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‘They’re back’: First cruise ship in 17 months arrives in Venice

A cruise ship arrived in Venice on Thursday for the first time since the pandemic began, signalling the return of mass tourism and sparking fresh concern about its impact on the world heritage site.

Published: 3 June 2021 16:48 CEST
'They're back': First cruise ship in 17 months arrives in Venice
The MSC Orchestra cruise ship arriving in Venice on June 3rd. Photo: ANDREA PATTARO / AFP

Venice residents were surprised on Thursday morning to see a giant cruise ship docking for the first time since the start of the pandemic, after repeated government pledges to reroute the huge vessels due to safety and environmental concerns.

Italy’s government announced in March that cruise ships would no longer sail past Venice’s iconic St Mark’s Square and dock in the historic centre, but instead be diverted to the city’s industrial port.

However, the infrastructure is not yet in place for this to happen.

The 92,000-ton MSC Orchestra arrived empty from the Greek port of Piraeus and will pick up about 650 passengers on Saturday, before heading south to Bari, Corfu, Mykonos and Dubrovnik.

The numbers on board are limited by Covid-19 restrictions to a fraction of the ship’s usual 3,000 capacity, while all passengers must show negative tests before joining the cruise.

Their presence in Venice is proving no less controversial than it was before the pandemic, with two demonstrations planned for Saturday – one in support of the cruise ship, one against.

Environmental protesters have long warned that the large waves caused by the cruise ships are eroding the foundations of the buildings in Venice, which with its lagoon are designated a UNESCO heritage site.

Many of the city’s residents are also concerned that cruise ships are major contributors to the usual problem with overcrowding in the historic lagoon city, while complaining that passengers spend little during their short visits.

Celebrities and cultural figures including Mick Jagger, Francis Ford Coppola and Richard Armstrong, director of the New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, this week called for an end to the passage of large ships through the lagoon.

The MSC Orchestra cruise ship sails past St. Mark’s Square and the Doge’s palace as it arrives on June 3rd, 2021 in Venice, Italy, to dock at the city’s MSC terminal. Photo: ANDREA PATTARO / AFP

In an open letter to the Italian government calling for a range of measures to better protect the city, they warned the historic site risked being “swept away” by the ships.

Compiled by the Venetian Heritage Foundation, the letter also urged an end to mass tourism that “wears it out”.

The liners have not sailed from Venice since cruises were first blocked last spring, even as they resumed briefly over the summer. Both of Italy’s biggest lines, Costa and MSC Cruises, redirected their ships to bigger ports near Trieste, Genova and Rome instead. 

The MSC Orchestra’s arrival comes two years and a day after the MSC Opera struck a dock and a tourist river boat in the city.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Published: 23 August 2023 11:36 CEST
Updated: 26 August 2023 18:32 CEST
Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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