Merchants of Venice (English Subtitled Version)

 

Venice, a city of 60,000 residents, receives about 30 million visitors a year. Many are grab-and-go day-trippers from the mega-cruise ships that dock in the Lagoon. In addition, it’s estimated that the total number of guest quarters in Venice’s historic center could reach 50,000 and take it over entirely. 

Tourists sprawled over sidewalks, garbage piled up in the streets, and thousands-strong lines to enter museums. Overtourism feels a long time ago now, but the after effects are still being felt in Italian cities, where locals have been squeezed out by Airbnbs, businesses have been drowned out by souvenir shops, and whole economies have been hijacked by tourism, and then hung out to dry.

But while destinations flex their marketing budgets for post-pandemic trips, and countries and continents start to put together vaccine passport plans, two of Europe's cities that were hardest hit by overtourism have put together a manifesto for the tourism of the future.

Florence and Venice's joint "Decalogo" -- literally a list of Ten Commandments -- has been sent to the Italian government. It outlines 10 things the authorities of the two cities want to see happen as thoughts turn towards the return of travel.

An explosion of tourist activities forced many of the traditional shopkeepers and artisans of Venice out of their homes, workshops and retail spaces.  Rents have become unaffordable. 

Here's the film trailer:

MERCHANTS OF VENICE_TRAILER_1080_EN.MP4 from sarasotafringefilms on Vimeo.

Each year, some 1,000 residents abandon the city for the mainland, also exiled due to astronomical rents or the lack of refuge from tourism. “If the population falls below 40,000, Venice will not be a viable, living city any longer,” warned Jonathan Keates, chairman of the organization "Venice in Peril."

“Merchants of Venice” takes us into the lives and livelihoods a traditional bookseller, a leatherworker, and a souvenier seller. The irony is that the tourist trade has destroyed their business and way of life. 

The concerns of the inhabitants used to be focused on the rising seas that threaten to city…but it looks as if tourists will be there first to sink the city.

Streaming now on KANOPY

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