Re: Is Tourism Killing Venice?
Originally Posted by Omah's Article
In these places, the high-volume, low-value cruise ships are contributing to the problems they’re facing.
You see this is a bot of a sleight of hand comment TBH.
Low value?
I don't think so.
Do you really think that the Barcelona, Dubrovnik or Venice governments/authorities would have spent $billions purpose building large berthing areas specifically for cruise ships????
I fear the article there is having you on.
Understand that some years ago, the beautiful city of Dubrovnik only had room for a couple of cruise ships and one of those would have to be moored in the bay outside the city walls. They since created a completely new cruise terminal which can hold 4 to 5 cruise ships, sited about a 15 min bus ride from the city. That cost many $millions to devlelop. It has a terminal for passengers and lounge/cafe area for cruise staff.
Then look at Venice. It's government/authories too have in very recent years, invested massively in cruising tourism. They have also built massive new berths specifically for cruise ships. They can hold 5 to 6 ships at any one time I believe.
So let's put this in perspective.
Cruise ships are not "low value" in any sense. The authorities are raking in $millions from cruise ship berthing fees which are for such places huge. Berthing fees for a day in Venice (depends on size of ship) can be maybe £80,000
or more. That's for each ship, every day, 365 days a year. Do the math.
The many £1000s of passengers that visit typically spend money on food and drink in the cities thus supporting the many restaurants and bars. They also buy clothes, shoes, souvenirs and other items from shops. All money going into local shops and businesses.
So when we get down to it, who is it really that cruise ships are "low value" for?
I submit that it is only for the local people who don't have any business that serves tourism.
And don't get me wrong I have strong sympathy with those people. There is a need to preserve properly these beautiful places and to properly manage the levels of visitors.
The bigger problem is that the $billions being made by local authorities and maritime businesses from cruiseing is not being passed down the food change to the local people.
I'm guessing the fat cats just keep the money for themselves instead of investing most of it back into teh communitiesand infrastructure. Hence your average local resident sees crusing and other tourism as a negative thing because they aren't getting a share of pie.
But isn't that descriptive of gloabism everywhere on the planet at present? The elite and large conglomerates are busily pillaging and raping everything for profit regardless of anyone else's concerns. They have acquired 99% of the world's wealth and left the rest of us with 1%.
So there's more going on here and demonising cruise ships is sadly a bit of a distraction from the truth.
Cruise shipping CAN be managed, the number of ships per day or week or year structured so as not to cause negative impacts. That doesn't happen because the cruising industry is actually very HIGH value to local authorities.
Therefore the Venetians and others need to direct their angst and frustrations towards their own authorities rather than to cruise lines and tourists. They need to demand a share of the pie in the form of tax reliefs or better services and so on.
As a final note it should be noted that the farcical Which? survey there is deliberately offering limited choices in order to manipulate the results.
It's patently clear to anyone with any degree of common sense that authorites simply need to properly manage the levels and numbers of cruise ships arriving. That sensible option however is not on Which?'s survey is it !!
I long since stopped reading Which? magazine. Its reviews are totally biased and not independent imho. You get far better advice from simply reading testimonies posted all over the internet. I would never ever now buy anything on the recommendation of Which?