How Long Before Tourism Destroys Venice?

[Music] [Music] uh [Music] it's carnivale time in venice [Music] for centuries venetians have marked the lead-up to lent in spectacular style [Music] nowadays it's a celebration drawing crowds from all over the world [Music] [Applause] [Music] but behind the flamboyant masks there's a sad truth venice is dying there are no tourists here these are the real venetians and they're fighting hard to reclaim their city there are only about 53 000 true venetians now living in venice over the year 500 times as many tourists will come and go [Music] a proud venetian born and bred runs a community housing group dedicated to keeping the nations in their homes is foreign [Music] in the last 15 years the number of beds offered privately to tourists aside from registered accommodation has grown more than fivefold that's pushed rental prices up and many residents just can't afford to stay venetians from all walks of life are being affected but particularly the middle classes they don't qualify for state help and on average half their salary goes on rent despite the rental squeeze thousands of council-owned apartments have been left empty for years these are the ones nicola and his group target for occupation we have to be careful because in recent months there's been a police crackdown on intruders [Music] all right it's very dark yeah no electricity but this is um one of the ones that's empty that you want to occupy yeah sometimes the apartments are deliberately vandalized by the authorities to deter squatters but nicholas team renovates them and helps families move in on peppercorn rents this has more or less it's of 75 square meters so he was living an old woman but now this apartment is ready even for a family for two or three kids so it's empty more or less for since two years a long-term residents of venice say they're being thrown out of their apartments which are then rented to tourists through accommodation website airbnb it's thought there are now almost 8 000 airbnb properties in the small historic center of the city nikola and his group have helped 150 venetians to find homes but there's always the threat of eviction okay what does he say i'm sorry i don't believe we don't move from here because we are venice and we love there so we love her yeah we love venice and kiara have squatted here for eight years with their eight-year-old daughter and now they've been served an eviction notices [Music] the couple applied for public housing when chiara found out she was pregnant [Music] now they're in a precarious situation do you think eventually you'll have to leave venice hello [Music] in a pharmacy nearby a clock records the loss of residents locals say on current trends they'll all be gone in the next 50 years [Music] meanwhile the tourists keep coming the best estimates available put the annual number of visitors to venice between 25 and 30 million many a day trippers known as eat and run visitors who spent little but swell the crowds and put more pressure on the infrastructure [Music] europeans and americans still top the visitor less the chinese are catching up fast [Music] so far less than 10 of chinese have passports but that's set to increase dramatically [Music] so this is quite incredible watching it it's a poetry approach with masses of people rolling off they're going to spend a few hours here and then they're going to roll straight back on again it's just incredible to watch it and this is an even peak season do you speak english abc australia we're from australia we're i'm so sorry i must go go to the ghetto to buy the trees i'm so sorry where's your group from china from china and how long are they here in venice uh we'll be staying here uh half a day just for half a day yeah wow that's hard really and so what do you hope what do they hope to see why have they come here to venice you know nowadays is a chinese new year so much people to come here for venice yes so what will they do what will they see yeah we will have to get the gondola and a small exposure in the riverside inside so you're only here for what five hours or so i'm so sorry just three hours just three hours wow okay thank you thank you so much [Music] tourism here is big business visitors spend about nine billion dollars a year and a good portion of that goes on cheap mass-produced souvenirs marilysa dal carson is a master mask maker her craft is centuries old but it's gradually being lost in the last 40 years venice has lost more than half of its crafts men and women and the people doesn't understand that when they see a big mask and we say the price oh too much is uh they don't understand that for do something like that there is hour weeks or months sometime marilyn has been making her art for over 30 years but isn't sure she can hang on for much longer it's difficult to live this that is my it's me it's a and i want to keep it strong but it's very very difficult to stay alive [Music] venetians don't want to stop people coming to their city but they do want more control over how many visitors come and how they arrive thank you [Applause] okay well this is the way to travel yes for sure venetians means of transport oh it's beautiful beautiful i mean you can see why so many millions of people want to come here [Applause] the magic of venice is the balancing between water and stone venetian tommaso kachari is a founding member of the anti-cruise ship movement no grandi navi or no big ships these enormous ships come inside the venice lagoon from there they cross all the city last year alone 594 cruise ships sailed right into the venice lagoon over a six-month period now tomaszo and his fellow campaigners want them to stop if you think that the tallest house in venice yes are from jewish ghetto and they are tall 16 or 17 meters yes uh basic cruise chip that comes in here is 65 meters so they're about six times higher than that of the tallest house wow of venice when you see the pictures uh you you think uh at a joke you know you think that a mistake a scale mistake this is sanjarjo island chamazo is taking me to the island of san giorgio madre just across the lagoon from saint mark's square to show me the damage he claims cruise ships cause and so right here where we are now is the place where movement of the water caused by big ships is maximum according to tommaso the currents created by the passing ships are destroying these centuries-old paving stones here this part of the island is just slipping into the water and eaten from beneath you can see it's going away from between the stones they are trying to do this kind of useless horrible thing they put in concrete some concrete concrete is not it's not a venetian material it's a resolution nothing in venice is made by concrete this is totally useless so how does it make you feel when you sort of come down here and you see these cruise ships stopped here i mean inside very angry very angry because this is a big damage for our health our city our natural city and our built city because venice is so beautiful because it's the city of the sea in protest locals have taken to their boats to vent their frustrations there's debate over whether the cruise ships cause subsidence but there's no dispute over the pollution they create per day one cruise ship emits as many air pollutants as a million cars tamazo kachari and many fellow venetians don't see the benefits cruise ships are not giving money to the city are not giving money to the workers bars to taxi drivers to there is nothing about this cruise ships is keeping the money concentrated in very few hands and these few hands are very powerful some politicians are very tied with these interests they are not very good politicians the cruise ships must pay to enter and more but it's believed the bulk of that money goes to the national government and private interest not to venice there's not much incentive for rome to change anything as parliament venice's tourism chief tried to explain is it right to presume that uh despite all the talk uh the cruise ships will continue to dock exactly where they've been talking in recent years nothing is going to change [Music] each year the politicians in rome debate the merits of diverting cruise ships away from the city centre but so far words have not translated into action the arguments over lack of housing tourism and cruise ships could all soon be academic in the long run the tourists pose less of a threat to venice than the very thing they've come to see water [Music] [Applause] [Music] as you weave your way through the canals towards the lagoon there are reminders everywhere that this city built across 118 islands is at constant risk of going under centimeter it is 30 centimeters essentially 15 15 due to the sinking and 15 due to the global sea level rise [Music] engineer and scientist giovanni chikuni has been documenting the flood water changes for 30 years now just this is an angel just describe to me how this has changed over time the green line that is the main eye tide it is uh well above the mouth of the angel so you have to consider one foot of elevation of the men i tied with relation to the man sea level and so everything has to be shifted 40 centimeters below and so the angela is a kind of a symbol icon of the danger of silver rice the danger for venice yes and the green line tells you and the angel doesn't look happy no not at all it's looking up so it doesn't trust the humans is more in favor of the god the intervention of god giovanni is taking me to look at the long awaited nine billion dollar solution to venice's flooding problem he helped design it it's known as mosaic moses is a mobile storm surge barrier so this means when not in use it will disappear but when there is a storm surge coming and the flooding starts over 110 centimeter meaning above the san marco square elevation essentially the barrier can be elevated and close the sea out of the lagoon many venetians are skeptical construction began 15 years ago and it was due to open in 2011 but the system is still not operational [Music] the project's been dogged by one of italy's biggest corruption scandals in 2014 35 people including the former mayor of venice were arrested for embezzling 30 million dollars of public funds [Music] everybody was benefiting from the extra cost so there was nobody that was saying oh no maybe we can not do that because it's expensive let's choose another solution that is good but not so expensive in in a corrupted situation as it was the larger the better the more expensive the better some environmentalists say the barrier will pollute the lagoon by blocking water flows but without the mosaic system the outlook for this floating city is grim biggest environmental challenge facing venice now is actually the rising sea levels we are under the threat of silver rice and venice will be completely transformed its sea level will be more than two feet more than 60 centimeter that's the worst case scenario what would it mean the scenario is to move with the boat and then not to use the walking path anymore and abandon the ground floor i think it will take 50 years 50 years and then how long would it take for the destruction of those buildings because their bottom level is now underwater oh i think in other in another 30 years very rapidly will be deteriorated if we do nothing so venice could be destroyed within 80 years yes yes we'll be a ghost town in case of a worst case scenario and the world should care about that yes yes and venice is an iconic city of living on the water so it's a not only of national importance it's of international importance [Music] for now life in venice goes on a series of serenades and gondola rides few visitors are aware of the threats to the city [Music] later this year the un will decide whether to put venice on the world heritage endangered list a move that would reflect poorly on the city authorities and its current mayor luigi branara he's just got the go ahead for a new tax making venice one of the only cities in the world to charge tourists an entry fee just explain the tax for me what is it going to notice explain okay you don't like to call it a tax i understand what what do you prefer to call it and why is the new charge is meant to be in place within months but no one seems to know how it will be collected the mayor guarantees full transparency [Music] venice the floating city la serra nissima city of bridges has thrived for nearly two millennia [Music] but without drastic action the city we know now might not survive this century making its glam carnival just a pantomime with no real venetians left to play we need to have a vision of our future if we don't have the other will impose their vision on us and we will adapt in with short-term advantages getting money out of the tourism but without any long-term plan [Music] problem is that we are destroying city we are making the wrong choices or no choice that it's like making a wrong choice and we are choosing to kill it for money for a little bit of money now without thinking of what is will happen tomorrow [Music] the new absolutely [Music] you

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

Views: 29,613

Keywords: Journeyman, Journeyman Pictures, venice, italy, tourism, pollution, rent, air b n b, rent prices, squatting, gentrification, over-toruism

Id: BrzzGN9xILA

Length: 27min 14sec (1634 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2019