August 24th 2019, Venice. A cruise ship moored near Venice’s old town.
In Venice, in 2018 alone, the cruise ships polluted approximately like 820.000 cars (data: transportenvironment.org) and caused 2 major accidents.
With approximately 50,000 permanent residents and almost 30 million visitors per year, Venice arguably withstands the world’s highest tourist pressure for an urban space. Space saturation, environmental problems, lack of affordable housing and a generalized touristification of public spaces are some of the key issues (directly or indirectly) related to overtourism.