Cruise ships will still be docking in Venice, thanks to a temporary solution that re-routes big ships away from the fragile canal that skirts the historic city.
Temporary landing places are being set up to accommodate up to 10 cruise ships at the Venice Ro-Port Mos Terminal in Fusina, and three other cargo berths are being identified. Ships under 180 meters, about 600 feet, are still allowed to reach the Venezia Terminal Passeggeri Stazione Marittima through the San Marco Basin and the Giudecca Canal.
Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ Europa 2 was first to use the cargo terminal on Sept. 2. Silversea’s Silver Shadow on Sept. 8 to be followed by Holland America Line’s Eurodam.
It’s a compromise to salvage the fall cruise schedule following an Aug. 1 decree banning all ships from the city, but it’s not the final answer. “Thanks to the collaboration and commitment of each player, we have been able to recover 50 per cent of this year’s cruise schedule,” said Fulvio Lino Di Blasio, president of the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority.
“This is only the first step of a concrete path; next autumn will find us committed to giving a sustainable future to the cruise sector in Venice,’ he added. “This is all done by keeping in mind that a vast community was largely damaged in terms of jobs in a very complex historical framework for our port, in which it is essential to operate in an organized manner, and by joining forces.”
Vessels banned from the maritime cruise complex are those with a hull length at waterline exceeding 180 meters or 600 feet, which is the length of Oceania’s mid-size R-class ships. The Europa 2 is 780 feet long and the Eurodam is over 900 feet.
Ships can be as tall as the historic landmarks in Venice–Photo by Wallace Immen
1) There are good reasons to set limits
After the collision of a cruise ship and a smaller tourist boat in Venice in June, 2019, Italy’s transport minister Danilo Toninelli told a parliamentary hearing that cruise ships would be rerouted away from the city center “to avoid witnessing more invasions … by these floating palaces, with the scandals and risks they bring.”
It’s a long-overdue concession to reality that the once-serene city needs to set limits on the growth of tourism that’s creating pedestrian traffic jams on the city’s narrow lanes and ancient bridges as well as its fabled canals. It’s logical to put the brakes on a trend that was seeing ships taller than anything in the city looming over monuments and sometimes causing flooding in their wakes.
2) No Grandi Navi doesn’t mean no big ships
The government has been announcing plans to rid the city of cruise ships for a decade. A 2014 proposal to ban ships over 96,000 tons got bogged down in appeals and was overturned by Italy’s courts, although the cruise industry imposed that limit on its own. That still allowed ships including that carry well over 2,000 guests to continue to dock in Venice.
The latest plan involves rerouting ships over 55,000 tons, one-third of all cruise arrivals, from the city’s central maritime terminal to other nearby ports. Smaller ships such as those of Azamara, Oceania, Seabourn, Silversea, Regent Seven Seas and Viking Ocean would still make the 55,000 ton cut and could sail in on the traditional route to the central docks that passes San Marco. (The MSC Opera, which lost control and rammed a river cruise ship in June, 2019 weighs in at 66,000 tons and would presumably have to dock at a more remote pier.)
As the protesters see it; poster in Venice–Photo by Wallace Immen
3) Plans bog down in a city built on a marsh
The government wants a new route for all cruise ships that avoids passing along the environmentally sensitive islands of Venice. Instead of reaching Stazione Marittima through the current Giudecca Channel past St. Mark’s Square, the most studied alternative is to have cruise ships enter through the southern Malamocco passage and follow the commercial ship channel. A proposed but yet-to-be excavated 4.8-kilometer Contorta-Sant’Angelo Channel could branch off from this channel to reach the Stazione Marittima cruise ship docks.
One optimistic estimate made five years ago was that the excavation could be done in as little as 18 months. But a key thing to keep in mind is that few things in Venice have ever been built on schedule. Even the iconic Rialto Bridge was a hot topic of debate in the Renaissance and underwent multiple re-designs for decades before it was actually built.
Building permits and dredging contracts can’t be issued until after an environmental analysis, which tends to be a complex process in a city built on a marsh. And so far, no one’s come up with the cash for a re-routed canal that was initially estimated to cost $130-million and has faced cost inflation before blueprints have even been drawn.
There’s also an ongoing legal tug of war. Environmental activists are still fighting for a total cruise ship ban and oppose any dredging, because it would disrupt sediment and deepening the canal could create higher waves. Meanwhile government officials are calling for a compromise, realizing cruise ships bring 1.7 million affluent visitors into and out of the city every year.
4) The serene city will remain on bucket lists
Truth be told, Venice depends on tourist dollars for its continued existence. Cruise Lines International Association estimates cruise visits inject over $300-milion into the local economy and create over 4,000 jobs.
Venice in the space of just two decades has become one of the world’s most important cruise destinations, with up to nine cruise turnarounds a day in high season. And the demand for the experience of Venice is growing even faster on land-based tours. Each day, more than 60,000 people visit Venice–more than the entire population of the city.
All these visitors have to stay somewhere. My personal take is that it’s still better to have visitors stay on floating hotels that sail away in a day or two rather than the alternative of building dozens of permanent, modern hotels to handle the throngs from around the world who are drawn to the historic city. The city also becomes more serene in off hours because the crowds head back to their ships.
Rerouting ships could also inadvertently increase the problems of over-tourism in Venice, contends Ralph Hollister, associate tourism analyst for the GlobalData consultancy.
“Rerouting cruise ships away from Venice’s center will give local residents the impression that their complaints have been taken on board. However, it is probable that redirected tourists will commute to the central islands via lage coaches and taxi services instead. This will spread the issue of over-tourism to new areas outside he center, creating traffic congestion that will pollute suburban areas.”
5) Venice will continue to be a coveted cruise hub
So yes, cruising to Venice is destined to change, but it will still be a big draw no matter how or when the proposed limits finally take effect.
Venice, which sees 25 million tourists a year has said it will also introduce an entrance fee of about $11 for day trippers. It’s the equivalent of the tourist tax already included in hotel fees for overnight visitors.
A cruise including Venice will become a more premium ticket in the future as costs and fees are sure to rise as it gets more difficult to sail in to port. That’s inevitable and only fitting for visiting such a coveted destination.
For more on the story, see www.cruisington.com/has-venice-become-too-popular-for-its-own-good/
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