Re: Is Tourism Killing Venice?
Originally Posted by
Omah
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Venice to route cruise ships away from city centre
It's a first step .....
Yep, got no problem with that.
I'm fortunate to have cruised into Venice along the traditional route passing St Mark's Square on many many occasions. It is a cruising "must" and a spectacular thing to witness. Simply breathtaking and a vantage point high up above the terracotta rooftops that can not be witnessed any other way.
Large cruise ships such as P&O's Verntura and Azura are already now too big to be allowed into the main berthing areas at the back of Venice. Moving the berths further away is a reasonable idea provided they can facilitate movement of passengers from that point into Venice itself.
Opportunity knocks there for Venice to set up more chargeable transportation, e.g. more vapouretto services.
There already exists a monorail system that terminates at the main vapouretto hub at Piazzale Roma. They could look to utilise this by citing berths further along that monorail line or else join a new monorail to the existing line.
Either way so long as they sensibly preserve this most beautiful city I'm happy.
Let's be under no allusions though. Venice is a commercial tourist city depite it's rich tapestry of history, heritage, art and culture.
Of the people who now live there, only 1 in every 10 are actual true Venetians. The rest were very long ago pushed out and away as businesses and shops and commercial ventures flooded in and took over the place.
Cruising has nothing to do with that situation, it happened ages ago.
They key problem with cruising and Venice is the same as many other ports like Dubrovnik. The city governments and maritime operators permit FAR TOO MANY ships to visit both at the same time, and throughout the year.
Dubrovnik can see up to 5, sometimes 6 ships in on a given day. They built special new berthing areas about a 15 min bus ride away from Dubrovnik centre. They can hold 4 ships. 2 further ships can be moored in the bay right outside the old city walls.
These measures have served only to exacerbate the problem for locals. Even with 4 ships in on a given day, it is too much. I have been there many many times and if there are 4 or more ships in, I simply stay on the ship and don't go ashore because the numbers of people flooding into the relatively small town centre is unbearable and dangerous. I have been there when it is like a football match with 10,000 people all trying to get through a tiny exit point. Really uncomfortable and dangerous.
The villains therefore to Venice and Dubrovnik and similar "pearls of the Adriatic" are NOT the cruising passengers, but rather the local city governments and maritime operators who are wilfully allowing far too many ships in. They do so because they get massive profits from the huge berthing fees they charge the cruise lines. Of course local residents of Venice etc don't see a penny of those profits.
It's all wrong and very typical of today's gloabalist systems which see the rich and wealth and powerful organisations rape and pillage areas for profit at the expense of the lives of local people. It needs to be stopped.
Moving cruise ships from one place to another won't solve the problem at Venice. They MUST start restricting how many ships visit on the same day, and the number that visit per year.