Will Venice ban cruise ships?

Steps have been made to ban cruise ships entering Venice's Giudecca Canal.  The Italian Environment Minister, Andrea Orlando has proposed that no ships above 500 tons will sail in Venice's canal.

Most 17 night Mediterranean sailings from Southampton visit Venice and it is even a port of embarkation and disembarkation for a variety of cruise ships.

Effectively this will stop the hundreds of thousands of visitors who visit the Italian city a year and what will happen to the Italian economy because of this?

Orlando's comments are just the latest in a long-running row between environmentalists and the cruise industry to get cruise ship's banned from Venice.

Residents of Venice, particularly those belonging to campaign groups including Italia Nostra and the No Navi Grandi (No Big Ships) committee,  have long been up in arms about the close approach made by cruise ships sailing along the city's Giudecca Canal to the cruise terminal.

But surely with the ban of a possible 10,000 tourists a day dis embarking in this port will have a major effect on the countries financial stability, as we are well aware Italy and Spain are in a major recession at the moment, so isn't this effectively shooting your self in the foot?

What would happen to the sales of Murano Glass which is made on the island of Murano in Venice and a very popular tourist attraction. Italy is also famous for their passion and style and what will happen to the shops, bars and restaurants in Venice if the ships are not allowed to dock?

I am all for conservation by cruise lines, I personally had training sessions on board Celebrity on how they recycle waist and water on the ship to prevent and reduce any conservation risks. 

Now if you wanted to visit Venice on a ship I would look at this sooner rather than later because as we all know once politicians have a bee in their bonnet about an issue they will do their utmost to pass it in parliament.