Cruise lines planning changes after Venice announces ban on large ships

A year from now, landlubber vacationers to Venice's historic center—a longstanding mainstay on the well-trodden Southern Europe cruise circuit—will be spared the company of colossal ships looming in the lagoon. A new government policy limiting large ships is a victory for local residents and conservation activists who have protested the potential risks and environmental impacts of the cruise industry’s fast-increasing presence in a city known for the fragility of its urban infrastructure and marine setting.

As one of the region's leading cruise ports, Venice reportedly sees as many as nine cruise ship calls per day during peak season; the new regulations would permit no more than five ships to be berthed there at any given time and limit their passage to sunrise and sunset.

The new regulations will also reduce cruise ship traffic in sections of the Venice lagoon between the mainland and Giudecca island by 20 percent from 2012 levels come January (for vessels larger than 40,000 tons), with the largest vessels (those more than 96,000 tons) set to be banned entirely by November of next year. Current regulations allow even the largest ships to pass within 1,000 feet of the city's iconic St. Mark's Square.

The announcement came on Tuesday, after Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta met with national ministers and local politicians in Venice to discuss the plans. Venice's mayor, Giorgio Orsoni, later said in a statement, "We've had enough of these mega cruise ships just meters away from San Marco, from now on there will be clear limits on the size of ships that can enter Venice."

The initiatives will affect several major cruise lines, although no immediate changes are expected. While its 2014 itineraries highlighting Venice will not be changed, MSC Cruises said in a statement that for its 2015 routes, "sustainable long-term solutions are still being evaluated and will be communicated shortly."

Likewise, Celebrity Cruises is "reviewing our deployments for 2013 and 2014 to ensure we comply with the new regulation in Venice," but "expect to continue with our scheduled port calls to Venice for our 2013 and 2014 itineraries."

The cruise industry points to ships’ positive effects — including the economic benefits they bring to Venice as well as the experiences they give travelers — and says its members also want historic Venice preserved. The Cruise Lines International Association stated that the industry group "sees the outcome of the meeting as a positive ongoing commitment by representatives of the Italian institutions which attended to finding a sustainable and long-term solution for the city. This goal is shared by the cruise industry."

While the existing cruise passenger terminal will be preserved, larger cruise ships will be granted access via an alternative channel that will be developed to divert such vessels away from the historic center; the project is estimated to take two years to complete.

A spokesman for an area protest group told Italian media that the developments were "a first victory for our movement" but cautioned that the environmental impacts of the new canal project would be "devastating," indicating that the activists' campaigns will continue.

Venice has long battled the flooding and deterioration of historic structures that concern preservationists. The World Monuments Fund, for example, added Venice to its 2014 World Monuments Watch list calling attention to at-risk cultural heritage sites. The organization blames Venice’s peril partly on the impact of massive cruise ships. “The large cruise ships have had direct and indirect impacts on flooding, because of dredging requirements and the movement of large ships through the Giudecca Canal. The influx of visitors debarking in fragile historic areas has likewise affected the quality of life for residents,” its Venice report states.

In September, about 50 protesters jumped into the lagoon to temporarily block cruise ships’ passage and draw attention to the lack of an enforceable plan. That followed an earlier protest in June.

Concerns with potential risks imposed by behemoth boats sailing too close to Italy’s shorelines increased after 2012's Costa Concordia disaster, which saw the fatal capsizing of a 114,500-ton ship that ran aground on the Tuscan island of Giglio, claiming 32 lives.