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Cruise ships visiting Venice are to be diverted away from the city’s lagoon and historic sites a meeting of Italy’s Government ministers and local officials agreed on 5 November.
The special commission group – chaired by Italy's Premier Enrico Letta – has committed to finding an alternative cruise terminal site to avoid cruise ships passing along the central Giudecca canal and entering St Mark’s Basin. The new facility is expected to be in the industrial area of Marghera. It was also agreed that a new access road to the Maritime Station will be built, with a number of routes being considered. The project is to be completed by 2016, Letta said in a written statement.
To tackle the volume of canal traffic in the meantime, cruise ships greater than 96,000 gt will be unable to pass along Giudecca Canal from 1 November, while the numbers of those more than 40,000 tons will be reduced by 20% from 1 January 2014. In addition, no more than five cruise ships of 40,000 tons or more will be able to dock at one time, while arrivals and departures are to be limited to sunrise and sunset. Further, ferries will be forbidden from passing through the Guidecca Canal, which will mean 25% reduction in traffic in front of St Mark's.
According to figures from the Venice Passenger Terminal, 89 ships from 42 cruise lines made 661 calls, carrying around 1.8 million guests, made 661 calls to the city in 2012.