The Venice report

The chapters of the Venice Report, commissioned by Venice in Peril in collaboration with the Department of Architecture of Cambridge University, reveal that things are changing fast in Venice. In 1951, around 1.1 million tourists a year visited the city; in 2007 it was 16.5 million. In seven years the number of B & B has gone up by 1008 per cent; the number of cruise ships sailing through the St Mark's Basin has risen from 200 in 2007 to 510 in 2008 and is still rising; mega-advertisements deface the facade of the Doge's Palace. While visitor numbers swell, however, the officially resident population has dwindled to a third of what it was 60 years ago, now standing at only is 60,000. Where is this all leading? How many tourists can fit into Venice, comfortably, crowdedly, disagreeably? What effect has economic liberalization had on the city? Who holds the power over Venice's future? And, in the current crisis, will central government be able to continue subsidizing the essential maintenance work at the same rate as in the past?