The rise and fall of tourism in Venice

Abstract

[eng] This thesis is based on a review of sources which allow to trace the transformation of Venice over the last decades: from a traditional tourist destination to a mecca of mass tourism and finally to a ghost town during the COVID-19 pandemic. The boom in tourism brought economic growth and greater prosperity, but was accompanied by negative consequences which resulted, among others, in a population decline. Warnings from UNESCO and citizen protests regarding mass tourism and cruise traffic have pushed politicians to develop strategies for a better management of tourist flows, some of which have already been realized. Since February 2020, Venice has been facing a completely different situation: the drastic decrease in the number of tourists, due to the travel restrictions in response to COVID-19, strikes at the heart of the local economy and demonstrates how dangerous dependence on tourism can be. The crisis, however, presents an opportunity to reflect on the future of Venice. One approach would be to change the image of Venice so that mass tourism is replaced by quality and slow tourism, which would improve life quality for locals and might stop and reverse the process of Disneyfication and population decline.