Residents of Venice say the city has reached a tipping point, accelerated by a boom in European and U.S. tourism in recent years.
Venice now has more tourist beds than residents, according to Ocio, a group that campaigns for affordable housing. The estimate deepened fears in Italy that the city will soon be populated only by tourists and a few resident holdouts.
The resident population is in steady decline, dropping below 50,000 last year for the first time in more than three centuries.
Venice native Lidia Fersuoch, in response to the tourist masses packing a square near the Rialto Bridge, ‘We’ve become Italy’s answer to Disneyland’.
‘I fear there’s little hope of saving Venice, but that doesn’t mean I won’t fight every day’, said Lorenzo Calvelli, a Venetian native and history professor at the University of Venice.
The large number of apartments rented to tourists has pushed up rents beyond the reach of many locals. As the number of residents has dwindled, so too has the number of shops and other services needed to sustain daily life.
The number of tourists arriving here this year is expected to beat the record of 5.5 million in 2019.
Venice’s city council has approved a €5 fee for day-trippers entering the city’s historic centre on the busiest days of the year. Residents, workers and students will be exempt from the fee.
Many locals see the fee as proof that their city is becoming a theme park, a capitulation to the idea that the city will soon be just for tourists. Urban planners say it will do little to reduce the scale of tourism or curb its impact.