Ava Sherman, TOUR-3210
October 31, 2025

Introduction

Venice is one of the world’s most distinct and captivating historical cities. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the city was founded in the 5th Century AD and is situated upon 118 small islands in the Venetian Lagoon, connected by a visually striking network of canals and bridges (UNESCO, n.d.). Visitors have long been drawn to its unique architecture and artistic heritage, but Venice’s modern-day popularity has made it one of the most prominent cases of overtourism (Bertocchi & Visentin, 2019).

This case study examines the impacts of tourism in Venice, exploring how the dominance of this industry has shaped the city’s economic, political, environmental, and sociocultural contexts. Using this analysis, the ethical implications and practical effectiveness of Venice’s tourism management are evaluated.

The goal of this report is to understand how Venice can address the tension between economic prosperity, heritage conservation, and community wellbeing. It concludes with strategic recommendations for establishing a more sustainable tourism industry and promoting resident wellbeing.

Background and Context

Venice was one of the most dominant maritime trade powers of the Middle Ages, its port serving as a commercial and cultural hub connecting Europe and the East (Cosgrove & Foot, 2025). The city’s wealth allowed the arts to flourish during the renaissance, producing world-renowned artists and architecture, and influencing art throughout Europe (UNESCO, n.d.).

Venice’s historical and artistic significance has attracted visitors for hundreds of years. By the 18th century, it had become a prominent stop for elite young men on the European Grand Tour (Royal Museums Greenwich, n.d.), marking the rise of tourism’s prominence in its economy as luxury hospitality businesses emerged (Cosgrove & Foot, 2025). With later travel advancements, Venice was transformed from an elite destination to one of the world’s most popular cities for tourism (Choi et al., 2024).

Today, Venice faces tension between its popularity and its vulnerability. Built on fragile infrastructure and reliant on its cultural assets, the city must balance the conservation of its heritage with the mass tourism it attracts (Borgato, 2022). Venice’s position on the lagoon means that rising water levels often threaten its cultural and environmental resources, a problem exacerbated by increased human activity (UNESCO, n.d.). Additionally, limited space for expansion has preserved its historic integrity but restricts its capacity to sustainably accommodate the vast number of visitors (Cosgrove & Foot, 2025). The conflict of balancing historic preservation, local life, and an economy reliant on tourism, all within the context of a dense island city, make Venice a prominent case for studying sustainable and ethical tourism.

Figure 1: Map of Venetian Lagoon and location in Italy

Tourism in Venice has grown dramatically in modern years, and the city is commonly considered a prime example of “overtourism” (Kryczka, 2019). In the 2010s, annual overnight tourist arrivals increased from 3.7 million in 2010 to over 5.5 million in 2019 (Sistema Statistico Regionale, n.d.). The Covid-19 pandemic drastically reduced tourist arrivals to 1.2 million (Choi et al., 2024), but the industry has since rebounded to over 5.8 million in 2024 (Città di Venezia, n.d.).

As tourism has expanded, the population in the city’s historic center has decreased by over 70% from its peak in 1951 (Città di Venezia, n.d.). Growing local frustration has fueled organized social movements against overtourism and its impacts on the city’s culture, community, and environment (Bertocchi & Visentin, 2019), and this discourse heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic gave Venice a moment to recover from mass tourism, but immense economic losses highlighted the vulnerability of its tourism-reliant economy and the necessity of more sustainable practices (Choi et al., 2024).

Post-pandemic, some notable shifts include addressing cruise tourism, which has long been controversial in Venice due to environmental and infrastructural impacts (Choi et al., 2024). In 2021, large cruise ships over 25,000 gross tons were banned from entering Venice’s Giudecca Canal and accessing the historic centre (Spencer, 2025). Other recent measures to counter overtourism include restrictions on large groups and an access fee for the historic centre (Choi et al., 2024).

Tourism Impacts

Tourism exerts significant impact on Venice’s economic, political, environmental, and sociocultural systems, and the following subsections analyze these impacts.

Economic

Christiano & Gonella (2020) describe Venice as a tourism monoculture, as much of its economy is reliant on tourism. They explain that tourism and hospitality businesses account for many jobs, and the economic impact of tourism spreads to other sectors such as transportation and retail. Because tourism is the main source of revenue for the city, Venice’s economy is vulnerable to crises (Christiano & Gonella, 2020). For example, flooding due to high tides in 2019 resulted in travel cancellations, and COVID-19 travel restrictions brought the city to a halt with, causing significant job and revenue losses and highlighting the need for a more diversified economy (Cristiano & Gonella, 2020).

Mass tourism has also been associated with reduced affordability for Venice’s residents, contributing to a depopulation trend in the historic centre (Choi et al., 2024). Demand for tourism accommodation has inflated rent and property prices as more hotels are built and homes converted to short-term rentals like Airbnb (Choi et al., 2024).
Tourism revenues may also be disproportionately distributed, as local businesses and artisans are replaced by externally owned tourist-oriented shops carrying cheap, mass-produced products (Ianniello & Cánoves, 2022). High numbers of day trippers, such as cruise passengers, tend to spend little money in the city while placing added pressure on the city’s infrastructure (Bolen, n.d.), for which maintenance requires significant financial resources (Choi et al., 2024).

Political

Venice’s popularity as a tourism destination offers it increased global visibility and influence, but as a symbol of overtourism the city also faces criticism from international communities (Cristiano & Gonella, 2020). Failure to manage the impact of overtourism has led to Venice being considered for UNESCO’s ‘World Heritage in Danger’ list on multiple occasions (Choi et al., 2024).

Locally, overtourism has sparked anti-tourism social movements against the prioritization of tourism industry over the needs of residents, the city, and its environment (Bertocchi & Visentin, 2019). These concerns are often contrasted by those who rely heavily on tourism for their livelihood, and these conflicting views create escalating local tension (Bertocchi & Visentin, 2019).

Environmental

Tourism in Venice poses considerable threats to the lagoon’s delicate ecosystem (UNESCO, n.d.). The impact of tourism on the lagoon was made clear during the COVID-19 lockdown, as erosion slowed in the absence of human activity and cruise ships (Choi et al., 2024). Cruise ships have been one of the most controversial elements of Venetian tourism, criticized for air and water pollution as well as significant water displacement which erodes and disrupts the lagoon’s ecosystem (Choi et al., 2024). Although large ships have been banned from the main canal, pollution from smaller motorized vessels remains an issue. According to a 2022 study by Boaga & Boschi, the many smaller motorboats used on Venetian canals contribute extensive underwater noise, disturbing the lagoon’s marine life. Beyond this, the immense volume of tourists frequenting the city on land generates substantial waste, straining the city’s waste management abilities (Venice Travel Tips, 2025).

Sociocultural

Tourism has profoundly shaped Venice’s social and cultural landscapes. One benefit is that the city’s tourist tax is set to fund public service improvements, though the lasting impact of this is yet to be seen (Bonetto & Brady, 2025). Tourism also creates appreciation for the city’s historic art and architecture and can support local art and preservation initiatives (Morelli, n.d.). That said, overtourism has also caused negative transformations. Authentic, locally owned businesses have been increasingly replaced by souvenir shops, fast-food restaurants, and tourist accommodations (Ianniello & Cánoves, 2022). As a result, the cultural identify of Venice has become commodified, transforming it into mass-produced spectacle for consumption (Ianniello & Cánoves, 2022).

Tourist behaviour can also clash with local norms, made evident by recent campaigns encouraging tourists to respect the city and refrain from acts such as wearing swimwear in the
streets or stopping to sit and eat around monuments, churches, and other landmarks (Kryczka, 2019). Overcrowding, reduced resident-oriented shops and services, limited jobs outside of the tourism sector, and increased cost of living in the city, have contributed to reduced liveability and residential depopulation (Bertocchi & Visentin 2019).

Government Sustainability Practices

In recent years, Venice has introduced several measures and incentives to promote sustainable tourism. As mentioned previously, large cruise ships were banned from the Giudecca Canal in 2021 (Spencer, 2025). In 2024, an access fee applied to day-trippers during peak periods was introduced to reduce overcrowding, encourage longer stays that benefit the local economy, and fund city services and infrastructure improvements (Roy, 2025). This fee uses QR codes that integrate with a tracking system, which is used to monitor visitor flows and manage congestion (Bonetto & Brady, 2025). Additionally, groups over 25 people and the use of loudspeakers were recently banned to further alleviate congestion (Choi et al., 2024).

These measures signal awareness of the need for sustainable visitor management, but their practical impact is limited. Visitation in 2024 remained high and residents have argued that the fee doesn’t address the deeper issues like short-term rentals and inflation (Giuffrida, 2024). The large group ban is difficult to police, as larger tours simply divide into two smaller groups (Giuffrida, 2024). Although cruise ship restrictions may help curb some of the environmental impacts, many tourists still arrive as cruises dock at nearby ports and transport passengers to Venice via coach (Choi et al., 2024). Ultimately, these measures target the symptoms of overtourism on a surface-level without addressing major issues such as economic dependence and tourism gentrification.

Ethical Considerations

The situation of tourism in Venice poses ethical questions about the balance of conservation, economic gain, and resident’s rights. Overtourism has contributed to depopulation because of rising costs, housing shortages, and erosion of authentic venetian culture (Choi et al., 2024). This calls into question the extent to which it is acceptable for tourism and its economic benefits to be prioritized over local wellbeing. From a utilitarian standpoint, in which the “right” course of action is based on that which provides the greatest happiness to the most people (Fennell, 2018), it could be argued that the economic benefits and happiness of travellers would outweigh the happiness of the small resident population. However, this doesn’t necessarily account for long-term happiness of residents vs. short-term satisfaction of visitors. Looking from a care-based ethical framework, the government has a duty of care to give preference to the needs of the local population and environments that depend on it.

Recommendations

Overtourism not only has immense impacts on the local community but also decreases the experience quality for tourists expecting authentic venetian culture (Choi et al., 2024). As access fees have had little effect on visitor numbers, other methods of reducing the number of daily visitors, such as dispersion, visitor caps, or restrictions on external tours entering the city, should be pursued. Furthermore, the growth of tourism accommodations, which occur at the expense of residents, should be halted, with restrictions particularly on short-term vacation rentals.

Despite the issues of Venice’s tourism situation being clear, the city could face significant barriers in implementing change. Being so reliant on tourism, degrowth without diversification of other industries could have a large economic impact. Many people rely on the industry for work,
and reducing tourism could result in both job losses and community tension between those who rely on the industry and those who want a more liveable city. To overcome this, the city should prioritize promoting local businesses and employment over external chains.

Conclusion

The case of Venice demonstrates the ways that unchecked tourism growth can disrupt the complex economic, political, environmental, and sociocultural systems of a destination, especially in the context of fragile heritage cities. Tourism supports the city’s economy and the preservation of its rich heritage, but the research also shows clear evidence of environmental degradation, loss of cultural authenticity, and a widening imbalance between economic benefit and human well-being. While recent government initiatives to mitigate the negative impacts of tourism show awareness and a step in the right direction, further time and investigation is needed to evaluate their long-term effectiveness at improving resident quality of life, environmental protection, and tourism patterns. Ultimately, Venice’s tourism dilemma shows that sustainability is needed to ensure long-term prosperity and offers both a warning and an opportunity to learn how historic cities can better cope with the pressures of global tourism.

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