Dstandish's Weblog

On 4 August 2023, the governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia announced that Venice “needs a planned number” of tourists in the city. He argued that people book seats at the cinema, stadiums, on trains and airplanes, so “we can also book to visit the city.”

Michele Zuin, Venice City Councillor, confirmed Zaia’s comments, stating this is “our position”.

All the above comments were made in the article in this link (in Italian): Anche i veneti dovranno prenotare (ma non pagare) per entrare a Venezia

This article explains that residents of the Veneto region will need to book to enter the city of Venice for day-trips. Unlike other day-trippers, Veneto region residents will not need to pay a daily charge, but would be subject to paying fines if checked and found not to have booked. Booking would only be required for all day-trippers on specific busy days. According to the article above, these days in 2024 will be decided in September by Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro when he examines the calendar for next year.

Coincidentally, September is also when UNESCO’s world heritage committee will be meeting (10-25 September) in Riyadh to discuss UNESCO’s recommendation that Venice is added to its heritage danger list. Last week, on 31 July 2023, UNESCO issued the following statement:

“The effects of the continuing deterioration due to human intervention, including continuing development, the impacts of climate change and mass tourism threaten to cause irreversible changes to the outstanding universal value of the property…Moreover, the combined effects of human-induced and natural changes are causing deterioration and damage to build structures and urban areas.”

A spokesperson for Venice City Council told Reuters the city “will carefully read the proposed decision published today by the Center for UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee and will discuss it with the government”: UNESCO recommends adding Venice to list of world heritage sites in danger

Although Italy’s government “is the state party with which Unesco relates” (Unesco recommends putting Venice on heritage danger list), UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe has its office in Venice. Venice City Council felt the need to respond to UNESCO and yesterday’s announcements seem to be part of the reaction.

Whether this will be sufficient to avoid being added to UNESCO’s danger list remains to be seen. UNESCO identified a lack of strategy for Venice at multiple levels: “Resolution of long-standing but urgent issues is hindered by a lack of overall joint strategic vision for the long-term preservation of the property and low effectiveness of integrated coordinated management at all stakeholder levels.” Yet UNESCO added that measures by the Italian state are “currently insufficient and not detailed enough.” (UNESCO recommends adding Venice to list of world heritage sites in danger)

UNESCO has repeatedly threatened to put Venice on its blacklist of endangered world heritage sites (Venice mayor urges Unesco to place city on world heritage blacklist). In addition, UNESCO has intervened in attempts to block projects backed by the elected Venice City Council and funded by Italy’s government (UNESCO COMMITTEE UNDEMOCRATICALLY CALLS FOR BLOCKING OF PROJECTS BACKED BY VENICE’S ELECTED CITY COUNCIL AND FUNDED BY ITALY’S GOVERNMENT). Indeed, as I explained in my book about Venice, it was UNESCO that led the response to the 1966 high floods in Venice and the construction of the Venice ‘problem’. Since then, UNESCO has helped shape the reframing of the Venice problem from flooding to problems of climate change, cruise ships and tourism.

Venice City Council, the Veneto regional government and the Italian government were elected and should be responding to their voters, not UNESCO. Former Venice Mayor Massimo Cacciari declared after UNESCO’s recent statements about Venice “UNESCO is one of the useless and most costly bodies on the face of the earth” (Unesco contro Venezia: “Danni irreversibili”. Ira di Cacciari: “Parlano a vanvera”). Where I live in the Veneto region, people do not want to be forced to book to visit the key city in the region.

Veneto governor Zaia is wrong to compare booking to enter the city to transport and cultural bookings. People should be free to enter and leave a living city and there is no need to book a seat in it. Moreover, Venice is not in danger. On the contrary, since the mobile dams have been functioning over the last two years, the city is much better protected against high floods. These dams have prevented any high floods over 110cm on the tide gauge since January 2021. Meanwhile, the return of tourism has saved the city which suffered terribly when tourism stopped during the COVID-19 lockdowns (Mass tourism in Venice: Are city officials overreacting?). UNESCO should stop meddling in the politics of Venice and focus on its restoration projects.