In 1987, UNESCO designated Venice as a World Heritage Site, saying “Venice and its Lagoon form an inseparable whole of which the city of Venice is the pulsating historic heart and a unique artistic achievement.”
It hosts more than three million tourists annually. For Venetians, tourists arriving by ship has become a serious issue. The fight to control cruise ship visitation has become rancorous.
Venice is actually a group of 118 small islands located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon, protected from the Adriatic Sea, separated by canals and linked by more than 400 bridges. The geography of Venice is much of the basis for its immense charm and its physical vulnerabilities.
Venice has been fighting the sea for centuries, and it’s losing the battle these days, flooding about 100 times per year. Venice’s islands sit on river sediment which continues to compact and settle. Industrial and commercial projects over the years have affected its sea floor and caused Venice’s tidal cycles to change. During the 20th century, massive amounts of groundwater were pumped from Venice’s aquifer. All these and other factors are causing Venice to slowly sink into its lagoon, causing more flooding.
Venice is constructing a series of flood gates, via the MOSE project, to protect it from the Adriatic, but there are other serious problems.
Today, many groups, including UNESCO, claim cruise ships are damaging the fragile structure of Venice. They state large cruise ships cause considerable damage. Even though they travel the Lagoon slowly, their wakes and the huge amount of water they displace under the water’s surface erode building foundations.
Venetians cite problems of air pollution from ships’ power plants, water pollution from ships’ discharges, the huge numbers of cruise tourists blanketing the city, and the blockage of views from ships sailing the Grand Canal.
The pollution from ships’ power plants can be easily reduced by using low sulfur fuel. The ships already don’t discharge waste in the Lagoon. Increasing and improving infrastructure can make Venice able to handle its tourists.
As to the view, as ships traverse the Grand Canal, the view is temporarily blocked for a few minutes, but the only time it’s unfair is if a ship docks on the Canal when the cruise terminal is filled. That should never be permitted.
There are two major proposals to mitigate the problems of large cruise ships sailing the Lagoon.
One proposal, which was to have already been finished but has languished due to governmental problems, is the deepening, widening and lengthening of the Canale dei Petroli channel, currently used for commercial shipping inside the Lagoon, into the Canale Contorta Sant’Angelo channel. The proposal would allow the use of the current cruise ship terminal on the west side of Venice.
Environmentalists are up in arms about this proposal, citing severe, well documented effects on the Lagoon’s morphology from the creation of the original Canale dei Petroli channel. They cite the accelerating rate of Lagoon sediment outflow into the Adriatic and the increasing frequency of Venice flooding.
The second proposal is for a multi-billion Euro mega-port, or a less ambitious multi-million Euro cruise ship-only port, off-shore in the Adriatic near the northernmost of the three inlets into the Lagoon.
There had been a ban on large cruise ships to reduce their impact on Venice, but that ended this year.
So far, cruise lines have only supported the Canale Contorta Sant’Angelo. They understandably want to be able to sail megaships into Venice within their current cost structure. That would maximize their profits — or would it? I don’t think it would, as Venice as a cruise destination isn’t currently sustainable.
I understand the cruise ships have brought thousands of jobs and millions of Euros each year to Venice, but I don’t think the tradeoff of those jobs, plus the economic boost versus the damage and problems they cause, is worth it. I think the cruise ship industry and local business leaders are mistaken to think the current conditions or the new channel proposal could make Venice a sustainable cruise destination.
There are countless tourist locations where cruise ship visitation is tightly controlled. They are controlled to protect their overall environment and ensure that the locations can be visited for generations of cruisers to come. The Galapagos and Antarctica come to mind immediately.
To sustain Venice cruise tourism into the future:
• Of the proposals, while not perfect, it would seem that the off-shore port for cruise ships, or the larger deal for all ships, makes the most sense to substantially reduce the damaging impact of cruise ships while making it possible for large ships to continue to bring visitors to the city. The off-shore port would doubtless add somewhat to cruise ship costs, but it appears it would be worth it to ensure uninterrupted access to this important port.
• Venice’s infrastructure should be improved with government, local businesses, and the cruise industry all paying their share to make Venetian tourism sustainable.
• A cap on the number of cruisers permitted in the city per day should be instituted and distributed between cruise lines annually to be sure the city’s infrastructure can be successfully maintained.
Image: Regent Voyager, Copyright © 2014, NSL Photography, All Rights Reserved
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
