The Venice Problem: Tourism, Friend or Foe?

You’ve all probably heard how Venice is sinking and, if you’re an avid traveler, you've already thought about seeing this beautiful UNESCO heritage site before it disappears. 

But have you ever stepped back and asked yourself why it's sinking? Or if we can prevent it?

Tourism is Venice’s largest and most booming industry. With one third of all cruise ships worldwide coming to Venice each year, the city has become one of the world’s most important cruise destinations. Since 1997, the number of passengers cruising through Venice has risen from 280,000 to 1.8 million last year (source: Toronto Star).

Naturally then, tourism is a lucrative sector in the Venetian economy. Its quick return on investment makes tourism the city’s greatest source of income. Tourism is crucial then because it keeps the city running... right?

It, of course, isn’t quite so simple. Just like anything done in excess, tourism in such big numbers has done damage to Venice's fragile ecosystems. Quite frankly put, mass tourism may end up destroying the very things we go to visit. There’s no denying that Venice, a city on water, is a sight to see, but we need to be precautious and forward thinking in our use of the city’s resources. Our use of nature is very quickly turning to an abuse of nature.

The Science Behind the Claim

With high demands for tourism, aquatic transport has soared in the city, causing the gradual destruction of the lagoon ecosystem, with its mix of sea and fresh water and its relatively shallow bed which is home to plants which can oxygenate water.
Sea level rises and more frequent storms are expected to increase the level of the Venetian lagoon by 20 inches by the end of the century, threatening to undermine the foundations of centuries-old palaces and churches and swamp some parts of the city altogether.
High tides, particularly during the winter, already flood much of the city, including St Mark’s Square, the focus for millions of tourists. The situation was exacerbated by the increasing number of giant cruise ships which visit Venice – their wake erodes the delicate mud banks and wooden piles on which the city is built. (cited directly from: The UK Telegraph)

Venice faces an influx of 60,000 tourists daily, which is almost double of what Venice has been calculated as capable to sustain. Tourism has also made Venice an expensive place to live. In additional to its environmental damage, the city is suffers from a social problem - abandonment.
The population of the city has been steadily dropping from 150,000 inhabitants in the 1950s to 64,000 today. Moreover, the city is becoming a mono-economy anchored in tourism. The aforementioned problems illustrate nothing short of complete unsustainability.

In an attempt to save the city, Italians are building a £3 billion flood barrier, named Moses, that will be operational in 2014. Like its namesake, the barrier is to turn back the waves, regulating the flow of water from the sea. Some environmentalists have pointed out that this appears to be more of a stopgap measure than a profound solution. 

The preservation of Venice is an age-old dilemma, and it’s about time we take a more aggressive approach. We need to think more long-term, act more quickly, and be more sustainable.

What do you think should be done? Should the number of tourists be capped? Should the city continue to focus its revenue on tourism and invest in multimillion dollar flood barriers?

This brings me back to the title of my post, and something we should all think about - is tourism a friend or a foe to Venice?  Irreversible environmental damage masked by short-term economic gains sounds a lot like a foe to me.

Side note: Unfortunately enough, this issue isn’t unique to Venice. Mass tourism has become the “enemy” of various other popular tourist destinations. Nepal & Mount Everest, the Arctic, and Australia & The Great Barrier Reef are just a few examples.