The impact of tourism on the environment in the northern Adriatic focused on
the seaside resorts of the Veneto region
handed in as Projectwork for BTEC HND in Business and Finance at New College
Durham within the European Travel and Tourism Management Course
Ottmar B. Morett
Many people were helping to realise this project,
not all of them can be named here, not only as I
haven't got their names, special thanks should
however go to Giorgio Godeas of Assocamp Cavallino
for contributing ideas and helping with contacts and
the team around Cesare Battisti at the Azienda
Promozione Turistica di Venezia for supplying data of
tourist flows. Also special thanks should go to Mr.
Fontanot of ENEL and the public relations team at AMAV
for providing me with complementary data and not at
last Maurizio Magnani of Marco Polo for taking me
into Venice on several occasions and pointing out
special problems in the lagoon of Venice.
Introduction into the problem
Tourism and the environment have a very complex and interdependent relationship. Tourism is one of the
largest industries in today's world economy and is a great source of foreign exchange for many developing
countries, whose major assets are their natural resources. (Hunter, 1995) At the same time, it is the
environmental quality of a place that will determine the success of the tourism industry, since it is the principal
attraction. There have been disagreements on whether tourism in beneficial or harmful to the environment,
and this paper lays out the arguments for both sides. This analysis will illustrate that tourism, if unplanned and
unregulated, can be extremely harmful to the environment, and therefore needs a better, more sustainable
alternative that involves the local population in the planning and management of tourism.
Many people believe that tourism can be actually beneficial to the environment (Croall, 1995). Comparing it to
other industries, tourism does seem to be much less harmful than other industries, such as manufacturing. It
can be argued that since climate, vegetation, wildlife and geology play a large role in attracting tourism, the
industry has a stake in the preservation of the environment on which it is based. At the same time, tourism
provides the economic means with which to do it. There is evidence from the United States and Europe that
tourism has promoted restoration and preservation of historic sites. Tourism has also encouraged
conservation of natural resources in places like Africa by establishing national parks and reserves. In the
case of these poorer countries, tourism brings in much needed foreign exchange, as well as employment
opportunities, demand for local products and improvement in the local infrastructure.
It is clear from these arguments how tourism and the environment benefit and depend on each other.
However, this does not take into account the carrying capacity of these tourist areas. The notion of carrying
capacity means that there are limits to the use of natural resources. (Cater, 1994) The environment will
probably be damaged if overused, and if the limits of its carrying capacity are surpassed, the ecosystem will
loose its sustainability and "be damaged or destroyed for a long time, if not forever." Since most countries at
their first stages of tourism development had no control or proper planning for tourism, the carrying capacities
of their environment were not taken into account and thereby abused. This is the case for most developing
countries in the present time, and therefore, most scholars argue that, there is most likely a conflicting rather
that a symbiotic relationship between tourism and the environment.
The negative impacts of tourism on the environment can be analysed in different ways. (Croall, 1995) One
of them looks at the specific elements of the ecosystem of the tourist locale. For instance, tourism can a have
detrimental effect on vegetation. The collection of plants or careless use of fire can destroy plantlife; littering
causes changes in soil nutrients; human and vehicular traffic affects both the soil and the vulnerability of
plants. The activities can cause changes in the percentage cover, species diversity, growth rates and age
structures, and habitat diversity. Tourism can also have an effect on air and water quality. Air pollution can be
attributed to the congestion of tourist vehicles in resort areas. There can also be pollution of lakes, rivers and
oceans caused by large quantities of waste material and inadequately treated sewage from tourist facilities
and from oil spills from recreational vehicles. This pollution can transmit diseases such as typhoid, cholera
and hepatitis through seafood and can also cause eutrophication by increasing the nutrients in the water.
Eutrophication causes fluctuations in the oxygen supply and distribution, which affects all aquatic
life.
Wildlife can also be adversely affected by tourism. Much of the industry itself is geared towards animal
watching or photography, as it is evident from the increase in popularity of safaris in African national parks
and the increasing number of tourists travelling to Antarctica. By intruding on the animals' natural lives,
tourism can disrupt feeding and breeding patterns, and sometimes can even force the relocation of wildlife.
Littering by tourists attracts animals to tourist areas in the parks and alters the animals' natural habitats. The
creation of reserves and national parks may also bring about overpopulation of some species. The increasing
demand of wildlife souvenirs induces a parallel increase in poaching, since the monetary rewards become
greatly attractive to the local population.
Resort development can cause harm to the environment on which it is located as well. (Croall, 1995) First of
all, it may cause architectural pollution, a condition where resort facilities clash with the native surroundings
and architecture. Additionally, coastal resort developments are often unplanned and unregulated causing
sprawls along the coastline. The infrastructures themselves are unable to handle the numbers and intensity
of tourism, which causes supply failures, pollution and health hazards. Resort development causes
segregation of local residents from the resort area, as well, and brings about probably the most serious
consequence of resort development, which is traffic congestion.
Another way, and probably the better way, to analyse the impacts of tourism on the environment is to look at
how tourism affects certain ecosystems. Impacts on each of the previous components affects the entire
system. For instance, clearing plantlife for the sake of tourism "disturbs" wildlife and reduces habitats.
Without the protection of the entire ecosystem, the survival of an individual species cannot take place. And
since these components and ecosystems are interconnected not just locally, but globally, affecting one of
these may disrupt another in a different part of the region or even the world. For this paper I will focus on
coastal-marine ecosystems since they are the most popular environments for tourism. To allow for better
analysis, these will be broken down into marine ecosystems, beaches, and small island
ecosystems.
Marine ecosystems suffer from the waste disposal by hotels, littering by tourists, fuel seepage from ships
and other boat traffic. The European marine ecosystem has probably been the worst affected because it is an
inland sea, thus it has a longer self-cleaning process due to the limited tide. Out of all the components
affected in this ecosystem, coral reefs are the most vulnerable. Reefs can be harmed by trampling from
scuba divers and snorkelers, untreated sewage dumped from hotels or the resort cities themselves, and
many developing countries use coral for construction of hotels and roads.
Although stronger than most coastal ecosystems, beaches suffer from tourism development as well. The
construction of hotels and roads destroys dunes and beaches, causing severe environmental consequences,
such as erosion, which in turn induces more environmental problems . Beaches also suffer through their
displacement in order to build marinas, piers and docks. People themselves can cause damage by littering
and scaring away birds.
Small island ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to tourism development because of their fragility and
shortage of space and freshwater. Space scarcity results from the construction of tourism in the coastal
areas, which competes with local residents' needs, like agriculture. There is also competition for water
between the "local communal and agricultural sector and the rapidly expanding tourism sector." With small
islands, wildlife and plants suffer more as well because of the islands' small area and isolation, thus there is a
higher rate of extinction of island species.
Ecotourism has also been prescribed as the alternative solution to tourism development for all the cases.
(Stabler, 1997) Ecotourism allows for a more sustainable alternative to mass tourism, not only benefiting the
environment, but the local population as well. Involving the local people from the planning stages throughout
the entire development of the tourism project is crucial for the success of ecotourism. In this way, they will
benefit from the revenues of tourism, becoming aware that it benefits them and their environment, not just the
already wealthy and powerful transnational corporations and people.
In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.
It wearies me, you say it wearies you,
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff ‘tis is made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me
That I have much ado to know myself
(Antonio, The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 1)
The Environmental impact of Tourism at the Adriatic in the Veneto Area
It is obvious that tourism, despite the efforts to date to improve its environmental performance, is still an
industry which contributes more to the creation of environmental problems than it does to its
solution.
In this project I will have a look into the impact of tourism on the environment in the Veneto Area with a focus
on the beach resorts between Chioggia and Bibione. Further consideration should go into the impact of
tourism on Venice.
Historic development of tourism in the Veneto Area
Following Chadwick (Hunter, 1995), a tourist is a person who travels for the primary purpose of business
such as consultations, conventions and inspections, other personal businesses such as shopping, medical or
legal appointments or an educational study trip, visiting friends and relatives and pleasure. This broad
definition allows the statement that everybody is a tourist who is not a native or inhabitant of a certain area.
By this definition it becomes clear that tourism in the Veneto area is as old as the occupation of the area. The
numbers of tourists in early years are, however, marginal.
A first increase in tourism and the development of a tourism industry can be seen in the early eighteenth
century. Goethe (1981), a German poet who visited Venice and the surrounding area in 1786, writes in his
Italian voyage: Much has been said and printed about Venice, so I will stop describing it, and just tell how it
appears to me. Thereby he is indicating that information’s about the city are well spread. He also reports of a
model of a gondola belonging to his father, travelling to Italy in 1740, and being in the family for at least since
this date.
tourists in Venice
Another indicator to an increased tourism is the appearance of printed guides as Goethe is referring
frequently to Johann Jakob Volkmann and his guide "Historisch-kritische Nachrichten von Italien" (historic
critic news from Italy), first published in 1770 in Leipzig, Germany.
The main increase of tourism into the Area is however not until the early 1930th with the increased
accessibility of the area and the development of the seaside resorts between Bibione and Chioggia. Much of
the spectacular growth can be put down to the huge rise in popularity of package holidays, which began to
make an impact in Great Britain and other countries after the second world war. These cheap, all-in holidays
have transformed the leisure lives of millions, and brought places that seemed accessible only to the better-
off within easy reach of most people, at least in the developed countries. The area is now accessible by
means of road as the A4 from Milan to Trieste is serving all major resorts in the area, as well as the Venice
airport Marco Polo which is carrying more than two million tourists a year and the off-line airport of Treviso
which serves as major airport for charter airlines and Ryanair, which started two daily services from London-
Stansted in April 1998.
The impact of tourism on the environment on selected subareas
To understand the impact of tourism on the environment in the area, it seems to be necessary to divide the
Area into different subareas which are determined mainly by council boundaries. The areas chosen shall
highlight the different problems faced by the area.
Venice
Tourism has been part of the life of Venice for centuries. However, in the last thirty years, Venice has faced
grave problems due to the tremendous volume of tourists each year. Some fear that Venice will turn into a
museum as its residents flee to the mainland. One problem is the fact that many tourists come to Venice on
tour buses and spend little or no money on hotels and restaurants. Moreover, tourism adds to the
overcrowding and litter. Efforts to control the flow of tourists into the city led to rumours in 1990 that Venice
would put quotas on the number of visitors that could enter the city.
Officials have considered several proposals to control the traffic flows into Venice, including issuing one day
passes valid for items such as car parks and canal transport in order to prevent tourists from waiting on long
lines. Another innovative idea is to have computer hook-ups that allow potential visitors to know how crowded
the city is. That such measures are being discussed indicates the severity of the problem.
Canal in Venice
Flooding of the polluted Venetian canals and lagoons is perceived to be the greatest environmental threat to
Venice, followed by erosion caused by a high moisture content in the air. Historically, travel and tourism
considered by most to be merely a nuisance. This view changed during the summer of 1989; mass tourism is
now recognised as one of the greatest threats to the city of Venice.
On July 15, 1989, a Pink Floyd concert was held on a temporary floating stage facing St. Mark's Square.
Approximately 200,000 fans crowded the square for the rock concert, many of them camping out for two days
prior to the concert and leaving litter everywhere. Venice was overcrowded and completely unprepared,
lacking public toilets. Additionally, some fans climbed up ornate 6th-century pillars, chipping off parts of the
carvings and leaving marks from their shoes and boots. It took three days and the assistance of the Italian
army to clean up the mess. Three years later, and $46,000 later, the pillars were restored largely through
contributions from Save Venice. Although a great deal of the erosion of the pillars had been caused by
weathering, the damage from the rock fans was not taken lightly by Venetians, preservationists, and art
historians alike.
In addressing the European Monuments Forum in 1990, John Norwich, co-founder of Venice in Peril Fund
discussed the Pink Floyd concert that "rocked" the city. In order to further demonstrate the severity of the
damage tourism cause in Venice and other cities, Norwich discussed a more typical day in Venice in 1987
when 66,000 tourists mobbed the city. "So overwhelmed was the Venice infrastructure that local authorities
finally had to close the causeway linking the city to the mainland." Norwich has long recognised what he
considers to be a more insidious threat to Venice and other cities than floods and acid rain: tourism pollution.
Norwich notes that large numbers of tourists erode buildings and over the years, millions of hands caressing
the little statues along the basin in Venice have smoothed them to the point where certain features are
virtually unrecognisable. Many of the one-day visitors contribute little to Venice's economy.
Each year an estimated 7 million tourists visit Venice, whose infrastructure is insufficient for the number of
visitors. Venice is plagued by too many tourists and suburban flight of residents at an alarming rate of 1,500
residents each year. Peter Fergusson, vice-chairman of the Boston chapter of Save Venice, notes that the
population has been reduced drastically because of the lack of jobs, and vacated apartments have been
bought up by foreigners as vacation homes which has driven up real estate prices and devastated the
economic infrastructure of small, family-owned shops. Some fear that Venice will turn into a museum as its
residents flee to the mainland.
Spiralling rents, unruly crowds, increasing pollution and a lack of shops except for those catering to tourist
have cut the city's population to barely
75,000 from about 200,000 at the height of Venice's power in the 16th century.
Venice is visited primarily for its art history, but the city's attractiveness has been cheapened by the over-
crowding on the city's streets and canals. Efforts to control the flow of tourists into the city led to rumours in
1990 that Venice was to put quotas on the number of visitors that could enter the city. Recently, Venice has
witnessed a flood of Eastern Europeans, who arrive by bus and spend little money. City officials reported that
one day, 60,000 Czechoslovaks poured into the city in 1,200 buses. In summary, the major environmental
problems include the following.
(1) Pollution, Land: caused largely by the massive amounts of tourists, land pollution is one of the primary
areas of concern.
(2) Pollution, water: the lagoon has become more polluted due to litter, caused in part by tourists, and from
illegal sewage dumping from overloaded systems.
(3) Pollution, air: bus and car pollution from tourists causes species loss and destruction of monuments,
buildings and artwork.
Peninsula of Cavallino
The peninsula of Cavallino, or Littoral del Cavallino, is historical seen relative young. Is was created by the
combined work of the rivers, sea and wind. The rivers brought sand from the mountains down to the river
mouth, the sea spread it out in bands to form an ever wider beach. The wind build this sand into dunes which
man than flattened to create land for cultivation. As the new land gradually emerged from the sea, the state of
Venice, the initial owner sold it. All these sales are recorded and the first records show that the "Officio delle
Aqua" sold land to Antonio da Ca on March 30, 1538. This can be seen as the official birth of Cavallino.
There are however no documents or other evidence confirming the settled presence of inhabitants on the
island before the year 1538. The probably means that at this point the land was still inhospitable with marshy
ground alterning with dunes, suitable at best as meagre grazing for the cows reared on neighbouring
islands.
Tourism to the Peninsula was only of a marginal nature until the late 1940/50 with the increased mobility of
tourists and the development of Campsites in the area. Today the capacity of the 31 Campsites along the
peninsula has increased to more than 300.000 customers at any given time on campsites with a capacity of
more than 25.000 customers on some of them. The hotelcapacity in the area is however only marginal. The
number of nights sold on the campsites extends 5 million per year. The total of nights in the subarea
Cavallino and Venice city, which still form an administrative unit, exceeds 11 million customers.
During the late 1980 the numbers of tourists into the area was reduced by at least 25% due to problems with
algae. Those algae grew to an extend not known before and were drifted towards the beaches, leading to a
pollution of the beach and strong smells. Reason for the grows were a high amount of nutrition’s in the water,
due to sewage inlets as well as fertiliser residue from agriculture in the area as well as coming from the
rivers, and a high watertemperature due to a period of good weather. As an immediate attempt the resolve
the problem barriers have been installed in the sea, preventing the algae to reach the beaches. To resolve
the problem on a long term, two measures have been taken. Firstly all touristfacilities in the area were
connected to a new build sewage treatment plant in Ca'Pasquali. Another measure was taken, mainly to offer
an alternative to bathing in the sea, by building swimmingpools on most of the campsites in the area. It is,
however, established that the main reason for the pollution of the water at the northern Adriatic is not, as
often thought, mainly due to the rise of tourism. Main reason for the pollution is the influx of the Po carrying
annually 20.000 tones of phosphates, 80.000 tones of Nitrogen, large amounts of heavy metals and coliform
bacteria into the Adriatic. The origin of those are mainly agriculture in the Emilia Romagna area, industrial
sewage as well as human wastewater coming from Milan. Most sewage is reaching the Adriatic completely
untreated, Milan for example, situated on the Lambro which is leading into the Po, has up to date no working
sewage treatment plant.
sewage treatment plant, Ca'Pasqali, Italy
The increase in water usage, the area uses now about 10.000 cubic metres, or the equivalent of four olympic
size swimming pools, of water every day, is leading to new problems. The Venetian waterauthority ASPIV is,
especially during the summer month not able the deliver the required amount of water into the area. During at
least 15 days in August 1998 ASPIV has not been able to deliver a sufficient amount of water and for only two
days the delivery of extra 4.000 cubic metres have been possible. Main reason for the scarcity of water is the
origin of drinking water in the area. Most of it is coming from groundwater, such as from underneath the
islands of Venice and the surrounding area. An increased usage of water can result in saltwater from the sea
floating into those reservoirs and making those unusable. This is already the case in some areas, leading to
closures of pumpingstations. For the remaining pumps the amount of sodium in the water can rise during
periods of high demand to more than 7 mg/l while the normal amount is at about 3.6 mg/l (ASPIV, 1998). This
problem could lead in the not so far future to stringent waterregulations and even the blocking of water for
several hours during the day.
Another problem for the peninsular is more historic nature. The main ferryport to Venice and the Venetian
islands for the area of the western Veneto, including Jesolo, Caorle and Bibione is Punta Sabbioni, at the end
of the eastern end of the Peninsula. Coming from the mainland, where the peninsula is connected to Lido di
Jesolo, to Punta Sabbioni only a minor road, which is also leading to the campsites in the area, is existing. At
peaktimes this road is carrying more than 4.800 vehicles per hour leading to a major traffic congestion which
can, for example on marketdays in Cavallino lead to a tailback of more than twenty kilometres. The same
problem can be observed, especially on weekends, due to traditional travelpatterns of German and
Swiss/Austrian customers, in the direction towards the motorway A4, the main motorway to Udine, heading to
Austria, or Milan, heading towards Switzerland and Germany. Currently the are no measures to divert or
control the traffic in the area. Further problems to the flow of traffic is a high volume of busses along this road
which stop about every 400 metres. As they can not be overtaken, traffic congestions are more than likely at
times with an already high amount of traffic.
Jesolo, including Lido di Jesolo and Cortelazzo
Until 1930 the Lido di Jesolo did not exist in any way as it is known today. Jesolo only existed in a small town
about 4 km inland mainly concerned with riverfishing and agriculture. The Town still exists and is now known
as Jesolo Paese. The Area now know as Lido di Jesolo consisted more or less of a chain of dunes,
preserving the inland from floods. In 1930 tourism into the area picked up and the dunes were flattened to
make space for hotels. Today the Lido di Jesolo offers more than 450 hotels with more than 75.000 beds and
nearly 6 million nights sold a year. As the Lido is covering a stretch of about 17 km, this means every hotels
can use about 40 metres of beach or every customers can occupy about 5 square metres, not considering
locals and day visitors to the beach. Further touristfacilities include a 10 km shoppingmile, several seasonal
fun-fairs, Aquaparks, Europe’s longest cartingtrack and others.
All major Touroperator offer holidays to this area of the Veneto area. There are no hotels belonging to
specific operators, some have, however, exclusivity clauses in their contract with the hotel. Up to date no all
inclusive resorts exist in this area and most offers are based on a bed and Breakfast base. The business
generated by touroperators is accompanied by a large amount of independent tourists arranging the stay on
their own. The fact that most hotels are run on a family base or by local chains, avoids the adverse effects of
tourism of not creating capital in the area as it can be seen in many overseas resorts.
A main problem for Jesolo is the strong seasonal character of the area as a beach resort. Only a marginal
number of hotels stay open all year while most are open only from Easter until October.
During the winter most businesses in Jesolo are closed and the town is similar to a ghosttown with most
fronts boarded up.
The seasonal character of tourism has a huge impact on the employment policies in the area.
Similar to the problems the Cavallino area was facing in the late 1980, Jesolo has major problems with the
evolution of algae. Making the problem even more severe for this area, as there was no space available
anymore to build new swimmingpools, the decline of arrivals during this period led to a bankrupt of several
hotel owners. The installation of a medium sized Aquapark, Aqualandia, near most hotels in Lido di Jesolo,
was easing of this problem, could, however not avoid it completely.
Chioggia, including Isola Verde and Sottomarina
Chioggia, situated in the South of Venice next to the Lombardo Ship Canal, has a long tradition in fishing and
shipbuilding. Today the economy is based mainly on fishing, textiles and the port which is serving the Veneto
and Emila Romana Area. The development of tourism is reasonable recent with the development of
Sottomarina and Isola Verde. In 1997 less than 100.000 people stayed in hotels with less than 450.000 nights
sold. Tourists staying in other types of accommodation, including campsites were about 220.000, or about
2.000.000 million nights sold.
As tourism in the area is a relative new business the development could be controlled in a way to reduce the
negative impacts by means of planning. This statement does however not mean that the situation of tourism
in this area is ideal. As touristfacilities in the area are concentrated in two areas away from the town of
Chioggia and the facilities provided all facilities for the tourists, starting from restaurants and supermarkets to
cashmachines and postalservice tourists are not encouraged to leave the resorts and support the local
community by patronising local facilities. This seems to a positive effect as the town is not overcrowded but
also means, as most touristfacilities in the area are owned by companies which are located in other areas of
Italy, profit made in the area is leaking out to other areas.
