Tag Archives: Venice

Cruise lines working with authorities over Venice lagoon debate

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Cruise lines working with authorities over Venice lagoon debate

By Hollie-Rae Merrick

Cruise lines working with authorities over Venice lagoon debateCruise lines are working with Italian authorities to look at the option of moving the port in Venice to another part of the canal after concerns over the ships’ impact on the city.

Speaking at a Clia press conference earlier today, Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of MSC Cruises, said the industry was working with officials to find a solution and was looking at different canals to establish which would be the best alternative.

His comments came just days after protesters delayed a procession of cruise ships for over an hour by leaping into Venice’s Guidecca canal. The demonstrators believe the cruise ships are threatening the city’s foundations and want the port moved to an island away from the city.

Vago said the issue was “deeply emotional” for some Venetians, however the majority support the cruise lines calling at the destination.

He said there was no environmental impact on Venice by the vessels as cruise lines had already agreed to have a low sulphur admission on entering the city.

Vago said lines and authorities were looking at the ecosystems in the waters surrounding Venice to establish whether there was an alternative and appropriate route.

He added: “We (the cruise industry) are important to the city of Venice, everybody understands that.

“One shop out of six lives because of the cruise industry, 33% of the hotel industry lives because of the cruise industry. It is an emotional impact.”

Howard Frank, Carnival Corporation’s vice chairman and chief operating officer said he agreed that the issue was not a environmental one.

He said the industry needed to do a better job in getting the message out about how environmentally friendly cruise ships had become.

Cruise ships could be barred from central Venice

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Cruise ships could be barred from central Venice

By Phil Davies

Cruise ships could be barred from central Venice
Image via Shutterstock
Cruise ships face the threat of being banned from Venice following a crackdown on water traffic after the death of a German tourist two weeks ago.The new proposals have been suggested by Italy’s environment minister Andrea Orlando.

He told the Italian daily Il Gazettino: “There will always be a margin of risk and even that margin is too high a risk.

“The problem is not just the presence of large ships in St Marks basin but in general the presence of ships in the lagoon.”

He expected a “concrete response that could be translated into immediate action”, as the problem is getting worse all the time, he said.

“The number of cruise ships passing in front of St Marks’s Cathedral has grown by seven per cent this year alone.”

Orlando said he would put the proposals in front of cross party parliamentary committee next month, according to the Daily Mail.

His comments follow the death of Joachim Vogel, 50, a professor of criminal law, who was crushed against a dock by a reversing water bus as he took a tour with his family by gondola near the Rialto Bridge.

The mayor of Venice reportedly wants to see cruise ships dock at Porto Marghera. Other suggestions have included a floating off-shore port.

Alternative solutions would see the number of cruise ships allowed to enter the lagoon severely limited, or the dredging of a new approach to the main cruise passenger terminal but avoiding the channel which passes St Marks Square.

The proposals would essentially put in action emergency legislation drafted after the Costa Concordia tragedy that would prevent ships of more than 500 tonnes coming within two nautical miles of landscapes of value such as the Venice lagoon or fragile environments such as the marine sanctuary between Sardinia and north-east Italy, the newspaper reported.

The Venice ‘squeeze’ that wasn’t

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The Venice ‘squeeze’ that wasn’t

By Tom Stieghorst

*InsightReturning from Italy after a week on the Carnival Sunshine, a group of us were waiting in an airport lounge when suddenly what should pop up on the television monitors but the Carnival Sunshine.
It was some kind of news story. But none of us understood Italian, so it wasn’t until I got back to the U.S. that I caught up to the tale.

An Italian newspaper had reported that the Carnival Sunshine, on its way through the Giudecca Canal in Venice, had passed within 20 meters of the shoreline, squeezing a vaporetto water taxi in the process.*TomStieghorst

The story was based on comments from a Venetian environmental minister who said witnesses reported the incident to him. He was quoted as wondering about the reason for this “sail by,” inferring both that there was some sort of salute to Carnival Corp. Chairman Micky Arison, whose yacht was docked nearby, and some similarity to the tragic circumstances of the Costa Concordia sinking, which was caused by an unapproved sail-by of the Italian island of Giglio.

It isn’t often one is in the position to know first-hand about a story halfway around the world. And yet in this case I was on the Carnival Sunshine as it arrived in Venice.

Moreover, I was watching from the starboard side, where the squeeze allegedly took place. I can say there was no deviation from a straight course, no audible warning from anyone on the water and no comment from any of the scores of passengers on deck that something was amiss.

Carnival said the ship passed no closer to shore than 70 meters at the point of dispute. The cruise line said the local harbor pilot and the Italian Coast Guard confirmed that, as did the ship’s voyage data recorder.

So why the uproar?

Carnival and other cruise lines have been targets of a campaign to stop ships from sailing past St. Mark’s Square on their way into Venice. Posters and banners supporting No Grandi Navi (no big ships) aren’t to be found everywhere in Venice, but they’re not hard to find either.

Inevitably, the story alleging a close brush with shore got shoehorned into that narrative: that cruise ships are dangerously big and cruise lines are not to be trusted.

And, of course, the shadow of Concordia still hangs over all things cruise in Italy.

There might or might not be sound reasons to reroute cruise ships from the Giudecca Canal. But hopefully any decision will be based on the merits and facts, not on allegations about something that was really nothing.