Venice—one if by land, too many by sea

The city of Venice has long been a favored destination of international tourists. But the island urban center has faced a variety of preservation challenges in recent decades. In 1965, the International Fund for Monuments (now the World Monuments Fund) was established to help preserve the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but it quickly expanded its mission to include Venice because of near catastrophic flooding. In 1971, the Venice Committee of the International Fund for Monuments split off as a separate independent organization called Save Venice.

In recent years, Venice has faced two main preservation challenges—rising sea levels and rising numbers of tourists. Recently Venetians, in an unofficial referendum, voted to ban large cruise ships, both because of the impact on the environment and the sheer number of tourists these ships drop on the island city. Now, these problems are reaching a fever pitch, with 2,000 Venetians recently staging a protest against the tourism industry.

Read

Venice, Invaded by Tourists, Risks Becoming ‘Disneyland on the Sea’

By Jason Horowitz

The New York Times

August 2, 2017

Also read

‘Imagine living with this crap’: tempers in Venice boil over in tourist high season

By Angela Giuffrida

The Guardian

July 22, 2017