Maximum Carrying Capacity in Venice

Post date: Oct 07, 2015 1:37:17 PM

Public spaces are very limited in Venice. This is related to the small size of the city and the evolution of the tourism. Being visited by thousands of people per day, the streets are getting narrower, causing pedestrian traffic and a lot of noise, which affect negatively the quality life of the local people. The tourism carrying capacity is defined by the World Tourism Organization as the maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time, without causing distraction of the physic, economic, socio-cultural environment and an acceptable decrease in the quality of visitor’s satisfaction. Jan Van Der, Paola Costa and Canestrelli presented a method to define the maximum total of tourist that one place could host without negatively affecting it. The method presented aimed to maximize the income from tourism taking into consideration several factors such as: available accommodation, existing transportation, catering and parking facilities and the amount of people that most famous historical destinations could fit. They concluded for Venice a maximum of 25.000 tourists per day, of which 15.000 are tourists and 10.000 excursionists.(priority is given to tourists first and then to excursionists) This defined value was being exceeding in Venice, since 1987 and nowadays the number of visitants per day is two times the supposed maximum capacity. In an interview about the evolution of tourism in Venice, Jan van der Borg said: "Venice obviously is at the top as tourist destination and has over twenty millions visitors per year, this is one of the possible major risks, an excessive tourist pressure on the city"