«At the moment only two companies, amidst a thousand difficulties and with great economic, logistical and organizational effort, have decided to confirm their stopovers, but if the commitments are not respected it is not excluded that they will leave the city permanently». This is the position taken by CLIA Italia, an international association that represents 95% of the world’s cruise companies.
A position of serious concern for the future of cruise tourism in Venice and, consequently, throughout the Adriatic. In fact, for almost three years – the association says – the entire sector has been forced to operate in a situation of uncertainty and precariousness, given that the commitments made by the Italian government in 2021 regarding an alternative plan for cruise tourism have not yet been been respected or implemented. «Unfortunately, once again, a temporary situation risks becoming permanent and this penalizes the entire cruise tourism sector, a sector that always operates well in advance and with rigorous planning. Acting without certainty of what the situation will be in the coming years puts the presence of cruises in Venice at risk”, adds Francesco Galietti, director of CLIA.
Risk of abandonment
If the companies decided to leave Venice definitively «this would mean both losing Venice’s status as homeport, i.e. terminus port, and a structural decline in cruise traffic and therefore tourism throughout the Adriatic, given that the lagoon city it has always been a center of attraction. The current lack of certainties – adds the Italian representative of the association of all cruise companies – has led many shipowners to divert their ships to other ports and other countries”.
The need to safeguard the lagoon is not under discussion: «The companies have always reiterated, well before 2021, that they are in favor of no longer transiting through the Giudecca and have asked with conviction for the preparation of an alternative solution, but so far it has not been started no concrete comparison. Cruises represent less than 2% of traffic in the Lagoon, but are the most technologically advanced and innovative sector of the maritime sector. Also for this reason – concludes Galietti – they can provide an important contribution to developing solutions that are simultaneously capable of preserving the lagoon ecosystem and the sustainable economic development of the city. Furthermore, questioning the permanence of cruises in Venice is equivalent to questioning the entire existence of Venetian ports.”
Costa Crociere
Also on the topic is the position of Costa Crociere, which «shares the concerns about the future of cruise tourism in Venice. We have always been in favor of a development of the sector that respects the peculiarities of a unique city like Venice, finding alternative and practicable solutions to allow companies to continue to operate and feed an important ecosystem, of which many local companies are also part. The situation that is emerging, unfortunately, does not seem to be going in this direction”, declares Roberto Alberti, chief corporate officer of Costa Crociere.
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