Venice visitors to soon face ‘sorry, we’re full’ signs
ITALY: Officials in Venice plan to turn away day trippers and keep visitors separate from residents on main thoroughfares as crowds descend on the historic city over May Day.
The ‘‘urgent’’ measures, which the mayor said were unprecedented, aim to control a stifling tourist boom that brings up to 120,000 visitors on peak days, more than double Venice’s dwindling population of 53,000. Its woes mirror those of other tourist destinations around the world, under siege because of low-cost flights and growing Chinese tourism.
‘‘We have the task of safeguarding Venice,’’ mayor Luigi Brugnaro said as he announced the restrictions.
Many working Italians are expected to take Monday off as well as May Day on Tuesday to gain a four-day weekend and head for tourist attractions such as Venice.
Under the new rules, tourists who drive over the bridge linking the mainland to Venice may be turned away if they have not reserved a space in one of the city’s car parks.
Officials experimented last year with access restrictions to the banks of the Giudecca canal during an annual fireworks display.
Queues formed this year as police restricted the crowds heading to St Mark’s Square during the famed carnival from January 27 to February 13. ‘‘The difference now is that they may be turning people away before they even get into the city,’’ Marco Scurati, a Venetian tourism consultant, said.
A spokesman denied that Venice was setting a ceiling for the number of tourists allowed in – a solution that would, in effect, turn the city into a museum.
‘‘This is not about limiting numbers,’’ he said. ‘‘Tourists can always arrive by train.’’
Scurati said, however, that sooner or later Venice would have to face up to putting a limit on the number of visitors.
‘‘During carnival there were people spending €1000 a night to stay in town who couldn’t get in to St Mark’s Square.’’
The city also announced that if crowds became jammed on the Strada Nuova, which leads from the railway station to the Rialto bridge and St Mark’s Square, police would divert tourists down alternative streets. This would leave the thoroughfare restricted to locals and people in town on business.
Venice has been tracking mobile phone signals to calculate where crowds are forming. Laser sensors will be used this weekend to improve head counts after tests with the technology were held during the carnival.
‘‘We have to do something, since these days locals cannot get out for cigarettes or a coffee due to the crowds,’’ Emanuele Dal Carlo, of the Venice citizens group Reset, said. ‘‘But where do you divert the tourists to when alternative streets are much narrower?’’
Activists have complained about the growth in Airbnb rentals pushing out locals, noting that there are now about 5000 in Venice compared with 28,000 homes occupied by residents. Experts say, however, that the real culprits are day trippers arriving on chartered boats from the mainland.
To control the influx, Brugnaro said these boats would no longer be allowed to moor near St Mark’s Square. Instead, they would be sent to the other side of the city.
Scurati said this amounted to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
‘‘Wherever they land, the tourists will make a beeline for St Mark’s,’’ he said. ‘‘Furthermore, politicians continue to give permits for the construction of huge hotels on the mainland for the Chinese, and it is obvious that they are all here to see one thing – Venice.’’ – The Times