Happy Nice Mall

There are two main proposals: to divert ships to Marghera, the lagoon’s main commercial port on the mainland, or to build a port outside the lagoon.

A representative from the Venice Port Authority said the problem with Marghera was that “it’s not a commercial port for containers, it’s not built for passengers.” Also, because Marghera is in the lagoon, critics say rerouting cruise ships will do little to limit environmental damage.

As for building another port entirely: on April 1, the Italian government approved the allocation of funds for a feasibility study for such a project. However, the Port Authority said only that the process of developing plans for the project is expected to last until mid-2022, leaving little hope that a new port will provide a solution in the short or even medium term.

Stopping cruise traffic until a new port is ready will take an economic toll. Before the pandemic, the cruise industry directly and indirectly employed 4,200 people in the region, according to the Port Authority, generating revenues of 280 million euros (over $332 million), although most of that money did not go to Venice’s historic centre. .

Meanwhile, UNESCO is impatient. Last month, the agency released a report urging the Italian government to prioritize the “option to completely ban large ships from the Lagoon” and to set a time frame for “temporarily rerouting ships” to Marghera or elsewhere.

The agency also announced on the same day that it is considering adding Venice to its list of endangered World Heritage sites. “Recommendations for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List in Danger are warnings, not sanctions,” a representative of the agency said in an email statement, adding that “mass tourism, especially in the presence of cruise ships”, is one of the organisation’s concerns.

But as Italy’s artificial coalition government is divided over the issue, several government officials who spoke anonymously said they felt pressured by the negative publicity UNESCO and, more broadly, Venice, and Venice, received when cruise ships returned after the pandemic. Recent protests have drawn international media attention and Venice is hosting the G20 summit from 8-11 July.