Venice ordered to lift ban on cruise ships

 

In an earlier blog I looked at the threat of cruise tourism to a unique cultural city, Venice. We saw how the increase in cruise ships is destroying this beautiful city. However the politicians did listen and the Italian government imposed a restriction on the number of cruise ships bringing tourists to Venice. Since January this year, the government is reported to have reduced the number of cruise ships over 40,000 tons by 20%. It was also planning to ban all ships over 96,000 tons from Venice altogether from November 2014.

Now a regional court in Veneto has suspended the law until 12 June 2014, ruling that the risks posed by the cruise ships have not been proven.

Environment minister Gian Luca Galletti said that he believed it was “still possible to find a solution as soon as possible to avoid the continual presence of big ships in the ancient canals of Venice”. Venice’s mayor Giorgio Orsoni has proposed that cruise ships dock at Porto Marghera, an industrial town in the province of Venice.

When Prime Minister Berlusconi was in power he announced the multi million lire development of a new shipping route into Venice to avoid cruise ships damaging the canals but this has yet to be approved.

Other suggestions have included a floating off-shore port or the dredging of a new approach to the cruise passenger terminal that avoids the narrow canals around St Mark’s Square. We shall now wait for the outcome of the review in 3 months time.

Source travel week daily 19 March 2014