Background

Tourism

Venice has experienced an exponential growth in tourism since the 1950s. This graph shows the rapid growth of tourism in Venice along with a Pre-COVID projection of the continuous rise in tourism. The impact that tourism has on Venice is getting worse, and may, at some point hit a point that is unsustainable for the health and wellbeing of the city. A term known as the “tourism paradox” explains a “a phenomenon where the tourism industry destroys the natural and cultural environment in a destination that is necessary for tourism activities” (Arikan, 2016). The diminishing culture and beauty in Venice could lead to tourists no longer wanting to visit the city. Loss of tourism could have a drastic effect on Venice’s economy, unless there was a creative balance in economic options.

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 brought all tourism and travel to a standstill across all of Europe. This pandemic has caused economic hardship to all of Italy, with approximately 3 million residents that have no income at all. The city dependent on tourism has been abandoned by tourism for months due to this pandemic. The people of Venice need a way, now more than ever, solutions to their economic dependency on tourism.

The SmartDest Project

The SmartDest Project planned to study eight cities across Europe that were experiencing over tourism to collect information and create policy suggestions. SerenDPT is working with the SmartDest Project for the Venice case study. Originally the goal of the SmartDest Project was to mitigate the effects of over tourism in these cities by working with stakeholders to create new policies. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted tourism across all of Europe transforming the original goal of the SmartDest Project. The new goal for the SmartDest Project is to monitor the reintroduction of tourism across the case study cities along with developing new policies to guide the return of tourism throughout Europe.

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