Endangered Heritage: Venice’s Fight Against Overtourism
Giant cruise ship leaving Venice, passing by the iconic Basilica Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, Italy with gondola on Grand canal at lower right. Image Source: Shutterstock Editorial License
With its winding canals and dreamy allure, Venice feels like stepping into a living postcard. But behind the gondolas and glittering reflections lies a city grappling with a modern problem: too many visitors. Over-tourism has turned this floating masterpiece into a crowded stage, with massive cruise ships and day-trippers flooding its fragile streets. The good news? Venice isn’t sinking under the weight of its challenges—it’s fighting back.
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Updated: November 9, 2025
The Pressures Facing Venice Today
Venice’s challenges extend far beyond crowded bridges and busy piazzas. The city attracts around 20 million visitors each year, with more than 50,000 people entering the city on peak days, even as the resident population has fallen to just over 49,000. This imbalance puts extraordinary strain on Venice’s infrastructure, lagoon ecosystem, cultural heritage, and daily rhythms. Understanding these pressures offers a clearer picture of what is at stake for Venice and why thoughtful, sustainable tourism is now essential to its future.
Venice, Italy, at the peak of the summer tourist season. Image Source: Unsplash
Impact on Infrastructure
Venice’s historic infrastructure was not designed for the pressures it faces today. Heavy foot traffic accelerates wear on the city’s stone paving and adds stress to more than 400 historic bridges (Source: Comune di Venezia). Public transport systems, especially the Vaporetti (public water buses), carry more than 100 million passengers each year, and many lines operate at standing-room-only capacity during peak periods. Their constant docking and the powerful wake they generate contribute to moto ondoso, the wave action that erodes canal edges and building foundations over time. This ongoing erosion adds to the maintenance burden on a city already struggling to preserve its fragile structures.
Compounding these pressures is acqua alta, the naturally occurring high tide that most often affects the city between November and January. These tidal surges regularly flood low-lying areas, including historic sites such as Piazza San Marco and St. Mark’s Basilica. These tidal surges weaken foundations and increase the frequency and cost of repairs. Although acqua alta has always been part of the lagoon’s rhythm, climate change and rising sea levels have made these floods more frequent and more severe (Source: LiveInItalyMag).
To protect the city during extreme tides, Venice now relies on the MOSE system. MOSE is a large-scale flood defense composed of seventy-eight hinged steel gates installed on the seabed at the three inlets connecting the lagoon to the Adriatic Sea. When a significant high tide is forecast, the gates are filled with air and rise above the water surface. This temporarily separates the lagoon from the sea, preventing floodwaters from entering the city. Once the tide recedes, the gates are refilled with water and lowered back into place. Although MOSE has already prevented multiple major floods, it requires constant maintenance, careful forecasting, and significant long-term investment, adding another layer of complexity to the city’s already strained infrastructure.
Tourists wading through aqua alta in Piazza San Marco, Venice wearing shoe protectors, and walking on temporary elevated sidewalks. Image Source: Shutterstock Editorial License
Environmental and Marine Ecosystem Damage
The lagoon’s fragile ecosystem has been significantly affected by over-tourism, particularly by decades of cruise ship traffic. Large vessels displace enormous volumes of water as they pass through the Giudecca Canal, creating strong turbulence that stirs up sediment, uproots seagrass meadows that have already declined by more than 50 percent in recent decades, and disrupts habitats essential for fish, mollusks, and other marine life (Source: ISPRA, Italian Institute for Environmental Protection). These disturbances reduce water clarity and weaken the lagoon’s natural defenses against erosion.
Pollution also plays a serious role. Cruise ships have been estimated to emit as much particulate pollution in a single day as thousands of cars, and untreated or partially treated wastewater, graywater, and ballast discharge introduce chemicals and invasive species into the lagoon. Noise and vessel vibrations further disturb marine fauna, affecting feeding and breeding cycles. As a result, fish populations have declined, impacting biodiversity and traditional fishing communities that depend on species such as sea bass, mullet, and clams.
The erosion caused by ship wakes and sediment disruption accelerates the degradation of mudflats and salt marshes, which are crucial for buffering storm surges. This loss of natural barriers has intensified flooding risks and compounded Venice’s vulnerability to climate change. Even though large cruise ships were banned from the historic center in 2021, the ecological damage they caused will require years of restoration and ongoing monitoring to reverse.
Aerial cityscape view of cruise ship floating in the lagoon alongside the iconic Basilica Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, Italy. Image Source: Shutterstock Editorial License
Cultural Erosion
Over-tourism affects far more than Venice’s physical landscape; it reshapes the city's cultural fabric. In the past two decades, the resident population of the historic center has fallen from about 65,000 in 2000 to under 50,000 today, a decline of nearly 25 percent (Source: Comune di Venezia). As Venetians leave, long-standing neighborhood businesses lose their customer base. The Rialto Fish Market, once lined with more than a dozen fishmongers, now has only a handful of stalls operating regularly. Venice has also seen a steady decline in traditional bakeries, greengrocers, and artisan workshops, many of which have been replaced by tourist-focused shops selling imported Murano glass (not locally made), inexpensive masks, luggage, and other souvenirs.
A shrinking population also means fewer people to sustain the cultural institutions that give Venice its character. Long-term rental housing has increasingly shifted into short-term tourist accommodation, and at one point, the number of tourist beds in the city outnumbered residents. Apprenticeships in traditional crafts have declined, leaving fewer young Venetians to carry on trades such as bookbinding, mask-making, and gold-beating. Meanwhile, everyday services — including neighborhood pharmacies, hardware stores, and even post offices — have closed or consolidated as year-round demand drops. The city now has far fewer school-age children than elderly residents, a demographic imbalance that has accelerated school mergers and diminished community life.
These changes alter not just the economy but the everyday culture of Venice. With fewer families in the center, traditions risk becoming staged performances for visitors rather than rituals rooted in local life. As the resident population contracts and local institutions disappear, Venice faces the growing threat of becoming a city where heritage is displayed rather than lived — a place admired by millions but inhabited by few.
Venetian carnival masks, souvenir shop on a street of Venice, Italy. Image Source: Unsplash
Economic Disparities
Although tourism drives much of Venice’s economy, the financial benefits are far from evenly shared. A large portion of revenue flows to international cruise companies, global hotel groups, and major tour operators, meaning much of the income generated by visitors never stays in the city. Day-trippers — who make up around 70 to 75 percent of all tourist arrivals (Source: Comune di Venezia) — spend comparatively little, often only €20 to €50 per visit (Source: Venetian Tourism Studies). In contrast, overnight guests spend four to eight times more. This imbalance is reflected in the housing market: by the late 2010s, Venice recorded more tourist beds than residents (Source: Comune di Venezia), a striking illustration of how deeply the economy has shifted toward visitor demand.
These pressures fall heavily on those who live in the historic center. Venice now has over 8,000 Airbnb listings (Source: Inside Airbnb), one of the highest densities in Europe, contributing to rising rents and a shortage of long-term housing. Prices for everyday goods tend to be higher in areas dominated by short-term visitors, while traditional industries — from fishing to artisan crafts — struggle with rising costs and inconsistent demand. Even jobs created by tourism often offer seasonal or low-wage work, providing limited stability for Venetians who remain (Source: ISTAT Labor Reports).
Together, these disparities widen the gap between those who profit from mass tourism and those who bear its burdens. Although millions arrive each year, many residents face higher living costs, fewer economic opportunities, and a growing sense that the city’s economy increasingly serves visitors rather than the people who call Venice home.
Image Source: Unsplash
Recent Measures to Combat Over-Tourism
In response to mounting concerns from residents, scholars, and international organizations, Venice has introduced several new policies to protect both the city and its lagoon.
Cruise Ship Restrictions
In 2021, the Italian government prohibited large cruise ships from sailing through the Giudecca Canal or from docking near St. Mark’s Square, redirecting them to mainland ports. The decision followed years of resident protests and a warning from UNESCO that Venice risked being placed on the World Heritage “in danger” list.
Day-Trip Entry Fee
Beginning in 2024, Venice plans to introduce a daily entry fee for day-trippers. The goal is to better manage crowd levels and encourage longer, more meaningful stays. Overnight visitors, who contribute more to the local economy, will be exempt from the charge.
Short-Term Rental Regulations
To counter the rapid expansion of tourist accommodations, the city has tightened regulations on short-term rentals, including platforms such as Airbnb. These measures aim to slow the conversion of residential housing into visitor lodgings and to create more opportunities for long-term residents to remain in the historic center.
Promoting Responsible Tourism
Venice is also working to distribute visitor traffic more evenly throughout the city by encouraging exploration of lesser-visited neighborhoods and nearby islands such as Giudecca, Cannaregio, and Sant’Erasmo. Campaigns like “Enjoy Respect Venezia” promote responsible behavior, from reducing noise to avoiding overcrowded bridges and streets.
Heritage Protection and Restoration Efforts
The city has expanded funding for the preservation of vulnerable cultural sites. St. Mark’s Basilica now uses protective glass barriers and raised walkways to shield its marble floors and mosaics from flooding, and restoration projects are underway across canal walls, bridges, and historic facades. Several of these initiatives receive support from UNESCO and EU cultural heritage funds, underscoring the global importance of safeguarding Venice’s architecture and traditions.
Climate Resilience and Lagoon Management
Venice now integrates the MOSE flood-barrier system into long-term climate adaptation planning. While MOSE prevents extreme high tides from entering the lagoon, additional strategies aim to restore salt marshes, manage erosion, and strengthen infrastructure against rising sea levels. These measures recognize that the future of Venice depends not only on reducing tourist pressure but also on stabilizing the lagoon's delicate ecological balance.
Piazza San Marco, late 1720s, Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The most famous view painter of eighteenth-century Venice, Canaletto was particularly popular with British visitors. This wonderfully fresh canvas depicts the city’s most emblematic location, the Piazza San Marco. Canaletto’s meticulous documentation of a stage in the square’s paving between 1725 and 1727 helps date this painting.
Venice’s experience echoes challenges unfolding in other fragile destinations around the world. For readers interested in a broader look at places facing cultural and environmental threats, I highlight several in my guide to endangered destinations.
Venice is now at a turning point. The measures underway—from cruise ship restrictions to rental regulations and heritage protections—represent meaningful progress, yet the work is far from complete. Protecting Venice will require continued vigilance, thoughtful policy, and a shared understanding that this city is not an amusement park or a backdrop but a living community shaped by centuries of craft, culture, and human resilience.
For Venice to endure, it must be allowed to breathe again. The hope is that future generations will not only admire its beauty but also experience a city where residents thrive, traditions persist, and the lagoon remains vibrant and alive. Venice has always been a place of wonder. With careful stewardship, its magic can shine for a long time to come—this time on terms that honor both the city and the people who call it home.
How Visitors Can Help
Choose overnight stays over day-trips
Wander beyond the busiest areas
Support genuine Venetian artisans
Travel and sightsee at off-peak hours when possible
