While some experts don’t feel Venice has done enough to reduce overtourism and the effects of climate change, the UNESCO panel voted to reject recommendations for listing the city as a “World Heritage in Danger.” For now, the popular Italian city remains a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

UNESCO votes against listing Venice as World Heritage in Danger

It was on Thursday this week that the UNESCO panel chose to vote against recommendations that Venice be listed as a World Heritage in Danger. However, many UNESCO experts feel Italy hasn’t done enough to protect the fragile city from mass tourism, climate change and new development.

While Venice scraped by without being added to the danger list, representatives from the World Heritage Convention some experts spoke up. They said in a statement that “further progress still needs to be made” to correctly preserve historic and fragile Venice.

The World Heritage Commission session on Thursday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia saw several delegates hosting a debate. They stated that Italy should host a new advisory mission in Venice in the coming months in order to monitor the efficacy of the measures taken by Italy so far and to make new suggestions.

‘Venice is not at risk’

In an Italian language post on X – the social media platform formerly known as Twitter – Mayor Luigi Brugnaro wrote:

Great victory at UNESCO!! Decision taken unanimously. Venice is not at risk. The commission’s misleading report was contradicted.

Brugnaro continued writing that the world has understood “all the work we have done to defend our city, some of the opposition in Venice still hasn’t!” adding:

A special thank you to Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano. Great friend of mine and of Venice.

Improvements made in the Italian city

It was in July 2023 that Italy was warned that Venice – a World Heritage Site since 1987 – was considered for the “in danger” list, despite the fact that the city has made significant improvements in its efforts.

Last year, Venice banned large cruise ships from entering its Lagoon, while massive barriers were erected at the mouth of the lagoon to stop high tides flooding the city. Since then, the city’s officials have started tracking tourists via their cell phone data to monitor their movements. On top of this, a new fee is being introduced for day trippers to Venice.

The city’s authorities confirmed that from next year, day trippers will pay 5 euros to enter the city when it is particularly crowded. It is hoped that this will curb some of the millions of visitors to the city each year, including 5 million so far in 2023. However, travelers staying overnight will not be affected.

Meanwhile, despite the efforts made, UNESCO experts are closely monitoring the city and believe that Italy and local authorities have not done enough. The problem for Venice is that once a heritage site is added to the danger list, it can lose its World Heritage status.

As reported by the New York Times, some citizen groups were hoping the city would be listed as endangered. A petition posted on Change.org saw almost 5,000 signatures addressed to the UNESCO General Director, Audrey Azoulay, asking that Venice be placed on the list due to the problems of overtourism.

The petition reads: “The out-of-control tourism machine makes big financial gains for few, against the common good and those who want to live in the city.”

European cities fighting overtourism

Residents of Venice are not alone, as similar complaints over the effects of overtourism have been made in Amsterdam. The Netherlands city released video ads showing how drunken young British tourists will be treated in the future. Meanwhile, Amsterdam is also taking measures to ban large cruise ships from its port.

Meanwhile, the city of Barcelona in Spain saw popular tourist areas daubed with graffiti, telling tourists to go home. Some signs warned tourists by writing, “We spit in your beer.” In Santiago de Compostela, officials are introducing tourist taxes to fight overtourism, while Athens in Greece is also taking measures to control the crowds.