North of Venice, between the Lagoon, the Adriatic Sea and the Po Valley, the Eastern Venice Tourist District has taken shape. It reaches the borders of Friuli Venezia Giulia and, crossed by 4 rivers (Sile, Piave, Livenza, Tagliamento) is a set of flat landscapes with, just 50 km away, the Alps as a backdrop. A postcard place that has always attracted an important number of tourists. So important that this small area of the country hosts 4 of the top 10 Italian tourist cities (Venice excluded, it would be the fifth!) And is starting to embark on a path that, in addition to seasonal adjustment, wants to create a model of tourism development marked by the indications of ‘UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Some numbers: the beaches of Cavallino Treporti, Bibione, Jesolo, Eraclea and Caorle recorded almost 20 million tourist presences in 2021. Before the pandemic there were more than 22. It is almost a third of the entire Veneto tourism movement which, with over 71 million visitors, is the largest in Italy. The occupation of the 3 summer months is, for some time now, towards the sold out. “The beach remains a fundamental resource of the tourist resorts of Eastern Venice – explains Antonio Ferrarelli, president of the Eastern Venice Tourist District – and for this reason we must continue to invest in it considering that, before the pandemic, Cavallino, Jesolo, Eraclea, Caorle and Bibione had more than 22 million tourist presences. The future of the Adriatic coast, as well as the sustainability of its tourism development model, is also played out in the low season months, during which the goal is to enhance the hinterland of Eastern Venice. The challenge is therefore to increase tourism from October to April and to do this the large area projects that we are proposing as a Tourist District are fundamental. “
Projects and initiatives that will start from 2022 in an organic plan that is being defined.
One of the structural aspects of the tourist area of Eastern Venice is given by the excellent level of bathing facilities: from establishments to kiosks, from hotels to landings and tourist ports, from restaurants to campsites.
The Bolkestein directive creates an alarm in a world of companies with a long tradition and high professionalism: “In order to achieve the levels of success that the numbers show, our entrepreneurs have invested in recent years both economically and in their professionalism, – says Roberta Nesto , mayor of Cavallino Treporti and president of the Conference of Mayors of the Venetian Coast – a professionalism handed down for generations and spread to the more than 300,000 direct workers of the companies. We mayors are as concerned about the EU directive as entrepreneurs: the social bomb that could be created if this step were not shared, supported and prepared with the government would be of great proportions “.