the incident has delayed the ship or on the condition of those hurt.

The FBI Anchorage Field Office and FBI Juneau Resident Agency, and the Coast Guard Investigative Service are investigating the case.

Copyright 2024 KTUU via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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