Accommodations

Accommodations

Total Number of Apartment/Room Rentals	10
Total Number of Bed and Breakfasts	30
Total Number of Hostels	2
Total Number Hotels	335

History

Tourism in Venice

Venice’s unique position on the lagoon has always attracted people to visit and admire it. Venice has catered to tourists from medieval to modern days. Tourism has thrived in Venice for hundreds of years, with Venice receiving a large and varied group of tourists every year. Even in the 1700s, people noticed Venice’s catering to tourists, saying, “Our gondoliers… rowed smoothly by the side of a broad pavement, covered with people in all dresses and of all nations” (Marqusee 1989, 15). For centuries, Venice has drawn foreign visitors and their money to itself. There are two main types of tourists in Venice. The first kind is a residential tourist, or tourist that spends at least one night in Venice in a hotel, boarding house, bed and breakfast, etc. The second kind is an excursionist tourist, or tourist that spends the day in Venice, but does not stay overnight. Data on residential tourists is available through ISTAT, but data on excursionist tourists is much harder to gather, so our team will estimate the number of those tourists based on reasonable assumptions that relate them to residential tourists.

Problems Caused by Tourism

The problems with tourism in Venice started when tourists began arriving in overwhelming numbers. Since the 1970s, the number of tourists visiting Venice has increased by leaps and bounds. In 1971, the number of tourists spending at least one night in Venice was 929,112, spending a total of 1,901,208 nights in Venice. In 2011, the number of tourists increased to 2,500,882, spending a total of 6,227,276 nights in Venice (Comune di Venezia 2012). The number of tourist arrivals (number of tourists) in Venice has increased 269% while the number of tourist presences (number of nights spent in Venice) has increased 328% in 40 years. These numbers have been steadily increasing every year, as shown in the figure below.

In a city with a population of less than 60,000, these numbers are unsustainable. In 1991, Paolo Costa, the rector of the University of Venice, determined that the socio-economic carrying capacity of Venice was 25,000 tourists per day (Coccossis et al. 2002, 16). With the number of tourists visiting Venice greatly surpassing this limit, some residents have become very unhappy. Some residents have even compared the tourists to animals, saying, “The tourists are the pigeons in St. Mark's Square…They come, look around, leave and don't even know where they've been” and “[My] 84-year-old mother cannot leave the house after 8:30 a.m. Why? That’s when the cows start coming” (Feuer 2004). The sheer number of tourists arriving in the city is strongly affecting the people and the economy of Venice. As a result of the increasing numbers of tourists, the economy of Venice has become geared towards supplying the tourists’ needs and desires (Pinola et al. 2012). Numerous souvenir shops and accommodations catering to tourists have been appearing throughout the entire city. The problem “is that Venice is addicted to tourism, which accounts for over 70 percent of its economy. As with any drug, however, the chance of overdose exists” (Feuer 2004). As shown in the figure below, the number of tourists has been rising drastically compared to the local population.

Graphic Venetians vs Tourists

Increase in Demand for Tourist Accommodations

Tourist accommodations, establishments for short-term overnight residence such as hotels and bed and breakfasts, are another indicator of changes occurring in the city of Venice. The rise and expansion of the tourist accommodations throughout the historic center provides insight into the increase of tourism and helps explain how the economy has shifted from providing for the residents’ needs to attending to the tourists’ desires.

Tourist Accommodations in Venice

As previously stated, Venice has experienced a steep increase in tourism over the past few decades. As a result, it has taken measures to ensure it has the necessary infrastructure to cope with the flood of people. The effects of tourism can be observed through the spread of tourist accommodations in Venice. As Venice’s appeal to tourists around the world increased, the need for new tourist accommodations grew. In fact, “without the swell of tourism, Venice –devastated by the French two centuries ago –might very well have vanished. The buildings along the Grand Canal that survived that cataclysm did so in large part because they were readily convertible to hotels and vacation rentals” (McGregor 2006, 332). Slowly and steadily, Venice started to transform and take new form through the development of the accommodation sector. The high demand for tourist accommodations led to the rise of many hotels and bed and breakfasts. However, since Venice has seen its tourist levels increase from year to year, some residents have taken the opportunity to rent part of their houses to tourists in order to make a profit. In 1999 a new legislation, “Le Leggi Sul Bed and Breakfast Come Aprire un B&B in Veneto,” was created to regulate and also facilitate the creation of new bed and breakfasts and similar establishments (Reg. Veneto 1999). The city of Venice used this legislation to create more incentive to support tourism. By making it easier for these establishments to be created, the legislation stimulated competition in the market and promoted lower lodging prices. As a result of this new law, the number of accommodations in Venice increased a total of 793%, going from 191 to 1516 in nine years (Carrera 2009). The number of B&Bs and rooms to rent alone have risen 1008% (Mosto et al. 2010, 65). This growth in tourist accommodations has led to a rise in tourist arrivals (number of tourists) and presences (number of nights spent in the city), as shown in the figures below. Based on data gathered in 2008, the COSES Report concluded that Venice had the capacity to accommodate 26,000 visitors comfortably and predicted that the city would not be able to function if it hosted 86,000 tourists a day (Carrera 2009). Currently, the average influx of tourists is set around 59,000 people. The high number of tourists is strongly affecting the city by decreasing the comfort level and mobility of its residents.

Trends in Tourist Accommodations

According to the Venice Report and the Comune di Venezia, the number of beds has increased a total of 18% for hotels and 49% for other accommodation establishments over the past 6 years. The expansion of tourist accommodations other than hotels is much more significant than the expansion of hotels. The types and numbers of hotels and non-hotels for the historic center can be found in Appendix F. “Indisputably this has deducted accommodation from the residential stock; the Assessorato alle Politiche della Residenza of the Comune says that 44% of the 952 B&Bs opened 2001 – 2007 – 420 habitants – have been restructured internally so that they are no longer suitable for private occupancy” (Mosto 2010). The arrival of tourists has been increasing for both hotels and non-hotels, but the average number of nights spent by tourists is consistently higher for non-hotels.

Consequences of the Increase in the Number of Tourist Accommodations

The number of tourist accommodations in Venice has been consistently and rapidly increasing and, along with stores, reflects the transformation of the city of Venice. This increase is directly related to the rise of tourism and the boost tourism has created in the local economy, as shown below.

Graph Tourists vs Tourist Accommodations

However, it has also had a negative effect in the city. According to the Venice Report, “planning laws have been liberalized to allow private homes to be turned into B&Bs and rooms to rent. On the one hand, this has ensured the maintenance of these buildings, on the other it has reduced the number of habitations available to residents by about 420 units and has contributed to the doubling of property prices since 2000, further encouraging residents to leave” (Mosto et al. 2010, 47). Although there has been a significant decrease in the population and more properties have become available, real estate prices have been rising. Currenty, “property is exceptionally expensive in Venice, with a 1,000-square-foot apartment going for up to $1.3 million in the historic center, and more on the Grand Canal, but half or a quarter of that on the terra firma across the lagoon” (Povoledo 2006). Property prices, both for private and public properties, have steadily increased over the past decade, as shown below. Since 2000, “there have been annual price increases of 11.21 per cent for residential property, 5.84 per cent for offices premises and 6.70 per cent for commercial premises such as shops” (Mosto et al. 2010, 59). Since housing is cheaper across the lagoon, many residents have been leaving the city center to live on the mainland (McGregor 2006, 316). People have become concerned about the spiral effect that is attracting more tourists and driving away more residents. In order to alleviate this problem, the city of Venice has made efforts “to bolster the population by building 500 to 600 apartments in three far-flung areas — Santa Marta, Cannaregio and Castello — for rent to middle-class families, the group at the greatest risk of vanishing” (Povoledo 2006). By doing so, the city hopes to keep residents in the city and stop the spiral.

Trends in Accommodations

Tourism

The total number of tourists visiting Venice each year is much harder to track, due to the high influx of excursionist tourists each day. Tourists arrive in Venice using different types of transportation, and the crew ships bring in a large portion of the tourists. ISTAT releases data on the number of residential tourists staying in Venice yearly and the number of tourists coming in in crew ships, however the only numbers of excursionist tourists are an estimation based on the percent difference between resident and excursionist tourists present in Venice at any given day. The IQP project conducted in 1999 estimated that the residential tourists made up a quarter of the total tourist population. Based on that estimation and on the assumption that the percent difference between residential and excursionist tourists has remained roughly the same, we were able to estimate the total number of tourists in Venice from 1971 to 2010, shown in Figure 26. Based on the graph below, the total annual number of tourists has increased from 6.6 million in 1971 to 16.9 billion in 2010, an increase of over 250,000 tourists a year.

Accommodations

The drastic increase in the tourist population in Venice has resulted in changes in city so it could accommodate and provide for the tourists. As shown in Figure 27, there were only 191 tourist accommodations and a total of 11,208 beds in Venice in 1999.

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Hotels and Beds in 1999

However, in 2008, only 9 years later, the number of tourist accommodations was 1,516 with a total of 22,935 beds throughout the city, as shown in Figure 28. This increase represents and increase of over 87% in the number of accommodations and over a 50% increase in the number of beds.

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Hotels and Beds in 2008

NACE Coding System

The NACE Coding System is a standard system used by the European Union in order to standardize how the data is categorized and to simplify the analysis of the trends in the stores and tourist accommodations in Venice. Some of the codes used for tourist accommodations are shown below.

• Affitacamere - H55.23.2

• Apartment Rental - H55.23.3

• Bed and Breakfast - H55.23.1

• Hostel - H55.21

• Hotel - H55.1

• Hotel with restaurant - H55.11

• Hotel without restaurant - H55.12

Reference

• Bruso, Ben, Chen, Hongling, Olm, Amanda, Schulman, Iliana. "The Merchants of Venice: A Look at the Changing in the Venetian Stores and Tourist Accommodations and Their Impact on The Local Population." An Interactive Qualifying Project for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 2012.

• Marqusee, Mike. 1989. Venice: An Illustrated Anthology. Topsfield, Ma: Salem House.

• Comune di Venezia. “Confronto tra i Censimenti della Popolazione e delle Abitazioni del 1971, del 1981, del 1991 e del 2001.” Fonte: ISTAT, last modified 21/01/2010, accessed 27/09/2012, http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/4807.

• Coccossis, Harry, Anna Collovini, and Alexandra Mexa. 2002. Defining, Measuring, and Evaluating Carrying Capacity in European Tourism Destinations. Athens: University of the Aegean - Department of Environmental Studies.

• Feuer, Alan. 2004. To Venetians' Sorrow, the Sightseers Come in Battalions. http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=e2ec5eb891e9fec2746ebba219ddc64c&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=mlin_c_worpoly&tabID=T004&docId=A117987192&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0.

• Pinola, Christopher F., Katherine L. Mattern, Heather J. Lewis, Laura D. Aurilio, Fabio Carrera, Frederick W. Bianchi, and Seth Tuler. 2012. "A Detailed Look at the Changing Venetian Retail Sector."Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

• McGregor, James H. 2006. Venice from the Ground Up. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

• Reg. Veneto. "Le Leggi Sul Bed and Breakfast Come Aprire un B&B in Veneto." Turismo e Strutture Ricettive. BU Veneto, last modified 26 October 1999, http://www.bed-and-breakfast.it/leggi_bed_and_breakfast_veneto.cfm.

• Carrera, Fabio. "The Harbinger of Alberghi." Venice 2.0., last modified April 18, accessed September 10, 2012, http://venice2point0.blogspot.com/2009/04/harbinger-of-alberghi.html.

• Mosto, Jane Da. 2010. The Venice Report: Demography, Tourism, Financing and Change of use of Buildings. Cambridge (Eng): Cambridge University.

• Povoledo, Elisabetta. 2006. Vanishing Venice: A City Swamped by a Sea of Tourists. http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=e2ec5eb891e9fec2746ebba219ddc64c&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=mlin_c_worpoly&tabID=T004&docId=A152139168&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0

External Links

• http://www.istat.it

• http://www.comune.venezia.it/

• https://sites.google.com/site/ve12stores/home