Mass tourism threatening Venice lagoon

Italian experts blame surge in aquatic transport for slow erosion

ROME - An Italian environmental group warned on Monday that mass tourism was slowly eroding the Venice lagoon, which it said was also threatened by major real estate development and an inadequate transport network.

Architect Cristiano Gasparetto said a 1988 study indicated that while the acceptable maximum number of tourists for Venice is 33,000 daily, today the average figure is 59,000.