Venice is empty

'49.999' read threateningly on the posters and banners that city dwellers have hung in Venice in recent months. And now it's time. This summer, the city's population has fallen below 50.000, and the end is not yet in sight. Tourism has become virtually the only source of income, making the lagoon city look more and more like its Las Vegas copy. The few remaining Venetians wonder what else can be done to save their city from total exodus.

At the height of its glory in the 15^e century, when Venice was at the head of a maritime trading empire, it still had over 200.000 inhabitants. With the emergence of intercontinental sea routes in the 16^e century and the loss of its independence in 1795, the Venetian economy languished and trade and industry increasingly ignored it. In 1977 there were still 100.000 people living in Venice, in 2002 there were 64.000 and now less than 50.000.

Venice as a village

By Italian standards, Venice has thus been reduced to a village. A village that only lives by the grace of its past. The production activities have moved to the mainland, where the industrial city of Mestre – which is part of the municipality of Venice – has already surpassed the former mother city in terms of population with just under 100.000 citizens.

The regional government, the court of justice, museums, theater and the university Ca' Foscari, with more than 5.000 students after all, only a small one, are still located in the city, but otherwise it is all hotels, B&Bs, food and beverage outlets, gondolas, guides and Knick knacks.

Venice has been exposed to several threats in recent decades. First of all, that of the acqua alta: high water. That became all too clear on November 4, 1966, when a storm surge pushed the water in the lagoon up to 194 cm above normal, causing massive damage to monuments, art treasures and homes.

Corruption and cruise ships

After years of heated discussion, endless delays and new floods, construction of the moving storm surge barrier MOSE was started in 2003. A few years later, MOSE turned out to be the subject of a massive corruption affair that even imprisoned the governor of the Veneto region, but eventually the storm surge barrier was put into operation in 2020. As a result, this problem appears to have been resolved for the time being.

That also applies (more or less) to the huge cruise ships, monsters 300 meters long, 40 meters wide and high like an apartment building that traverse the lagoon. Until this year, they sailed through the Canale della Giudecca straight through Venice and moored in front of St. Mark's Square, endangering traffic, water management and the city's appearance.

Last July a government decree put an end to that and now the largest boats are disembarked across the lagoon and the passengers are taken to Venice by bus or sloop. But that didn't please the Venetian councilor for tourism, who would much rather see the giant boats dock in Venice to deliver their cargoes of passengers directly into the center.

overtourism

This brings us straight to Venice's third problem, that of so-called 'overtourism', which Ilja Pfeijffer has so aptly described in his book Grand Hotel Europe. Everyone wants to take a selfie in front of St. Mark's Cathedral, on the Rialto Bridge or in a gondola. As a result, the number of visitors has increased exponentially in recent years, to 32 million in 2019, the last pre-corona year. That's nearly 100.000 a day, most of whom follow the standard routes through the city center which is increasingly becoming a crowded bazaar of fake Murano glassware, plastic carnival masks and expensive pizza of dubious quality.

In addition, more and more residents are transforming their homes into lucrative B&Bs and moving to the mainland themselves. A sad sight for those who still know Venice as a city with economic activity and a neighborhood life of its own. As 76-year-old Venetian journalist Riccardo Calimani recently wrote in La Stampa: 'We, the persistent Venetians, are sadly watching as more and more citizens flee a city that has become the prisoner of its past and victim of day trippers.'

Quality of life vs tourism

So how do you prevent Venice from becoming just a tourist Disneyland? That is the subject of an endless debate in which roughly two participants face each other head on. On the one hand, the environmentally friendly Venice, which is concerned about the effects of mass tourism and supported by various groups of domestic and foreign 'friends of Venice' who would prefer to keep the city exactly as it is. On the other hand, there are people who live from tourism and for whom the flow cannot be large enough.

A compromise hardly seems possible, but Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, himself, like a large part of his electorate, is not averse to mass tourism, wants to try it and has formulated a few good intentions for this. From next year, for example, an 'entrance charge' of 3 to 10 euros per person will be introduced for visitors who do not stay overnight in the city.

An agreement with the Venetian university should lead to a doubling of the number of students. And by drawing up stricter rules for temporary rental, B&Bs must be made available again for permanent residence. We'll see what becomes of it.