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Venice city officials are calling on UNESCO to put the Italian city on the World Heritage site blacklist.
A report from Lonely Planet says the calls come on the heels of a cruise ship crashing into the docks of the Giudecca canal.
The incident, which left four injured, triggered protests from locals and set off a round of criticism and counter-criticism among local officials.
Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro lashed out at the Italian transport minister, Danilo Toninelli for not endorsing a plan that had been agreed upon by Italy’s previous administration that would have allowed for diverting ships from the busy canal.
During a radio interview, Brugnaro said his office intends to write UNESCO seeking that the city be listed as endangered. Such a designation would significantly restrict entry into the city.
Venice has been struggling with overtourism for quite some time now. Attempts to deal with the problem have even included installing turnstiles at Piazzale Roma, the bus terminal and main point of entry to the city. Infuriated residents, however, tore down the turnstiles one day later.
The problem has also given rise to tensions between locals and tourists. During the summer of 2017, up to 60,000 visitors arrived in the city every day, overwhelming the resident population of just 55,000 people. Venice attracts as much as 30 million tourists annually.
UNESCO meanwhile, has given Venice a 2021 deadline for implementing measures that would protect the city’s monuments and preserve its fragile environment. The organization has threatened the city with being put on the endangered World Heritage list, Lonely Planet reported.
The deadline for implementing protective measures was extended from 2017 to 2021 because apparently, UNESCO felt Venice was making some improvement in managing tourism challenges.
Meanwhile, Brugnaro, the Venice mayor, continues to criticize delays in addressing the issue on the part of the country’s transportation minister.
Toninelli has the matter under consideration and has proposed putting option on a referendum on his party’s website.
Among the proposed options is building a new cruise terminal at Lido San Nicolo or at Chioggia, located south of Venice.
Overtourism is an increasingly troubling problem throughout Europe, and most recently was the focus of a map created by Responsible Travel, which documented just how widespread the problem truly is.
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