Wall Street Journalさんのインスタグラム写真 - (Wall Street JournalInstagram)「Venice has struggled with the impact of mass tourism for decades, but residents say the lagoon city has reached a tipping point, accelerated by a boom in European and U.S. tourism in recent years that was only briefly interrupted by Covid.⁠ ⁠ The number of tourists arriving in Venice this year is expected to beat the record of 5.5 million in 2019, before the pandemic curtailed global travel.⁠ ⁠ Many European cities are grappling with the strains of excess tourism. But Venice has become the symbol of the problem because of the clash between its worldwide appeal to visitors and the delicate fabric of a centuries-old city built on more than 100 islands.⁠ ⁠ This month, for the first time ever, Venice’s main islands have more tourist beds, including hotels and short-term rentals such as Airbnb, than residents, according to Ocio, a group that campaigns for affordable housing in the city. The estimate deepened fears that the city will soon be populated only by tourists and a few resident holdouts.⁠ ⁠ Venice’s takeover by tourists used to be a problem in summer, and a few other peak periods of the year. Now it is spread across the calendar. At the same time, the resident population is in steady decline, dropping below 50,000 last year for the first time in more than three centuries. That is down from 66,000 two decades ago and 175,000 in the early 1950s.⁠ ⁠ The large number of apartments rented through Airbnb and other platforms has pushed up rents beyond the reach of many locals. As the number of residents has dwindled, so too has the number of shops and other services needed to sustain daily life.⁠ ⁠ Advocacy groups want Venice to clamp down on short-term rentals as New York City has. They also want the city to offer incentives for apartment owners to rent to residents, limit the construction of new hotels and stop approving the conversion of existing buildings to hotels.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ 📷: @francesca_volpi_photo for @wsjphotos」9月29日 8時00分