Two of Italy’s most famous cities, Venice and Florence are gearing up to welcome tourists with a new tourism model. The mayors of these two beautiful cities announced tourism plans to help them rebuild after the COVID-19 crisis. The mayors have said that they want more police to ensure safety in the cities. They also emphasised on more funds for public transport and short-term accommodation rentals.
The cities have asked the Italian government to provide them with more powers so that they can regulate tourism industry when travellers return eventually. Though most of Italy has entered a new lockdown, Florence Mayor Dario Nardella said that they “need a new model of tourism also linked to enhancing, promoting and protecting cities of art”.
He further added, “As soon as the borders reopen after the coronavirus emergency, the country must be ready.” On the other hand, Mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro said that as they are ambassadors of Italy in the world, their two cities must lead the way.
Before the pandemic hit the world, Venice and Florence were among the most visited cities in the country and remained flooded with tourists. In fact, Venice was struggling with the issue of over-tourism and had to introduce a tourist tax to limit the number of tourists in the city.
As of now, both the cities have turned into ghost towns without tourists since the onset of the pandemic. It has been now one year that international travel has been disturbed, devastating the economy. Till now, more than 2,682,258 people have lost their lives to the virus.