Venice imposes tourist tax to protect endangered city

By Richard Owen, The Times of London
Copyright 2001 CanWest Interactive
Article date: December 31, 2001
 

ROME - Visitors to Venice are facing a new tourist tax and increased motorized water-taxi fares as part of a new effort to protect the city from the effects of mass tourism.

In an unprecedented move the Italian government has given Venice Mayor Paolo Costa emergency powers to deal with the damage caused to the fragile lagoon city by motorized water traffic.

Mr. Costa, 58, said yesterday he intended to begin by levying a controversial tax on tourists. To the delight of gondoliers, as well as Venetians whose palazzi are crumbling into the canals as a direct result of the wash caused by the ever-growing number of motorboats and water taxis, he will also impose strict controls on motorized transport in the city's canals. Venice is still menaced by regular flooding from high tides in the lagoon, with some experts predicting it will sink altogether within a century.

The government of Silvio Berlusconi, which came to power eight months ago, has vowed to implement a long-delayed, multi-million dollar mobile flood barrier, despite objections from environmentalists who claim it will damage the ecological balance of the lagoon.

But Mr. Costa, a former rector of Venice University and minister of public works in the 1996-1998 government of Romano Prodi, said Venice needed crisis measures immediately.

He said he would intervene with force against the thousands of boats which have turned the Grand Canal into an infernal motorway, by setting up an extensive "blue zone" within which only gondolas and rowing boats would be allowed.

Mr. Costa also said he proposed to impose tolls for vessels carrying tourists from cruise liners to pleasure boats plying the canals.

He will enforce draconian speed limits throughout the lagoon, and intends to put a total ban both on gasoline tankers entering the Guidecca Canal and on cruise liners mooring in front of St. Mark's Square.

Under the new regulations, the mayor will have the power to seize ships or boats that break speed limits or stray from designated shipping lanes, with night and day surveillance of shipping by satellite.

Venice has more than seven million visitors a year, compared with a dwindling resident population of 70,000. La Repubblica said the government had given Mr. Costa "more powers than a Wild West sheriff."

It said that the measures reflected growing protests from city residents against the wash from motorboats, which is blamed for undermining the foundations of the city's many historic buildings.

Mr. Costa said he had been appalled by the congestion during the traditional Venice regatta in September, when "small boats were left bobbing about helplessly in the wash left by gigantic cruise liners."

The mayor said he had not yet decided how much tourists would have to pay, or how the tourist tax would be levied.

Officials in other historic cities such as Florence said they were tempted to introduce a similar tax on tourists. But Vittorio Sgarbi, the deputy minister of culture, said it was not necessarily the right solution.
 

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