Tourism’s Negative Effects On Venice

Venice is a city in northeastern Italy, and the capital of the Veneto region. With over one thousand year history and unique architectural style of construction upon foundation of timber piles, Venice soon became one of the most renowned tourist attractions in Italy after the development of international tourism. After decades of development, tourism gradually becomes Venice’s pillar industry. However, the overwhelming tourists is bringing Venice vital economical support while creating endless troubles and numerous potential issues.

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Trash

Tourists discard empty plastic water bottles, plastic bags, waste tissues cautiouslessly on the ground or in the canals as they roam in the city. According to the local government data, tourism contributes to between 28 and 40 percent of garbage production depending on the season. This problem is especially knotty because the unique characteristics of the city. The city was built on a group of about 120 tiny islands surrounded by an intricate system of canals and water ways. Each island is dominated by buildings, and there is only little space left to be used as aisles. So, it is impossible for modern vehicles to drive in the city, and all the garbage picking work has to be done by men with wheelbarrows cruise. The labor is intensive and expensive even without the tourists. Their arrival has even worsened the situation.

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Disturb to local residences

In 2019 ( before the pandemic hits), more than 5.5 million tourists arrived at Venice by giant cruise ships, buses, and trains. However, the number of local residence in Venice had only barely exceeds fifty thousands. This means that whenever an indigen goes to one of the main avenues, he or she will be besieged by great flocks of visitors shouting, bargaining, taking photos... This scenario can be annoying to everyone, and residences of Venice has to face it everyday. The rise of tourism has also made daily life products and services harder and harder to purchase for locals. In order to satisfy the needs of tourists, ritzy restaurants, luxury hotels, coffees, and various souvenir shops start to replace bakeries, markets, barbers, and shops that residents desperately need to continue their everyday lives. The worsened living conditions has caused locals to move further and further from the center of the city where tourists intensely visits, and eventually move out of the city. Since the 1950s, the number of residence of the city had started to plunge. There were initially over 170,000 residences in Venice. In the 1990s, the number was halved to 77,000. Eventually, at the end of the 2010s, the population had dropped to about 50000. Experts warns that if the population continues to drop and is under 40000, Venice will end being a city having vitality.

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Lost The Diversity In Commerce

The huge number of tourists coming into Venice provide a market for tours, gondola rides, water taxis, ferries, masks, Venetian glass trinkets and endless assortments of plastic souvenirs. Tourism is giving Venetians considerable economical profit. However, tourism starts to become the dominant industry in Venice, and nearly all the jobs that local do is strongly associated or connected with it. Many traditional industries of Venice like fishing and oversea commerce, has being squeezed out. In short, the multiplicity of works is greatly damaged. In the future, if floods become much more frequent due to the rising of sea level, and the tourism of Venice becomes sluggish, most Venetian will likely lose their jobs and lose vital economic income.

All in all, even though tourism is giving Venice considerable income now, Venice should not only rely on tourism in future development because the industry is causing problems that could doom the prospect of the city and badly affect the well-being of its citizens.