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Italy Bans Cruise Ships From Historic Venice, Should Malta Consider Something Similar?

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Italy has officially banned cruise ships from entering the Venice lagoon. By all accounts, it appears that years of campaigning and warning of the dangers cruise ships offered to Venice have been heard.

As of 1st August 2021, vessels weighing more than 25,000 tonnes are barred from entering the lagoon. Cruise ships typically weigh around four times this much at least.

The weight limit means that only small ferry boats and freight vessels will be able to enter and dock in Venice’s historic centre.

Malta is a popular cruise destination and as such, the role cruise ships should play within the country is bound to crop up sooner or later.

Cruise ships are extremely detrimental to the environment overall but also to the locations they dock in. Places popular with cruise liners tend to suffer greatly from overcrowding and over-tourism.

While they bring benefits of foot traffic to a destination and thus, offer a great boost to the tourism industry, the damage that it makes is undeniable.

Thousands of people descending down upon a single location at once can cause detrimental effects to historical sites unable to cope with the inundated activity. There is also always the possibility of tourists becoming rowdy and causing trouble.

Most importantly, however, over-tourism can drive local businesses catering to locals and higher quality goods can go out of business to support souvenir shops and stalls that cater to tourists and make the destination even more reliant on visitors.

As seen in Venice as well, it can also force residents to move away from the area as cost-of-living prices skyrocket – especially when trying to buy or rent a house.

One can also not deny the fact that situations like a pandemic can completely freeze and cripple areas that are completely reliant on tourism and cruise liners.

Italy’s swift action to permanently ban cruise ships from docking in Venice comes after UNESCO threatened to place Venice on their endangered list if cruise ships continued to dock in the city.

Due to this, all ships will be diverted to the industrial port of Maghera – yet only once it has been repurposed for passenger use.

A call for bids for the construction of a terminal equipped to take ships that weigh more than 40,000 tonnes was published at the end of June.

Given that Malta is a popular tourist destination and is also a very popular destination for tourism, the conversation about the role cruise ships should play in being able to dock and disembark in Malta is a relevant one.

It is estimated that each passenger ship that comes to Grand Harbour spends around eight hours moored, which is thought to release as many as 300,000 cars driving at once from Ċirkewwa to Marsaxlokk in emissions.

The Grand Harbour Clean Air Project that was announced earlier this year already addresses the environmental impact that cruise ships are having. It will aim to cut the air pollution emitted by cruise ships and Ro-Ro ships stopping in Grand Harbour by 90%.

Throughout the first phase of the project, the five main wharves that passenger ships use (Pinto Wharf in Floriana, Deep Water Quay in Marsa and Boiler Wharf in Senglea) will be equipped with the cold ironing and shoreside electricity system.

This will allow ships to immediately turn off their engines and connect to the electrical system the moment they have arrived in the harbour.

Even if it is not a question about how many tourists enter the country, one can also consider what type of tourists people want coming to their country as well. Whether you want everyone or only a select type of tourist in your country is crucial to consider.

Whether we want to divert cruise ships towards something like a repurposed area of the freeport or outright ban cruise ships from entering the country at all – a discussion on the topic may prove interesting when considering Malta’s tourism strategy for the future.

Do you think Malta should have measures for cruise ships?

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An avid lover of food, music, film and gaming with a staunch belief in a greener future.

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