- Venice’s port authority has called on Europe’s most popular cruise ship destinations to close ranks in tackling the dangers posed by massive vessels.
- The growing size of vessels and their environmental impact, along with over-tourism are creating a state of conflict at the ports.
Venice has called on other popular cruise destinations to unite in an appeal for new cruise ship rules, reports The Guardian.
Appeal to the ports
Pino Musolino, chairman of the northern Adriatic Sea port authority, has written to eight other cruise ports asking them to “join forces” to oblige cruise lines to “launch ships compatible with our structures and the environment”.
The appeal to the ports of Barcelona, Amsterdam, Marseille, Dubrovnik, Zeebrugge, Hamburg, Palma and Málaga comes as Venice leaders clash with government officials over finding a solution to a problem that has long rankled Venetians.
Overtourism – A significant problem
The issue returned to the spotlight after four people were injured when the 13-deck MSC Opera crashed into a wharf and tourist boat along the busy Giudecca canal in early June.
Weeks later the 12-deck Costa Deliziosa narrowly missed colliding into a yacht during a storm.
The incidents have revived protests against big ships and calls from residents to ban them from the Venice lagoon altogether.
The number of cruise calls is under increasing scrutiny with some ships carrying thousands of passengers.
Great source of income
Cruise ships brought 1.56 million visitors to the Unesco world heritage site in 2018.
Musolino commented that the cruise sector has always been a great source of income and a provider of jobs and innovations in their ports and cities.
However, he added that the following things are creating a situation of conflict –
- the growing size of vessels and their environmental impact on the areas surrounding the ports and
- the ‘burden’ that the increasing number of tourists are representing on the cities that are hosting the ports.
Plan to divert big ships
Musolino’s appeal comes before a meeting on Tuesday with Danilo Toninelli, the Italian transport minister, representatives from the Venice Passenger Terminal and security officials to discuss a plan to divert big ships from the Giudecca canal.
Docking at Fusina
The most recent solution proposed by Toninelli is for a third of the ships that currently arrive at the Marittima terminal to dock at Fusina, a small port on mainland Venice.
He previously suggested diverting the ships to Chioggia, a port south of Venice.
“Venice is an incomparable treasure chest of art and nature, a heritage that must be preserved by keeping together the needs of security, the environment, tourism and jobs,” he recently wrote on Facebook.
Mayor of Venice absent from meeting
It has been noted that Luigi Brugnaro, the mayor of Venice, and Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto region, who were both involved in a committee set up by the previous government to resolve the dilemma, will be absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
Brugnaro has criticised Toninelli, a minister from the Five Star Movement, which often fights against major infrastructure projects, not only for rejecting a plan agreed by the former administration that would have closed off the canal to cruise ships, but for leaving him and Zaia out of discussions about alternative proposals.
Malamocco canal to reach the mainland
The project agreed in 2017 foresaw vessels weighing more than 96,000 tonnes entering the lagoon via the Malamocco canal to reach the mainland area of Marghera, where a passenger terminal would be built.
Medium-sized vessels would go past Marghera and take the longer route through the Vittorio Emanuele canal before reaching the Marittima terminal.
But the project would involve dredging canals, raising concerns over the environmental impact.
“I don’t really have high expectations that any big decisions will be made on Tuesday, especially without the local administration’s involvement,” said Dominic Standish, a British academic and author of the book Venice in Environmental Peril? Myth and Reality.
“But Musolino’s move was interesting. I think he’s caught in the middle … the letter was obviously particularly aimed at the cruise ship companies, but in some ways it was a cry for help [to all parties]: ‘Can we find some way of negotiating?’”
Protesters miffed at the solution
Protesters against big ships oppose the solution backed by Brugnaro and support the Fusina option, albeit temporarily.
But with their ultimate desire to have cruise ships completely banned unlikely to be met anytime soon, they are planning their next protest on 7 September, the final day of the Venice film festival.
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Source: The Guardian
