Venice reinventing itself as sustainable tourism capital

Away from the once-maddening crowds of St. Mark's Square, tiny Certosa island is actually a template for building a sustainable future in Venice since it tries to relaunch its tourism industry without boomeranging back to pre-pandemic day-tripping hordes.

Private investment has converted the forgotten public island simply a 15-minute waterbus ride from St. Mark's Square right into a multi-faceted urban park where Venetians and Venice conoscenti can mix, free from the tensions inherent to the lagoon city's perennial plague of mass tourism.

"This is the B-side of the Venetian LP," said Alberto Sonino, who heads the development project that includes a hotel, marina, restaurant and woodland. "Everyone understands the first song of the A-side of our long-play, almost nobody, not the most expert or locals, know the lagoon as a fascinating natural and cultural environment.''

It could be now or never for Venice, whose fragile city and lagoon environment alike are protected as a UNESCO world heritage site. Citing overtourism, UNESCO took the rare step this week of recommending Venice be placed on its set of World Heritage in peril sites. A decision is expected the following month.

After a 15-month pause in mass international travel, Venetians are contemplating how exactly to welcome visitors back again to its picture-postcard canals and Byzantine backdrops without suffering days gone by indignities of crowds clogging narrow alleyways, day-trippers picnicking on stoops and selfie-takers crowding the Rialto Bridge.

The recommendation by UNESCO's World Heritage Center took into consideration mass tourism, in particular the passage of cruise lines through the historic center, a steady decline in everlasting residents and governance and management problems.

"This is simply not something we propose lightly,'' Mechtild Roessler, director of the World Heritage Center, told AP. "It really is to alert the international community to accomplish more to handle these matters together."

Veneto regional officials have submitted a plan for relaunching the tourism-dependent city to Rome that demands controlling arrivals of day-trippers, boosting long lasting residents, encouraging startups, limiting the stock of private apartment rentals and gaining control over commercial zoning to protect Venetian artisans.

The proposal, submitted in March, aims to create Venice a "world sustainability capital," and hopes to tap a number of the 222 million euros ($265 million) in EU recovery funds to help hard-hit Italy relaunch from the pandemic.

"Venice is at risk of disappearing. If we don't stop and reverse this, Venice in 10 years is a desert, where you turn the lights on in the morning, and turn them off in the evening,'' said Nicola Pianon, a Venice native and managing director of the Boston Consulting Group whose strategic plan for Venice informed the region's proposal.

The proposal responds to Venetians' urgency to reclaim their city from the mass tourism that peaked at some 25 million individual visitors in 2019, and stanch the exodus of just one 1,000 Venetians each year. It envisions investments as high as 4 billion euros to attract 12,000 new residents and create 20,000 new jobs.

As much as Venetians groan at the huge tourist flows, the pandemic also revealed the extent to that your relationship is symbiotic.

Along with lost tourist revenue, Venetians suffered a drastic decrease in public transport, heavily subsidized by tourist traffic. Even city museums cannot afford to reopen to residents when lockdowns eased.

"Venice without tourists became a city that cannot serve its citizens,'' said Anna Moretti, a specialist in destination management at Venice's Ca' Foscari University.

The pandemic paused the city's plans to introduce a day-tripper tax this past year on visitors who sleep elsewhere-80% of the total tourist footfall.

Some 19 million day-trippers visited in 2019 , spending just 5 euros ($6) to 20 euros each, according to Boston Consulting. On the other hand of that equation, the 20% of tourists who spend at least one night in Venice contribute more than two-thirds of most tourist revenue.

A reservation system with an access cost is likely to launch sometime in 2022 to manage day visitors.

With an eye on monitoring daily tourist arrivals, metropolis set up a state-of-the-art Smart Control Room near to the main railroad bridge this past year that identifies how many visitors are in Venice at any moment using cell-phone data that also reveals their country of origin and location in the town.

The technology implies that future reservations can be monitored with QR codes downloaded on phones, with no need to create check points. Pianon said the program is feasible in a city like Venice, which has a limited number of access points and is merely 5 square kilometers (2 square miles) in area.

Relaunching more sustainable tourism in Venice would require diverting tourists to new destinations, encouraging more over-night stays, discouraging day trips and enabling the repopulation of metropolis with new residents.

Much could fail. Tourist operators are desperate for business to come back, and there's a pent-up global desire to travel. In addition, many changes being sought by regional and city officials must be decided in Rome, including any limits on commercial zoning or Airbnb rental properties.

"I think the level of dystopia that people had reached was of such a scale that there should be a reaction,'' said Carlo Bagnoli, head of an innovation lab, VeniSia, at Ca Foscari University. "There are many projects emerging from many places."

Certosa island, after more than a decade, continues to be a work happening, but its success is in the numbers: 3,000 visitors each weekend.

Sonino sees another 10 public sites in the lagoon with redevelopment potential, including former hospitals, abandoned islands and military bases.

He blames Venetians themselves for the city's predicament, being long on talk, short on action. But he feels the pandemic-coupled with the world's abiding interest in Venice's future-might you need to be the push metropolis needs to change.

"I prefer to hope that people catch the chance. Carpe diem isn't only a slogan but an opportunity,'' Sonino said. "We desire a lot of ideas and lots of passion to take Venice from days gone by to the future."