[mschuster91]

> The Venetian lagoon is now off limits for cruise ships. But that's because it has sustained a lot of damage over the years.

The problem with Venice is more that the cruise ships bring in large amounts of "day tourists" - they come in in the morning, eat some overpriced pizza and pasta, buy overpriced Chinese-made "authentic" souvenirs, and leave in the evening, not contributing much to the local economy.

[omnimus]

How is that not contributing much to the local economy?

[mschuster91]

Because the income is spread to a very few people - those lucky enough to own a pizza or coffee store along popular tourist routes. Everyone else doesn't profit at all from the tourists or makes only pittances.

That is not enough to sustain a healthy city, which led to most of Venice being left for grabs for AirBnBs - good luck finding regular Venetians actually living in their city.

[carlosjobim]

Responsible tourists not only buy food and souvenirs and tours, they also hire carpenters and assistant key account managers, as well as purchase sheet metal, plastic pylons and diesel engines to support local jobs.

[omnimus]

Saying that only very few people profit from the tourists is like saying only very few people profit from the factory behind the city. You are totally right that only few people profit but this is the case with everything unfortunately.

[etrautmann]

Hasn’t the entire city of Venice been anlmost exclusively funded by and setup for tourism for hundreds of years?

[Cheer2171]

Day tourism is far less beneficial to locals than overnight tourism.

[omnimus]

Not hundreds but it is for sure right now. It has been for decades.

[Thorrez]

I don't see how "day tourists" are different from other types of tourists.

[mschuster91]

Other types of tourists spend much more time in the city, they sleep in hotels, they also visit more than just the Piazza San Marco (and thus, distribute traffic flow much more evenly).

[jillesvangurp]

Which is why they started charging money to enter the city.

[Cthulhu_]

Everything you mentioned is a contribution to the local economy, though?

Tourism is €215 billion of Italy's income, about 1/10th of its GDP. Rich tourists coming off cruise ships doing impulse buys at huge profit margins sounds like a good thing to me, from a purely capitalist perspective.

[m000]

It is the "local economy" only if you believe in trickle-down economics.

The area of visited by cruise ship tourists is typically a very small fraction of the port city. Worse, the establishments in that area only account for a small fraction of the overall local employment, and are owned by a handful of families or (worse) funds/corporations.

So money does flow, but not really to the local economy, apart from a number of low-paid service jobs.

You also appear to have a very outdated view of cruise ship tourism. What "rich tourists"? These days it is the less well-off that go on cruises, even choosing to cruise through their retirement as the cheaper option [1]. Nobody is going to make expensive purchases as they have already visited half a dozen ports before their current stop and have another half a dozen to go.

[1] https://globalnews.ca/news/10004079/retired-couple-51-consec...

[Ekaros]

Problem is that it doesn't actually work that way. The boat tourist don't spend too much, or comparatively spend lot less than those that visit cities in other ways. The infra to support the ships cost money, and then usually any activities are run by ship owners. Plus full board is standard so many prefer to eat there and also sleep.

It is much more efficient to focus on tourists that live in hotels, buy every meal from local restaurants or at least shops. Have actual time to spend in more than main attractions as such diffuse over larger area. And well have more time for shopping or do it at local airport.

[newaccount74]

Wait until they hear about people travelling in camper vans that cook their own meals and just park by the roadside for sleeping! Or even worse, bicycle tourists who bivouac by the river, they don't even buy gas!

[leoedin]

Camper vans are already a big problem for some rural areas. And they don’t tend to contribute much to the local economy. You phrased it like that was a gotcha, but it’s not really. Camper-vans and cruises are both high-impact low benefit forms of tourism.

I wouldn’t put bike tourists in that group - because they are incredibly low impact in comparison, and in my experience most bike tourists are spending money as they go - either on accommodation or food.

[nkrisc]

How many camper cans and bike tourists descend on Venice every day?

Sure, camper and bike tourists probably don’t contribute much to local economies, but they also have negligible negative impacts, so what’s your point?