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Venice, which receives 20-30 million holidaymakers a year, has a love-hate relationship with tourists. Overcrowding causes antagonism between those Venetians who make a living from tourism and those who feel suffocated. Some residents were finding the reduction in tourism liberating, said Jane Da Mosto, founder of the thinktank We Are Here Venice.
“Of course it’s terrible that livelihoods are being affected, but now people can breathe,” she said. “It’s like being on a crammed subway and then being able to read your book and stretch.”
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‘It’s the
last nail in the coffin’: Venice empties as coronavirus spreads
The
Observer
Coronavirus
outbreak
Outbreak
triggers new crisis as city struggles to recover from November’s severe floods
Hannah
Roberts in Venice
Sat 29 Feb
2020 18.45 GMTLast modified on Sat 29 Feb 2020 18.46 GMT
In St
Mark’s Square last week, tables and chairs outside the famed Caffè Florian
remained empty, with the few tourists spoiled for space as they posed for
selfies. More white medical masks than carnival masks could be seen. Rows of
empty gondolas seemed to rock impatiently.
After
Venice cancelled most of its annual celebrations amid Italy’s attempts to
contain Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak, most visitors ran for the hills,
leaving the lagoon city a virtual ghost town.
The
Venetian tourism industry is still reeling after severe flooding in November
left much of the city under water; now it has a very different kind of crisis
to face. More than 800 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Italy, and 29
people have died.
“We were
waiting for the carnival to get the economy going again after the acqua alta,
but now we have a new problem,” said Sabrina, a worker at fashion store
Sartoria dei Dogi.
The floods
reduced turnover in Venice by 40% in the final quarter of last year, according
to local government figures, and estimates suggest the virus will cause a
downturn of 30-40% in this quarter.
More than
40% of hotel bookings have been cancelled, according to the Venetian Hoteliers
Association.
“It’s
completely dead: no one comes past, the streets are empty, and people are
afraid,” said Paola Bertoldo, who sells her own Murano glass jewellery from a shop
in the Santa Croce district. “I don’t know how we can manage this time. This is
the last nail in the coffin.”
The entire
economy has been affected, said Simone Venturini, city councillor for economic
development. The real damage would be long-term, he said, with few bookings for
the usually busy periods of Easter and the Biennale arts festival starting in
May. “In a few weeks, we believe the virus will be a distant memory like Sars,
but we need to get the message out that it’s business as normal.”
Venice,
which receives 20-30 million holidaymakers a year, has a love-hate relationship
with tourists. Overcrowding causes antagonism between those Venetians who make
a living from tourism and those who feel suffocated. Some residents were
finding the reduction in tourism liberating, said Jane Da Mosto, founder of the
thinktank We Are Here Venice.
“Of course
it’s terrible that livelihoods are being affected, but now people can breathe,”
she said. “It’s like being on a crammed subway and then being able to read your
book and stretch.”
As far as
Da Mosto is concerned, the tourism timeout ought to be an opportunity to rethink
and implement viral systemic changes, but it is unlikely to happen in a city
where the needs of Venetians are ignored in favour of the tourism industry. “If
this is a wake-up call,” she asked, “who is listening?”
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