The lagoon city has appealed to these destinations to unite in working toward the enforcement of new rules that would require cruise lines to adapt their ships to reduce the potential for injury to people as well as environmental impact, port authorities said on Thursday.
The rallying cry follows two incidents involving cruise ships in Venice.
The MSC Opera suffered a mechanical issue before crashing into a luxury riverboat and a dock in Venice in early June, injuring at least four people, while video surfaced last month of the Costa Deliziosa narrowly missing a yacht and the dock while being towed by a tugboat during a storm.
Venice, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is slowly sinking, and cruise ships are being blamed for eroding the floating city’s foundations.
“I have written to all European cities that share our experience with cruise tourism, and that find themselves having to balance economic development with environmental sustainability,” Pino Musolino, chairman of the northern Adriatic Sea port authority, said in statement.
“The growing size of vessels, their environmental impacts on the areas surrounding the ports and the ‘burden’ that the increasing number of tourists... are creating a situation of conflict,” he said in a letter addressed to eight fellow port authorities.
The northern Adriatic Sea port authority in Venice said it had already received a positive response to its appeal from Barcelona, Palma and Marseille.
About 30 million people are expected to go on a cruise somewhere in the world this year, up nearly 70 per cent from a decade ago, according to the Cruise Lines International Association.
