Venice, Italy, to ban cruise ships after years of protests from locals, environmentalists

Image: Tugboats escort the MSC Orchestra cruise ship across the basin past the Bell Tower and the Doge's palace as it leaves Venice

ROME — Italy on Tuesday banned big cruise ships from sailing into Venice after years of rallying cries from residents, culture bodies and environmentalists.

In what he called a "historic" day, Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said the ban adopted by the Italian cabinet will take effect Aug. 1 and will cover the lagoon basin near St. Mark’s Square, Venice's most iconic landmark.

Ships will also be banned from St. Mark’s canal and the Giudecca Canal, a major marine artery that ships previously used to reach Venice's port.

The ban applies to ships weighing more than 25,000 tons, longer than 590 feet or with other characteristics that would make them too polluting or overwhelming for Venice’s marine environment. Cruise liners typically weigh four times the new limit and can reach more than 200,000 tons.

Franceschini said the government decided to act fast “to avoid the concrete risk” that the United Nations culture agency UNESCO , which protects the fragile city and its lagoon, would add Venice to its list of “ world heritage in danger .”

Image: Cruise ships are moored at Venice's harbor in Venice, Italy

“It is a decision awaited by UNESCO, by all the people who have been to Venice at least once in their lives, by Italian and foreign travelers who were shocked to see these ships passing through the most fragile and beautiful places in the world,” Franceschini told reporters.

Venice is one of the world’s most famous tourism destinations, attracting an estimated 25 million visitors a year. Many of them come on cruise ships, straining the city’s already overcrowded tourism infrastructure and overwhelming its delicate marine environment.

Residents and environmentalists have battled for decades to stop cruise ships from coming into Venice to protect its ecosystems, fragile building foundations and cultural heritage, but change has been slow with the cruise ship industry being a major source of income for the city.

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Environmental activist Jane Da Mosto, executive director of the nonprofit group We Are Here Venice, told NBC News in a WhatsApp message Wednesday that she was glad the “nightmare of cruise ships in the city” was ending.

The Italian government earlier this year pledged to get cruise ships out of the Venice lagoon but did not provide a clear timeline. Last month, it said it was organizing bids for a workable alternative outside the lagoon as the first 92,000-ton cruise ship since the pandemic began sailed through Venice — to both jubilation and protests.

But now, the government said it “wanted to give a strong acceleration” to implement the move given the looming UNESCO review, Franceschini said in a statement.

In announcing the ban, the Italian government said it planned to build five docks that would be able to accommodate cruise liners away from the Venice lagoon at the mainland port of Marghera, a 10-minute boat ride from Venice.

At the moment, however, Marghera lacks suitable docking for cruise ships.

Giovanna Benvenuti, spokesperson for the cruise terminal in Venice, told NBC News it may take years to build the new docks in Marghera as authorities would have to dredge a canal that leads to the port first.

With cruise liners gone for the foreseeable future, Benvenuti said thousands of port workers will risk their jobs.

Cruise ship business accounts for 3 percent of the city's gross domestic product and around 4,000 jobs depend on it, according to the Venice Port Authority.

The Italian government promised compensation to those affected by the ban, namely shipping companies, terminal managers and service providers, but did not specify the amounts or the timeline.

“We welcome the decision by the government as we have been waiting and calling for 10 years for an alternative route for cruise liners,” Francesco Galietti, Italian director of the international cruise industry trade association CLIA, said.

Marco Gorin, head of moorers at Venice port, said he and his colleagues are sad, disappointed and angry.

“They have been talking about an alternative route for cruise liners for the past 10 years, and we were never against it," Gorin told NBC News. "But we didn’t expect the government to ban cruises without finding a solution first.”

He is worried about how the ban will affect thousands of people like him, whose livelihoods depend on the cruise ship industry.

“It will take years to build the new dockings,” Gorin said. “What will we do in the meantime?”

Claudio Lavanga reported from Rome, Yuliya Talmazan from London.

Claudio Lavanga is Rome-based foreign correspondent for NBC News.

venice cruise ship protest

Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.

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Cruise ships restart in Venice, bring environmental protests

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VENICE, Italy (AP) — The first cruise ship since the pandemic wended its way Saturday through the heart of Venice, escorted by triumphant water-spouting tugboats and elated port workers as it traveled down the Giudecca Canal but also protested by hundreds on land and a small armada of wooden boats waving “No Big Boats” flags.

The battle for Venice’s future was stark as the MSC Orchestra set sail with some 1,000 passengers. The voyage heralded the return of cruise ships to the historic city of canals after more than 18 months, but the vessel reignited an anti-cruise movement that for more than a decade has opposed the passage of the enormous ships through the fragile lagoon due to environmental and safety concerns.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi’s government pledged this spring to get cruise ships out of the Venice lagoon, but reaching that goal will take time. Even an interim solution rerouting larger ships away from the Giudecca Canal is not likely before next year. Ridding the lagoon of the ships, which run more than 250 meters (yards) in length and weigh over 90,000 tons, could take years.

Venice has become one of the world’s most important cruise destinations over the last two decades, and in 2019 served as a lucrative turnaround point for 667 cruise ships embarking nearly 700,000 passengers and carrying a total of 1.6 million, according to the association Cruise Lines International (CLIA).

Passengers arriving Saturday for the week-long cruise aboard the 92,409-ton, 16-deck MSC Orchestra, with stops in southern Italy, two Greek islands and Dubrovnik, Croatia, were greeted at the port with signs reading “Welcome Back Cruises.”

Antonella Frigo from nearby Vicenza had her departure date delayed multiple times due to the pandemic and was excited to finally be leaving on vacation. But she also sympathized with activists who want the huge ships moved out of the center of Venice.

“I have always said that they should be moved, but I’m sorry, I need to depart from Venice, since I am from nearby,’’ Frigo said after being was dropped off with a companion at the cruise terminal. “But I hope they can be rerouted. I ask myself, ‘Is it not possible to come up with another solution, so they don’t pass where they shouldn’t?’”

The message for passengers taking in Venice from the ship’s decks was mixed as the ship navigated the Giudecca Canal, past St. Mark’s Square and the Doges Palace. Hundreds of Venetians gathered at a noisy canal-side protest to demand an immediate halt to cruise ships moving through the lagoon, citing a series of past decrees they say were never enforced.

The MSC Orchestra responded with noisy blasts of its horn, while two dozen boats filled with port employees and VIPs motored alongside, celebrating the renewal of cruises and the return to work for hundreds of port workers. According to the Venice Works Committee, more than 1,700 workers deal directly with cruise ships, from tug boat drivers to baggage carriers, while another 4,000 jobs depend on cruise traffic.

The long battle over cruise ships in Venice ramped up after the Costa Concordia cruise ship sank off Tuscany in 2012, killing 32 passengers and crew members. And it sharpened after the MSC Opera struck a dock and a tourist boat, injuring five people, while maneuvering through the Giudecca Canal two years ago this week.

In all those years, no viable alternative has ever gotten off the drawing board.

The Venice Environmental Association, one of the groups against the ships, is demanding that Italian cultural and Venice port officials immediately ban ships from the lagoon, threatening legal action if there is no action within 15 days.

“It is a great provocation that a ship has passed,’’ Andreina Zitelli, an environmental expert and member of the association, said. “You cannot compare the defense of the city with the defense of jobs in the interest of big cruise companies.”

The cruise industry’s trade association said it supports moving bigger ships to other areas to avoid traversing the Giudecca Canal but maintains that cruise ships still need access to Venice’s lagoon.

“We don’t want to be a corporate villain,’’ said Francesco Galietti of Cruise Lines International Italy. “We don’t feel we should be treated as such. We feel we are good to the communities.”

Galietti said cruise ships account for only a small percentage of the tourism to Venice, somewhere around 5%, and that many passengers stay in the city before or after their cruises, contributing an average of $200 a day to the tourism-dependent economy.

Prior to the pandemic, Venice struggled with over-tourism, receiving 25 million visitors a year. It was about to impose a tax on day-trippers before the pandemic struck, bringing tourism to an abrupt halt.

In Rome, the Italian government said it is organizing bids for a viable alternative outside the lagoon, and the request for proposals should be posted any day now. Still, even an interim alternative route to the Giudecca Canal - moving larger ships to an industrial port west of Venice - won’t be ready until next year, Italy’s Ministry for Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility told The Associated Press.

Preparing the port of Marghera, which is still within the lagoon, requires lengthening existing piers to accommodate larger vessels as well as dredging a canal on the approach, cruise industry officials say. Under current plans, ships over 250 meters, representing about 70% of cruise traffic, would be rerouted.

While some cruise companies have experimented with Trieste to the east or Ravenna to the south as drop-off points for those visiting Venice during the pandemic, industry officials say the lagoon city with 1,600 years of history remains a key port of call for cruises in the Adriatic Sea and eastern Mediterranean.

But environmentalists say the cruise industry must change.

“Venice is at water level. There are days when Venice is below water level,” said Jane da Mosto, executive director of We Are Here Venice who was also representing the Global Cruise Activist Network. “We need ships that use renewable energy. We need ships that don’t bring thousands of people into our narrow alleyways at one time. We need visitors that are interested in learning about Venice.’’

venice cruise ship protest

Hundreds protest against return of giant cruise ships to Venice – video

Hundreds of anti-cruise ship campaigners demonstrated against huge vessels docking in Venice.

Despite prime minister Mario Draghi’s  government declaring  that the ships would be banned from the centre of the city, a cruise liner sailed in on Thursday and a second 92,000-tonne ship arrived in Venice on Saturday 

  • ‘We were deceived’: hundreds protest in Venice at return of giant cruise ships

Source: Reuters, AP

Sun 6 Jun 2021 12.01 BST Last modified on Mon 7 Jun 2021 08.42 BST

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Venice and Cruise Ships: A Delicate Balance

Last month, a 2,500-passenger ship entered the Venetian Lagoon — the first since the pandemic began — reanimating the debate on the negative effects of mass tourism.

venice cruise ship protest

By Anna Momigliano

In early June, the MSC Orchestra, a 2,500-passenger cruise ship, entered the Venetian Lagoon at dawn, sailing through St. Mark’s Basin, past the Doge’s Palace and the still-quiet St. Mark’s Square. It continued its journey through the Giudecca Canal and then docked on Venice ’s main island.

It was the first time a cruise ship had entered the lagoon since the pandemic hit Italy in February 2020.

In a place that is heavily dependent on tourism , and where cruise travel contributes about 3 percent of the local gross domestic product, many in Venice welcomed the ship.

But others did not. Among the latter were 2,000 protesters who met the MSC Orchestra when it sailed on its reverse route two days later. Some were on small boats on the Giudecca Canal; others chanted anti-cruise slogans from the waterfront.

“I hope we made some of the passengers wonder if what they were doing is wrong and think about the social and environmental impact of their vacation,” said Jane da Mosto, a biologist and activist who took part in the protest on a small boat.

The pandemic has put Venice ’s legendary international tourism influx on hold for more than a year. In doing so, it has sparked an animated debate on how mass tourism has negatively affected both the lagoon’s environment and Venice’s character. In this debate, cruise ships have become a metonym for overtourism.

The pandemic hiatus has given the city — which is celebrating its 1,600th birthday this year — a chance to reflect on how tourism’s exponential growth has eroded its social fabric, driving non-touristy businesses and residents out. In the past four decades the city’s historical center (what most Americans mean when they say “Venice”) has lost half of its residents, now down to 50,000.

“The situation is dramatic, there are no houses,” said Maria Fiano, 46, a high school teacher who runs OCIO, an organization that monitors Venice’s housing. According to her estimates , 42 percent of beds in the center are rented to tourists, which landlords find more profitable, leaving many locals struggling to find a place.

But not every tourist has the same cost-benefit ratio. While day trippers — including many of those who are cruise passengers — amount to 73 percent of visitors, they contribute only 18 percent of the tourism economy. The proportion is inverted for people who spend at least one night at a hotel; they represent 14 percent of visitors, but 48 percent of the business.

In March, the local government of Veneto, Venice’s region, approved a plan vowing to curb hit-and-run visitors and attract more slow-paced ones. They also hope to wean Venice off its over-dependency on tourism, creating new places of employment, including a hydrogen plant, a project still in its embryonic phase, and a recently launched accelerator for renewable energy businesses. “It’s the first time that local authorities formally recognized that mass tourism cannot go on like this forever and that depopulation is a serious problem,” said Fabio Moretti, the dean of Venice’s Academy of Fine Arts, which was involved in the plan along with other academic institutions and the Boston Consulting Group.

‘An act of violence against the city’

The presence of large ships in the lagoon, especially those in the immediate vicinity of Venice’s most precious sites, has raised eyebrows at UNESCO and sparked protests by residents since 2012. They argue that mammoth, fuel-guzzling ships are physically incompatible both with Venice, a two-square-mile island, and the lagoon that surrounds it. (A 2019 study published in Nature asserted that the wakes created by large vessels induced the erosion of the shoreline and, through the “continuous resuspension of sediment in the area,” could redistribute industrial pollutants already present in the lagoon.)

It’s not so much the number of visitors they bring overall — only 7 percent of the 27 million tourists who visited Venice in 2019 were cruise passengers, according to a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group — but the fact that they bring thousands of them all at once, overcrowding the city’s historical center while contributing little to its economy.

On average each cruise passenger injects about 200 euros into Venice’s economy, according to the same study, but most of that money goes to port taxes and other services, such as laundry and refueling, rather than city-center businesses like restaurants and museums.

“I’ve never interacted much with cruise tourists, they are rarely seen in places like mine,” said Andrea Degnato, 37, who manages a wine bar called Cantina Arnaldi.

Indeed, because they are often in too much of a hurry to linger in a wine bar, cruise visitors are seen as the opposite of the kind of tourists who would make Venice tourism more sustainable.

“People are unloaded here as a sack of potatoes, they hang around, thousands of them, just a couple of hours, buy a slice of pizza and go back,” said Silvia Jop, 37, a Venetian who works in cinema and cultural events. “If you add this to environmental damages, it’s an act of violence against the city.”

But she also acknowledges that cruises provide work to thousands of people, such as cleaners and porters, although most of them tend to be from the nearby mainland. “Their right to have a source of employment must be respected,” Ms. Jop said.

‘Like having an elephant in a china store’

For centuries, the Venetian Lagoon protected Venice. Built on a cluster of islands, the city could not be attacked from land, and the lagoon’s hard-to-navigate shallow waters and muddy seabed discouraged invaders from sea, who risked getting stranded. Thanks to this inaccessibility, Venice maintained its status as a maritime power throughout most of the Middle Ages.

But today Venice can be reached on cruise ships weighing up to 95,000 tons, docking directly in the heart of the old city.

“It’s like having an elephant in a china store,” said Diego Calaon, a scholar of ancient topography at Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University. He noted that, in its heyday in the late Middle Ages, Venice had a policy of preventing large vessels from docking on its shores, noting that they were much, much smaller than modern cruise ships.

Stretching 30 miles across the Adriatic and shielded from the open sea by two narrow islands, the lagoon is a shallow body of salt water , often less than 5 feet deep, crisscrossed by deeper trenches created by erosion or dug by man. It is only through these canals that vessels of a considerable size can navigate — and, even so, with difficulty: In 2019 a cargo ship was stranded in the eastern part of the lagoon, near Chioggia.

Venice’s historical center, a fish-shaped island in the middle of the lagoon, is skirted by one of its deepest canals, the Canale della Giudecca, where cruise ships currently pass, docking in the island’s main port, the Marittima. But this route is narrow, and dangerously close to the city. In another incident in 2019, a cruise ship lost control and crashed into a dock , injuring at least four people.

“We see only two solutions. Either these huge ships are kept out of the lagoon altogether, or the industry adapts to our environment and sends smaller ships,” said Tommaso Cacciari, a spokesman for the No Big Ships Committee , a grass-roots organization that since 2012 has been fighting the presence of cruise ships in the lagoon.

A new home for ‘the monster’?

On paper, cruise ships are already banned from Venice, if not from the lagoon entirely. In 2012 Italy’s Parliament approved a bill that banned ships over 40,000 tons from parts of the lagoon close to Venice’s main island. But the same law also says that the ban will be applicable only after a viable alternative route is found. Almost a decade later, authorities still haven’t found that alternative.

“We are kept in a limbo,” said Francesco Galietti, the national director for Italy of the Cruise Lines International Association. He added that as soon as the Italian government finds a solution, the industry is ready to comply with whichever alternative route is chosen. “Any solution that makes sense would work for us. The only thing we care about is keeping Venice as a home port for the Eastern Mediterranean.”

But anti-cruise activists argue that it’s unfair that the current law is conditional on finding a new port: “It’s like having a monster knocking on your door and, rather than chasing him away, you worry about finding a new home for the monster before forcing him to leave,” said Ms. da Mosto, the activist.

There are two main proposals: rerouting vessels toward Marghera, the lagoon’s main commercial port on the mainland, or building a port outside of the lagoon.

The problem with Marghera, said a representative of Venice’s Port Authority, is that “it’s a commercial port for containers, it’s not built for passengers.” Also, since Marghera is inside the lagoon, critics say that rerouting cruise ships there will do little to contain environmental damages.

As for building another port altogether: On April 1, Italy’s government approved the allocation of funds for a feasibility study for such a project. But the process of developing the plans for the project alone is expected to last until mid 2022, the Port Authority said, leaving little hope that a new port would provide a solution in the short or even medium term.

Halting cruise traffic until a new port is ready would take an economic toll. Before the pandemic, the cruise industry employed, directly and indirectly, 4,200 people in the area, according to the Port Authority, and brought revenues of 280 million euro (over $332 million), although most of that money does not go to Venice’s historical center.

In the meantime, UNESCO is getting impatient. Last month the agency released a report urging Italy’s government to prioritize “the option of banning large ships from the Lagoon altogether” and to set a time frame to “temporarily reroute ships” toward Marghera or elsewhere.

The agency also announced on the same day that it is considering adding Venice to its list of endangered World Heritage sites. “The recommendations for inscription on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger are not sanctions but alerts to find solutions,” a representative for the agency said in an email statement, mentioning “mass tourism, especially with the presence of cruise ships” as one of the organization’s concerns.

But several government officials, speaking anonymously because Italy’s factitious coalition government is divided on the topic, said they’re feeling pressured by UNESCO and, more broadly, by the negative publicity Venice received when cruise ships returned after the pandemic. Recent protests have brought the attention of the international media on the issue, and Venice is hosting a G20 summit between July 8 and 11.

The summit will provide an opportunity for a hiatus. Authorities have issued a temporary halt on large cruise ships until at least July 18, citing a combination of security measures ahead of the summit and the upcoming Festa del Redentore, the annual festival celebrating the end of the plague that devastated the island in 1576.

Sources in the Italian government say progressives in the coalition are trying to push an extension on the temporary halt until the Marghera port is at least partially ready and hope the international attention brought by UNESCO’s rebuke and by the upcoming summit will help them put pressure on the issue. “We’re feeling the eyes of the world pointed at us,” said one official.

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Cruise ships target of Venice protest after canal crash

Italy venice cruise ships protest.

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Thousands of people have marched in Venice to demand that cruise ships be kept out of the Italian city's lagoon.

The protest Saturday was galvanized by a crash six days earlier involving a cruise ship that struck a much smaller river boat in Venice's Giudecca Canal. The crash injured five people.

Some marchers carried banners that read "Ships out of the lagoon." Others took to the Venetian Lagoon itself in rowboats and other small vessels to push a yearslong campaign to end cruise ship port calls.

Environmentalists have complained huge cruise liners wear down the city's fragile foundations in the Adriatic Sea and dredge up the lagoon's muddy bottom.

Venice's mayor wants cruise ships rerouted from the heart of the lagoon. The ships disembark thousands of day-trippers.

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The first cruise ship to leave Venice since coronavirus restrictions were eased set sail on Saturday, but some local residents protested over the return to normal, unhappy about the passage of giant liners through the historic lagoon city.

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Venice residents hold a protest to demand an end to cruise ships passing through the lagoon city

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venice cruise ship protest

Colleen Barry, Associated Press Colleen Barry, Associated Press

  • Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/cruise-ships-restart-in-venice-bring-environmental-protests

Cruise ships restart in Venice, bring environmental protests

VENICE, Italy — The first cruise ship since the pandemic wended its way Saturday through the heart of Venice, escorted by triumphant water-spouting tugboats and elated port workers as it traveled down the Giudecca Canal but also protested by hundreds on land and a small armada of wooden boats waving “No Big Boats” flags.

The battle for Venice’s future was stark as the MSC Orchestra set sail with some 1,000 passengers. The voyage heralded the return of cruise ships to the historic city of canals after more than 18 months, but the vessel reignited an anti-cruise movement that for more than a decade has opposed the passage of the enormous ships through the fragile lagoon due to environmental and safety concerns.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi’s government pledged this spring to get cruise ships out of the Venice lagoon, but reaching that goal will take time. Even an interim solution rerouting larger ships away from the Giudecca Canal is not likely before next year. Ridding the lagoon of the ships, which run more than 250 meters (yards) in length and weigh over 90,000 tons, could take years.

Venice has become one of the world’s most important cruise destinations over the last two decades, and in 2019 served as a lucrative turnaround point for 667 cruise ships carrying nearly 700,000 passengers, according to the association Cruise Lines International (CLIA).

Passengers arriving Saturday for the week-long cruise aboard the 92,409-ton, 16-deck MSC Orchestra, with stops in southern Italy, two Greek islands and Dubrovnik, Croatia, were greeted at the port with signs reading “Welcome Back Cruises.”

Antonella Frigo from nearby Vicenza had her departure date delayed multiple times due to the pandemic and was excited to finally be leaving on vacation. But she also sympathized with activists who want the huge ships moved out of the center of Venice.

“I have always said that they should be moved, but I’m sorry, I need to depart from Venice, since I am from nearby,’’ Frigo said after being was dropped off with a companion at the cruise terminal. “But I hope they can be rerouted. I ask myself, ‘Is it not possible to come up with another solution, so they don’t pass where they shouldn’t?’”

The message for passengers taking in Venice from the ship’s decks was mixed as the ship navigated the Giudecca Canal, past St. Mark’s Square and the Doges Palace. Hundreds of Venetians gathered at a noisy canal-side protest to demand an immediate halt to cruise ships moving through the lagoon, citing a series of past decrees they say were never enforced.

The MSC Orchestra responded with noisy blasts of its horn, while two dozen boats filled with port employees and VIPs motored alongside, celebrating the renewal of cruises and the return to work for hundreds of port workers. According to the Venice Works Committee, more than 1,700 workers deal directly with cruise ships, from tug boat drivers to baggage carriers, while another 4,000 jobs depend on cruise traffic.

The long battle over cruise ships in Venice ramped up after the Costa Concordia cruise ship sank off Tuscany in 2012, killing 32 passengers and crew members. And it sharpened after the MSC Opera struck a dock and a tourist boat, injuring five people, while maneuvering through the Giudecca Canal two years ago this week.

In all those years, no viable alternative has ever gotten off the drawing board.

The Venice Environmental Association, one of the groups against the ships, is demanding that Italian cultural and Venice port officials immediately ban ships from the lagoon, threatening legal action if there is no action within 15 days.

“It is a great provocation that a ship has passed,’’ Andreina Zitelli, an environmental expert and member of the association, said. “You cannot compare the defense of the city with the defense of jobs in the interest of big cruise companies.”

The cruise industry’s trade association said it supports moving bigger ships to other areas to avoid traversing the Giudecca Canal but maintains that cruise ships still need access to Venice’s lagoon.

“We don’t want to be a corporate villain,’’ said Francesco Galietti of Cruise Lines International Italy. “We don’t feel we should be treated as such. We feel we are good to the communities.”

Galietti said cruise ships account for only a small percentage of the tourism to Venice, somewhere around 5%, and that many passengers stay in the city before or after their cruises, contributing an average of $200 a day to the tourism-dependent economy.

Prior to the pandemic, Venice struggled with over-tourism, receiving 25 million visitors a year. It was about to impose a tax on day-trippers before the pandemic struck, bringing tourism to an abrupt halt.

In Rome, the Italian government said it is organizing bids for a viable alternative outside the lagoon, and the request for proposals should be posted any day now. Still, even an interim alternative route to the Giudecca Canal – moving larger ships to an industrial port west of Venice – won’t be ready until next year, Italy’s Ministry for Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility told The Associated Press.

Preparing the port of Marghera, which is still within the lagoon, requires lengthening existing piers to accommodate larger vessels as well as dredging a canal on the approach, cruise industry officials say. Under current plans, ships over 250 meters, representing about 70% of cruise traffic, would be rerouted.

While some cruise companies have experimented with Trieste to the east or Ravenna to the south as drop-off points for those visiting Venice during the pandemic, industry officials say the lagoon city with 1,600 years of history remains a key port of call for cruises in the Adriatic Sea and eastern Mediterranean.

But environmentalists say the cruise industry must change.

“Venice is at water level. There are days when Venice is below water level,” said Jane da Mosto, executive director of We Are Here Venice who was also representing the Global Cruise Activist Network. “We need ships that use renewable energy. We need ships that don’t bring thousands of people into our narrow alleyways at one time. We need visitors that are interested in learning about Venice.’’

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venice cruise ship protest

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Hundreds take to small boats in Venice protest against big cruise ships

venice cruise ship protest

VENICE, ITALY (REUTERS) - Hundreds of people in small rowing boats protested in front of Venice's St Mark's Square on Sunday (Jan 19) to denounce what they say is a proliferation of motor boats that have crowded the waters of the lagoon city.

The protesters also took aim at the giant cruise ships that regularly sail close to Venice, a Unesco World Heritage site that has come under increasing strain from rising waters.

Critics say waves created by cruise ships and other large, motorised boats on the canal are eroding the foundations of the city, which regularly suffers from flooding.

The protesters arrived on a flotilla of small, traditional boats, where the rowers stand as they plough through the water.

"Stop the waves, stop the smog," said one banner flapping in the wind. "Shame on those making waves," read another in Venetian dialect. "Look out for the waves, they are drowning us," said a third.

Beloved around the world for its canals, historic architecture and art, Venice suffered a record string of floods in November, which left much of the city underwater and threatened the famed Saint Mark's Basilica.

The high tides were blamed on climate change, but protesters say local authorities could be doing much more to protect the fragile city by banning big boats.

A decision was taken in 2017 to shoo away the cruise liners but it has yet to be enacted as alternative mooring sites are being developed.

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Cruise ships restart in Venice, bring environmental protests

VENICE, Italy (AP) — The first cruise ship since the pandemic wended its way Saturday through the heart of Venice, escorted by triumphant water-spouting tugboats and elated port workers as it traveled down the Giudecca Canal but also protested by hundreds on land and a small armada of wooden boats waving “No Big Boats” flags.

The battle for Venice’s future was stark as the MSC Orchestra set sail with some 1,000 passengers. The voyage heralded the return of cruise ships to the historic city of canals after more than 18 months, but the vessel reignited an anti-cruise movement that for more than a decade has opposed the passage of the enormous ships through the fragile lagoon due to environmental and safety concerns.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi’s government pledged this spring to get cruise ships out of the Venice lagoon, but reaching that goal will take time. Even an interim solution rerouting larger ships away from the Giudecca Canal is not likely before next year. Ridding the lagoon of the ships, which run more than 250 meters (yards) in length and weigh over 90,000 tons, could take years.

Venice has become one of the world’s most important cruise destinations over the last two decades, and in 2019 served as a lucrative turnaround point for 667 cruise ships embarking nearly 700,000 passengers and carrying a total of 1.6 million, according to the association Cruise Lines International (CLIA).

Passengers arriving Saturday for the week-long cruise aboard the 92,409-ton, 16-deck MSC Orchestra, with stops in southern Italy, two Greek islands and Dubrovnik, Croatia, were greeted at the port with signs reading “Welcome Back Cruises.”

Antonella Frigo from nearby Vicenza had her departure date delayed multiple times due to the pandemic and was excited to finally be leaving on vacation. But she also sympathized with activists who want the huge ships moved out of the center of Venice.

“I have always said that they should be moved, but I’m sorry, I need to depart from Venice, since I am from nearby,’’ Frigo said after being was dropped off with a companion at the cruise terminal. “But I hope they can be rerouted. I ask myself, ‘Is it not possible to come up with another solution, so they don’t pass where they shouldn’t?’”

The message for passengers taking in Venice from the ship’s decks was mixed as the ship navigated the Giudecca Canal, past St. Mark’s Square and the Doges Palace. Hundreds of Venetians gathered at a noisy canal-side protest to demand an immediate halt to cruise ships moving through the lagoon, citing a series of past decrees they say were never enforced.

The MSC Orchestra responded with noisy blasts of its horn, while two dozen boats filled with port employees and VIPs motored alongside, celebrating the renewal of cruises and the return to work for hundreds of port workers. According to the Venice Works Committee, more than 1,700 workers deal directly with cruise ships, from tug boat drivers to baggage carriers, while another 4,000 jobs depend on cruise traffic.

The long battle over cruise ships in Venice ramped up after the Costa Concordia cruise ship sank off Tuscany in 2012, killing 32 passengers and crew members. And it sharpened after the MSC Opera struck a dock and a tourist boat, injuring five people, while maneuvering through the Giudecca Canal two years ago this week.

In all those years, no viable alternative has ever gotten off the drawing board.

The Venice Environmental Association, one of the groups against the ships, is demanding that Italian cultural and Venice port officials immediately ban ships from the lagoon, threatening legal action if there is no action within 15 days.

“It is a great provocation that a ship has passed,’’ Andreina Zitelli, an environmental expert and member of the association, said. “You cannot compare the defense of the city with the defense of jobs in the interest of big cruise companies.”

The cruise industry’s trade association said it supports moving bigger ships to other areas to avoid traversing the Giudecca Canal but maintains that cruise ships still need access to Venice’s lagoon.

“We don’t want to be a corporate villain,’’ said Francesco Galietti of Cruise Lines International Italy. “We don’t feel we should be treated as such. We feel we are good to the communities.”

Galietti said cruise ships account for only a small percentage of the tourism to Venice, somewhere around 5%, and that many passengers stay in the city before or after their cruises, contributing an average of $200 a day to the tourism-dependent economy.

Prior to the pandemic, Venice struggled with over-tourism, receiving 25 million visitors a year. It was about to impose a tax on day-trippers before the pandemic struck, bringing tourism to an abrupt halt.

In Rome, the Italian government said it is organizing bids for a viable alternative outside the lagoon, and the request for proposals should be posted any day now. Still, even an interim alternative route to the Giudecca Canal – moving larger ships to an industrial port west of Venice – won’t be ready until next year, Italy’s Ministry for Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility told The Associated Press.

Preparing the port of Marghera, which is still within the lagoon, requires lengthening existing piers to accommodate larger vessels as well as dredging a canal on the approach, cruise industry officials say. Under current plans, ships over 250 meters, representing about 70% of cruise traffic, would be rerouted.

While some cruise companies have experimented with Trieste to the east or Ravenna to the south as drop-off points for those visiting Venice during the pandemic, industry officials say the lagoon city with 1,600 years of history remains a key port of call for cruises in the Adriatic Sea and eastern Mediterranean.

But environmentalists say the cruise industry must change.

“Venice is at water level. There are days when Venice is below water level,” said Jane da Mosto, executive director of We Are Here Venice who was also representing the Global Cruise Activist Network. “We need ships that use renewable energy. We need ships that don’t bring thousands of people into our narrow alleyways at one time. We need visitors that are interested in learning about Venice.’’

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Hundreds protest as cruise ships restart in Venice

  • By Associated Press
  • June 5, 2021

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venice cruise ship protest

ASSOCIATED PRESS

“No Big Ships” activists stage a protest as the MSC Orchestra cruise ship leaves Venice, Italy. The 92,409-ton, 16-deck MSC Orchestra cruise ship, the first cruise ship leaving Venice since the pandemic is set to depart Saturday amid protests by activists demanding that the enormous ships be permanently rerouted out the fragile lagoon, especially Giudecca Canal through the city’s historic center, due to environmental and safety risks. The ship passed two groups of protesters: pro-cruise advocates whose jobs depend on the industry as well as protesters who have been campaigning for years to get cruise ships out of the lagoon.

venice cruise ship protest

The the 92,409-ton, 16-deck MSC Orchestra cruise ship exits the lagoon as it leaves Venice, Italy. The first cruise ship leaving Venice since the pandemic is set to depart Saturday amid protests by activists demanding that the enormous ships be permanently rerouted out the fragile lagoon, especially Giudecca Canal through the city’s historic center, due to environmental and safety risks.

VENICE, ITALY >> The first cruise ship since the pandemic wended its way Saturday through the heart of Venice, escorted by triumphant water-spouting tugboats and elated port workers as it traveled down the Giudecca Canal but also protested by hundreds on land and a small armada of wooden boats waving “No Big Boats” flags.

The battle for Venice’s future was stark as the MSC Orchestra set sail with some 1,000 passengers. The voyage heralded the return of cruise ships to the historic city of canals after more than 18 months, but the vessel reignited an anti-cruise movement that for more than a decade has opposed the passage of the enormous ships through the fragile lagoon due to environmental and safety concerns.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi’s government pledged this spring to get cruise ships out of the Venice lagoon, but reaching that goal will take time. Even an interim solution rerouting larger ships away from the Giudecca Canal is not likely before next year. Ridding the lagoon of the ships, which run more than 250 meters (yards) in length and weigh over 90,000 tons, could take years.

Venice has become one of the world’s most important cruise destinations over the last two decades, and in 2019 served as a lucrative turnaround point for 667 cruise ships carrying nearly 700,000 passengers, according to the association Cruise Lines International (CLIA).

Passengers arriving Saturday for the week-long cruise aboard the 92,409-ton, 16-deck MSC Orchestra, with stops in southern Italy, two Greek islands and Dubrovnik, Croatia, were greeted at the port with signs reading “Welcome Back Cruises.”

Antonella Frigo from nearby Vicenza had her departure date delayed multiple times due to the pandemic and was excited to finally be leaving on vacation. But she also sympathized with activists who want the huge ships moved out of the center of Venice.

“I have always said that they should be moved, but I’m sorry, I need to depart from Venice, since I am from nearby,’’ Frigo said after being was dropped off with a companion at the cruise terminal. “But I hope they can be rerouted. I ask myself, ‘Is it not possible to come up with another solution, so they don’t pass where they shouldn’t?’”

The message for passengers taking in Venice from the ship’s decks was mixed as the ship navigated the Giudecca Canal, past St. Mark’s Square and the Doges Palace. Hundreds of Venetians gathered at a noisy canal-side protest to demand an immediate halt to cruise ships moving through the lagoon, citing a series of past decrees they say were never enforced.

The MSC Orchestra responded with noisy blasts of its horn, while two dozen boats filled with port employees and VIPs motored alongside, celebrating the renewal of cruises and the return to work for hundreds of port workers. According to the Venice Works Committee, more than 1,700 workers deal directly with cruise ships, from tug boat drivers to baggage carriers, while another 4,000 jobs depend on cruise traffic.

The long battle over cruise ships in Venice ramped up after the Costa Concordia cruise ship sank off Tuscany in 2012, killing 32 passengers and crew members. And it sharpened after the MSC Opera struck a dock and a tourist boat, injuring five people, while maneuvering through the Giudecca Canal two years ago this week.

In all those years, no viable alternative has ever gotten off the drawing board.

The Venice Environmental Association, one of the groups against the ships, is demanding that Italian cultural and Venice port officials immediately ban ships from the lagoon, threatening legal action if there is no action within 15 days.

“It is a great provocation that a ship has passed,’’ Andreina Zitelli, an environmental expert and member of the association, said. “You cannot compare the defense of the city with the defense of jobs in the interest of big cruise companies.”

The cruise industry’s trade association said it supports moving bigger ships to other areas to avoid traversing the Giudecca Canal but maintains that cruise ships still need access to Venice’s lagoon.

“We don’t want to be a corporate villain,’’ said Francesco Galietti of Cruise Lines International Italy. “We don’t feel we should be treated as such. We feel we are good to the communities.”

Galietti said cruise ships account for only a small percentage of the tourism to Venice, somewhere around 5%, and that many passengers stay in the city before or after their cruises, contributing an average of $200 a day to the tourism-dependent economy.

Prior to the pandemic, Venice struggled with over-tourism, receiving 25 million visitors a year. It was about to impose a tax on day-trippers before the pandemic struck, bringing tourism to an abrupt halt.

In Rome, the Italian government said it is organizing bids for a viable alternative outside the lagoon, and the request for proposals should be posted any day now. Still, even an interim alternative route to the Giudecca Canal – moving larger ships to an industrial port west of Venice – won’t be ready until next year, Italy’s Ministry for Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility told The Associated Press.

Preparing the port of Marghera, which is still within the lagoon, requires lengthening existing piers to accommodate larger vessels as well as dredging a canal on the approach, cruise industry officials say. Under current plans, ships over 250 meters, representing about 70% of cruise traffic, would be rerouted.

While some cruise companies have experimented with Trieste to the east or Ravenna to the south as drop-off points for those visiting Venice during the pandemic, industry officials say the lagoon city with 1,600 years of history remains a key port of call for cruises in the Adriatic Sea and eastern Mediterranean.

But environmentalists say the cruise industry must change.

“Venice is at water level. There are days when Venice is below water level,” said Jane da Mosto, executive director of We Are Here Venice who was also representing the Global Cruise Activist Network. “We need ships that use renewable energy. We need ships that don’t bring thousands of people into our narrow alleyways at one time. We need visitors that are interested in learning about Venice.’’

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TravelPulse

Norwegian Cruise Lines Removes Venice From 2024 Itineraries

Norwegian Cruise Line is cutting Venice from its itineraries for the year ahead.

The news comes on the heels of Venice’s ban on large cruise ships in the Venetian Lagoon, which has forced ships to anchor further away from the historic city and rely on tenders to ferry passengers to the Port of Venice.

“While we have made every effort to maintain these calls to Venice, the tender operation and overall experience this provides our guests has fallen short of the standard we aim to deliver. As a result, we have modified Norwegian Pearl’s itinerary,” Norwegian Cruise Line stated in a letter that was provided to passengers and its travel partners, according to Cruise Hive.

In lieu of Venice, Norwegian will instead take travelers to Ravenna, Italy; Rijeka and Zadar in Croatia and Koper, Slovenia, based on availability.

Venice has been struggling with tourism-related challenges for years. The issue reached a near breaking point this past September when for the first time ever, the number of beds designated for tourist use on Venice ’s main island had exceeded the city’s actual year-round residents. 

Local leaders have been busy drafting a variety of measures to address tourism's impact on the historic city including most recently a proposed limit that would cap tour group sizes at 25 or less and a ban the use of loudspeakers. The measure has not yet been adopted by Venice's City Council. If adopted, the new rule would take effect in June.

Earlier in January, Venice leaders also revealed the details of a new ticketing plan for day trippers seeking to enter the city. The new system is slated to begin April 25 and will be implemented on certain days during peak season, which runs from late April through July 14.

Back in 2021, meanwhile, the city's leaders announced that that cruise ships would no longer be allowed in central Venice. The rule applies to any ships that are not classified small boutique ships or river vessels, according to Cruise Hive.

Additionally, ships that are greater than 25,000 gross tons, longer than 180 meters, taller than 35 meter or that have sulfur emissions in excess of 0.1 percent are required to anchor elsewhere. 

NCL has also canceled plans to visit Venice with its ship for 2025. Instead, ships will spend a day a sea until a new port is identified as a replacement, according to Travel Weekly.

NCL Pearl

IMAGES

  1. Cruise ships target of Venice protest after canal crash

    venice cruise ship protest

  2. Activists in Venice protest return of giant cruise ships

    venice cruise ship protest

  3. Thousands join anti-cruise ships protests in Venice

    venice cruise ship protest

  4. Venice residents protest against cruise ships after severe floods

    venice cruise ship protest

  5. Cruise ships return to Venice, reignite anti-big boat protests

    venice cruise ship protest

  6. Thousands protest against cruise ships in Venice

    venice cruise ship protest

COMMENTS

  1. 'We were deceived': hundreds protest in Venice at return of giant

    Anti-cruise ship campaigners in Venice claim they were "deceived" by the Italian government as hundreds protested against huge vessels docking in the historic city's port on Saturday.

  2. Venice, Italy, to ban cruise ships after years of protests from locals

    Tugboats escort the MSC Orchestra cruise ship across the basin past the Bell Tower and the Doge's palace as it leaves Venice, Italy, on June 5. Miguel Medina / AFP - Getty Images file. ROME ...

  3. Why has Venice banned cruise ships?

    In June 2019, a giant 13-deck cruise ship did exactly that. It crashed into a wharf in Venice, injuring five people. he incident, captured in an alarming video, was dramatic enough to prompt the ...

  4. The truth about cruise ships in Venice

    Venice, Italy CNN —. It was the story that made waves around the world: cruise ships banned from Venice. On March 31, the Italian government issued a decree that would see cruise ships and large ...

  5. Cruise ships restart in Venice, bring environmental protests

    Hundreds of Venetians gathered at a noisy canal-side protest to demand an immediate halt to cruise ships moving through the lagoon, citing a series of past decrees they say were never enforced. ... The long battle over cruise ships in Venice ramped up after the Costa Concordia cruise ship sank off Tuscany in 2012, killing 32 passengers and crew ...

  6. Protesters meet cruise ships returning to Venice

    Venice residents protest against first post-Covid cruise ship, after ban on large vessels in city centre. ... Video, 00:01:16 Cruise ship ploughs into Venice harbour. Subsection. Europe. Published.

  7. Hundreds protest against return of giant cruise ships to Venice

    'We were deceived': hundreds protest in Venice at return of giant cruise ships Source: Reuters, AP Sun 6 Jun 2021 07.01 EDT Last modified on Mon 7 Jun 2021 03.42 EDT

  8. Venice residents in environmental protest against first post-Covid

    In March, Venice announced a ban on large vessels, including cruise ships and shipping containers, following concerns from residents over pollution, and underwater erosion of the city's foundations.

  9. 'No big ships': Protest over cruises returning to Venice

    In March, Venice announced a ban on large vessels, including cruise ships and shipping containers, following concerns from residents over pollution, and underwater erosion of the city's ...

  10. Venice and Cruise Ships: A Delicate Balance

    Venice residents hold a protest to demand an end to cruise ships passing near the city, as the first cruise ship of the summer season departs. ... But today Venice can be reached on cruise ships ...

  11. Hundreds protest against return of giant cruise ships to Venice

    Hundreds of anti-cruise ship campaigners demonstrated against huge vessels docking in Venice. Despite prime minister Mario Draghi's government declaring that...

  12. First post-COVID cruise ship leaves Venice amid protest

    [1/5] Venice residents hold a protest to demand an end to cruise ships passing through the lagoon city, as the first cruise ship of the summer season departs from the Port of Venice, Italy, June 5 ...

  13. Activists in Venice protest return of giant cruise ships

    As some countries begin to reopen their economies after months of coronavirus restrictions, people are welcoming the slow return to normality. For residents ...

  14. Hundreds protest in Venice at return of giant cruise ships

    Venice has become one of the world's most important cruise destinations over the last two decades, and in 2019 served as a lucrative turnaround point for 667 cruise ships carrying nearly 700,000 ...

  15. Tempers flare in Venice as angry protesters block cruise ships

    H undreds of demonstrators have taken to the water in Venice to protest against visiting cruise ships, as relations between tourists and locals reach a new nadir.. Flare-waving protestors used ...

  16. Venice protesters call for ban on large vessels after crash

    Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Venice calling for large vessels to be banned from the city's Giudecca canal. The protest comes days after a cruise ship crashed into a tourist ...

  17. Cruise ships target of Venice protest after canal crash

    Thousands of people have marched in Venice to demand that cruise ships be kept out of the Italian city's lagoon. The protest Saturday was galvanized by a crash six days earlier involving a cruise ship that struck a much smaller river boat in Venice's Giudecca Canal. Some marchers carried banners that read "Ships out of the lagoon." Others took to the Venetian Lagoon itself in rowboats and ...

  18. Venice protests first post-COVID cruise ship as tourism returns

    Venice residents hold a protest to demand an end to cruise ships passing through the lagoon city, as the first cruise ship of the summer season departs from the Port of Venice, Italy, June 5, 2021.

  19. Cruise ships restart in Venice, bring environmental protests

    Left: VENICE, ITALY - JUNE 5: Activists of the No Grandi Navi committee protest on small boats in Venice, Italy on 5 June, 2021 as the MSC Orchestra cruise ship leaves the city from the Giudecca ...

  20. Hundreds take to small boats in Venice protest against big cruise ships

    Venetian protesters hold up placards during a protest against the damage caused by big ships in front of Saint Mark's Square in Venice on Jan 19, 2020.

  21. Cruise ships restart in Venice, bring environmental protests

    Venice has become one of the world's most important cruise destinations over the last two decades, and in 2019 served as a lucrative turnaround point for 667 cruise ships embarking nearly ...

  22. Hundreds protest as cruise ships restart in Venice

    The the 92,409-ton, 16-deck MSC Orchestra cruise ship exits the lagoon as it leaves Venice, Italy. The first cruise ship leaving Venice since the pandemic is set to depart Saturday amid protests ...

  23. 1st cruise ship resumes service in Venice amid COVID-19, draws protests

    Venice has become one of the world's most important cruise destinations over the last two decades, and in 2019 served as a lucrative turnaround point for 667 cruise ships carrying nearly 700,000 ...

  24. Norwegian Cruise Lines Removes Venice From 2024 Itineraries

    Norwegian Cruise Line is cutting Venice from its itineraries for the year ahead. The news comes on the heels of Venice's ban on large cruise ships in the Venetian Lagoon, which has forced ships ...