The city of Venice will ultimately not be placed on the list of endangered world cultural heritage, the World Heritage Committee in Riyadh decided on Thursday, contrary to the recommendations of UNESCO experts.
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“The World Heritage Committee – the governing body of the World Heritage Convention, consisting of 21 Member States representing the 195 States Parties to the Convention – has today taken the decision not to include Venice and its lagoon on the World Heritage List. Cultural heritage at risk,” UNESCO, whose headquarters are in Paris, stated in a press release.
“This decision takes into account UNESCO’s progress in recent days, in particular the establishment of a system to manage visitor flows from 2024,” a diplomat told AFP.
Although their case was discussed by UNESCO, the city of Venice decided on Tuesday in a very favorable manner to introduce a tax of five euros on a trial basis from 2024, which must be paid. Tourists who spend only one day in the city are exempt from doge. The main aim of this measure is to deter these day visitors who contribute to congesting a city known around the world for its works of art, its bridges and its canals.
In 2024, this tax, to be paid online, will only affect a maximum of thirty days, when the number of tourists is traditionally higher.
As soon as UNESCO announced that Venice had escaped the infamous classification, Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiulano was quick to hail “a victory for Italy and common sense.”
However, Venice is not finally out of the woods: “The Committee reiterated its concern about the significant challenges that still need to be overcome for the proper conservation of the site, particularly in the context of mass tourism, development projects and climatic disruptions.” It believes that further progress can be made must be achieved.
The committee also called on Italy to “invite an advisory mission from the World Heritage Center (…) and submit a report by February 1, 2024, so that the conservation status of the site can be re-examined during the 46th session of the Committee” in the summer of 2024 .
However, at the end of July, UNESCO recommended classifying Venice as “in danger,” a jewel threatened by too much tourism and global warming, because of “inadequate” measures taken in Italy to combat the site’s decline.
In order to contain the rush of millions of tourists to the crowded old town, Venice has been postponing the introduction of drastic measures for years, in particular the introduction of reservation requirements and entry quotas.
Unesco experts estimated that “further development (of Venice), the impacts of climate change and mass tourism” threaten to “irreversibly alter the exceptional universal value of property.”
Venice, an island city founded in the 5th century and becoming a major sea power in the 10th century, stretches across 118 islands. This extraordinary site was added to the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1987.
La Serenissima is one of the most visited cities in the world. At peak times, 100,000 tourists stay there, in addition to tens of thousands of day visitors. Compare the approximately 50,000 residents of the city center, which is becoming increasingly depopulated.