VENICE is the first urban theme park. Like any other theme park, it is full of
attractions, but impractical for everyday living. Since it has about 70,000
residents and 19 million visitors a year, most of the people you find in
Venice at any time are tourists.
The ratio of tourists to residents will rise inexorably. Economic growth will
add millions to the numbers of potential visitors, while the fall in numbers
of permanent residents, who face high prices for accommodation and low
availability of groceries and hairdressers, will continue.
The economic logic that leads people to visit Venice for their honeymoon but
not to discuss their pension plan will forever dictate the structure of
Venice's economy.
With its tourist majority, Venice should be managed as a tourist city, not a
municipality, rather as a national park is managed as a tourist area rather
than a rural parish. Aesthetes might be appalled by the comparison between
Venice and Disneyland, but Venice is as artificial as Disneyland. The city
ceased to be a significant commercial and political centre more than 200
years ago.
The successors of the Doges of Venice are the politicians of modern Italy, and
Venice today lacks the competent management that the Walt Disney Company
could provide. Without competent management, the race is on to see whether
the city sinks first under a sea of tourists or beneath the waves of the
Adriatic.
If tourists paid 50 euros (about £38), which is similar to the price of entry
to Disneyland, as an admission fee to Venice, the proceeds would fund the
barrier needed to protect it from the sea, finance urgently needed
conservation, and build better facilities to meet the needs of tourists
while preserving the character of the city.
The Walt Disney Company would ensure that Venice is preserved because it cares
about the value of its assets. Venice's politicians, who care about
re-election, oppose the barrier in favour of something better and less
costly, without being specific about what that is. Disney wants its guests
to have a good time because it cares whether they come back. Most residents
of Venice would rather that visitors didn't come back. Disney is fiercely
protective of its brand but nobody owns the brand that is Venice.
If the first thing visitors to Venice remember is the magnificence of the
setting, the second is the frequency with which they were ripped off. The
point of a ¤50 charge is not to make tourists pay through the nose: they
already do. It is ¤6.50 to board a vaporetto, overpriced tat flanks the
Rialto and the Accademia and the most expensive coffee in the world is
served to bad music on St Mark's Square. An admission charge would divert
the money that visitors already pay from the black hole of Italian politics
and the greedy merchants of Venice to the preservation and enhancement of
the - tourist - amenities of the city.
Bewildered Asian visitors wander around St Mark's Square, taking photographs
of each other and feeding the innumerable pigeons. As a tourist city, Venice
needs to serve its visitors better. Imagine a visitor centre that explains
the role Venice played in the development of Western civilisation and
(though not everyone will like it) in the development of Western capitalism
- a pioneer of globalisation. Imagine also a Venice off-season, closed to
day tourists, allowing those who most love the city to experience it as
Ruskin must have experienced it.
The problems of Venice are not problems of technology or finance, but problems
of politics, organisation and management. Historical accident has placed the
jewels of Western Europe's culture and civilisation in the hands of Western
Europe's most dysfunctional political system.
When Ulysses S.Grant created the first national park, he emphasised that
America's natural wonders belonged not just to the people who lived near by
but to the nation as a whole. The implication was that the nation had both
rights of access and responsibilities of management. Europe's manmade
wonders belong, not just to the people who live near them, but to the
inheritors of European civilisation, who have both rights of access and
responsibilities of management. Disney is not the best answer: but anything
would be better than the squabbles, corruption and delays of Italian
politics.
John Kay is the author of The Truth About Markets (Penguin, £10.99).
Beat the prices in Venice
Cultural temptation - in the shape of churches and museums - lies around every
corner in Venice, but the costs can quickly mount up.
A single trip along the Grand Canal by vaporetto costs an eye-watering €6.50
(£4.90), but this most Byzantine city offers money-saving passes for
most places. All prices listed are for adults, but there are often discounts
for full-time students and young people - often up to the age of 29.
Transport
Venice may be compact to walk around, but a vaporetto pass makes life easy and
provides access to Guidecca and the Lido. You're also allowed to carry one
medium-sized piece of luggage free of charge. The costs are: 12 hours, €14;
24 hours, €16; 36 hours, €21; 48 hours, €26; 72 hours, €31 (www.actv.it).
Civic Museum pass
This gives you admission to the Doge's Palace, the Museo Correr, Clock Tower,
Ca' Rezzonico, Palazzo Mocenigo, Carlo Goldoni's House, Ca' Pesaro, Palazzo
Fortuny, Glass Museum (Murano), Museum of Natural History; €18, one entry to
each,valid for up to six months (www.museicivici
veneziani.it).
State Museum pass
Includes entry to the Accademia, the Ca' D'Oro and the Museo Orientale; €11 (www.gallerie
accademia.org).
Chorus pass
Admittance to the inner sanctums of some of Venice's most interesting
churches, including Santa Maria del Giglio, Santo Stefano and the
Tintoretto-stuffed Madonna dell'Orto; €9 euros, valid for a year (www.chorusvenezia.org).
Venicecard
Planning a lot of sightseeing? It's worth considering the Venicecard. There
are two versions, the Blu and the Orange. Both allow vaporetto travel and
two visits a day to the municipal lavatories, but the Blu card only offers
reductions on museum and church entry while the Orange gives free entry.
You'll gain admittance to all the museums in the Museum Pass, and the churches
in the Chorus Pass plus the Querini Stampalia Foundation and the Jewish
Museum as well as savings at various (usually tourist-orientated)
restaurants and entry to Venice's Casino.
There are extra savings to be made if you buy the pass online.
Blu Card costs: 12 hours, €18.50 (£14, €17.90 online); 48
hours, €33.90 (€32.90 online); seven days, €55.90 (€53.90 online).
Including transport to/from Marco Polo Airport: 12 hours, €41.50 (€40.90
online), 48 hours, €56.90 (€55.90 online), seven days, €78.90 (€76.90
online).
Orange Card costs: 12 hours, €29.90 (€29.50 online), 48 hours, €54.90 (€53.90
online), seven days, €81.90 (€79.90 online).
Including transport to/from Marco Polo Airport: 12 hours, €52.90 (€52.50
online), 48 hours, €77.90 (€76.90 online), seven days, €104.90 (€102.90
online). More information: www.venicecard.com.
Sarah Turner
Given the choice between a £4 single on the Tube and a £4.90 trip down the Grand Canal, I know which I'd choose! Come on, it's one of the most beautiful "journeys" in the world, particularly at night!
Helen, Paris,
My American daughter married a gondolier in 1996. They have 3 handsome sons. Yes, groceries and housing is expensive. I have visited them in Venice, at least 15 times . There is no other city in the world like Venice. It is beautiful. The nuns who teach at pre-school are especially kind. Priest, Father Don Giovanni, showed me the records room . I looked at church documents of births, weddings, and deaths... dating back to 1471. Venetians rarely move out of their neighborhood. If children do something wrong, concerned people will tell their parents & grandparents. Drug problems, car accidents, and gang acitivity in non-existant in Venice. and
Mary Ray, Bridgeport, USA Texas
Dear sir
John Kay usually writes good sense on political economy, and he is right about the appallingly dysfunctional governance of Venice. The Commune is both corrupt and craven - constantly giving in to the demands of big tourist companies. Why else would you allow monstrous ships to sail up the Giudecca Canal, full of tourists who spend virtually nothing and get their meals on board? I agree that there should be a tourist tax to help pay for the City's infrastructure.
But rule by the Walt Disney Corporation? No thanks. I'm sure I can think of something better. And by the way John, you obviously don't know Venice very well if you have trouble finding grocers and hairdressers.
yours sincerely
Martin Smith
Dr Martin Smith, London, UK
So absolutely spot on. Visited the 'place' with a girlfriend a few years back. Came home. Eveyone said, 'Wow that must've been romantic'. I said, 'Er no, it's totally artificial. Everyone there is a tourist. You feel like you're in the Truman show or something.' Still, a very nice, fake place.
Robbie Real, Hicksville,
Pure arrogance, shame on you Mr. Kay. A less superficial eye would notice that Venice is constantly improving, albeit slowly. Venice is still alive under the hordes of tourists, as you could have realized if you had made the acquaintance of any of its inhabitants. It's certainly more alive and soulful than most of the cities in the UK, which, in most cases, do not shine for their enlightened governance.
Andrea , London, UK