Gone are the days of cultural tourists who visited the world’s famous cities for their architectural masterpieces and museums, complaining about the Venetians — employees of the services that monitor order in the city. The main visitors to Venice these days are one-day “poor tourists” who need to note that they have been to Venice, and they know a couple of places from all over the city that create unbearable crowds. At the same time, these tourists also have problems with the rules of the “human dormitory”. So Venice seems to be reverting to the slogan, “Please don’t come!”
Thus, city employee Diego Nechifrovo, whose task is to monitor and issue warnings to offending tourists, appeared in the Italian mass media. “It’s not uncommon for me to see tourists throw cigarette butts, packets of chips right into the canals and walk without T-shirts, as if on the beach. But the worst cases have happened. One day, a family of tourists sat down right in front of the Doge’s Palace and began to have a picnic. Another tourist fell into the water right in front of my eyes – he was so excited, trying to take a good photo,” the expert said.
“Gone are the days when educated tourists visited and enjoyed the city’s many churches and museums. Today’s tourist is anyone but a cultural tourist. I think they don’t know what a museum is,” said another Venetian named Claudio. According to him, this whole crowd of “poor tourists” who “would rather just go to the beach” rush to Venice, because it is Venice. All they know about her is St. Mark’s Square and, at best, the Rialto Bridge.
Meanwhile, Venice is in serious trouble — over-tourism, which has returned after covid, is causing serious damage to its lagoon. At the same time, residents are fleeing the city — there are only about 50,000 of them left. And last year, about 3.2 million tourists spent the night in the historic center of Venice, and this does not include the thousands of daily visitors who do not stay overnight.
Venice’s list of problems is extensive, from the environmental damage done to its lagoon to the exodus of its residents, of whom only about 50,000 remain.
As a result, UNESCO, which included Venice in its heritage list in 1987, now plans to include Venice in a list that is “intended to encourage governments to take action to preserve places considered to be of general value to humanity”, read details here.