The removal of the crocieristico traffic from Venice - Propeller emphasizes Club Port of Venice - would provoke a serious economic and tourist damage to the city



The tragic shipwreck of saturday of the Costa Concordia, provoked from the decision to close carry the cruise ship of Isola del Giglio, is provoking polemical on some broken details covered from the great ships. One of these is that which the units from cruise in the Basin of San Marco to Venice carry.

To this end the International Propeller Club Port of Venice, that it associates a ottantina of enterprises of the marine economy, has published a opened letter in which it supports the requirement in the first place to introduce to the city of Venice its port "that - the association explains - cannot be considered a niche privileged for little attache's, but a great economic engine that occupation generates and distributes yield to the many entrepreneurial activities who operate in the various fields of the commerce, the receptive one, tourism, the transports and, altogether, of the services".

"This because, generally - Propeller of Venice specifies - one is feared how much is not known and is own for this reason that public bodies and society engaged in the development of the port and in particular of the crocieristica, would have sinergicamente to make team in order to open the port to the city, because economic and productive activities, but also the same citizens, become aware than this great patrimony of billions of made investments can still bring in replacing Venice and its Lagoon to the center of the world-wide interest making of the two million crocieristi in transit to Venice as many enthusiastic "ambassadors" of the oneness and the prerogatives of this ours cities and not of tourists disappointed from the hostile attitude of its inhabitants".

"That the current economic situation is difficult - finds Propeller in the opened letter to signature of president Massimo Bernardo - is not a secret for nobody and all we are some to acquaintance and we are touched some. In the port the drastic fall of the industrial traffic, the previewed phase of slow down of the traffic container in connection with the course of the world-wide economy, is pushing the main companies of the field see again own plans for the future, estimating the restructure of many services, while some Chinese projects for the construction of new terminals are about to be slowed down, various orders for the construction of new ships is blocked and the large amateurish groups are see again the huge investments that were taken being based on the forecasts of traffic in period 2008-2012".

"This - Propeller emphasizes - is only the emerged part of the iceberg of a world-wide crisis of the marine traffic of the goods and, probably, also of that crocieristico after the incident of Costa Concordia, but - as clearly it is restated in more occasions, from the president of the Harbour Authority Paolo Costa - this it is the moment to prepare us for this that will happen when this crisis loses its devastating force also from the psychological point of view and will begin to slow down, leaving the step to a natural one, even though slow increase".

"It goes therefore supported - the association still evidences - the economic and social importance of the port in its three spirits, commercial, industrial and nautical-crocieristica. It is from that we must all leave again in the knowledge to work all in the city entirety and in the mainland in order reaching the same objective here: the dignity and the safeguard of the place of work and the common well-being also finding agreements and technical solutions that allow with the great ships to include Venice and its port as between surest and the most organized "home port" of the Mediterranean".

"The media sciacallaggio of these days on the great cruise ships - Propeller observes - if from a part it can comprehensibly represent the most powerful weapon in the popular feeling, at the same time it could be represented as a not to be missed occasion for who important traffic wanted definitively to make to divert this on viciniori ports concurrent Italians and aliens, more even exposed to conditions unfavorable or less sure meteomarine with respect to the many obligations on safety of navigation (sandy pilots, tugs, speeds, backdrops etc) that instead they return the most attractive and sure port of Venice between to the world".

"The International Propeller Club Port of Venice, without to remember the serious economic damage that would involve the removal of this traffic from the city with the immediate increment of the cost of all the harbour services, of the lacked return for commercial hotels and exercises, for the same taxes of anchorage etc - concludes the letter - it invites Region, Province, Municipality, Harbour Authority, Venice Passenger terminal and SAVE, trade associations and the interested ministers, that of the Atmosphere and that of Infrastructures, to a common table that it are able, in times time to us, to start serious politics of participations aimed at the consolidation of this traffic and not to feeding, as instead it is happening, sterile controversies able, this yes, to create losses of places of work, between directed and induced, in order at least 3,000 families already worried for the damages that the effect announcement of the risks of a cruise is already provoking in million potential Italian customers and foreign countries".

While the Harbour office and the Harbour Authority of Venice, to the aim to avoid misunderstandings, have clarified that the practical one "of the bow" of the cruise ships, that is the shunting line of route in order to approach itself the coasts that are put into effect by Costa Concordia in order to carry the own "salute" to Isola del Giglio, is completely impossible in the lagoon port of call and the entire Lagoon of Venice. "Contrarily with said and often written how much in the last days - they have explained the two marine-harbour institutions - Venice, being a lagoon port, allows with the ships only an obliged passage along broken detailed lists that they do not admit shunting lines".

"The cruise ships - they have specified Harbour office and Harbour Authority - do not have (and they cannot have) navigation freedom on the entire watery mirror of the lagoon. Their passage (in the basin of San Marco, in the channel of the Giudecca) happens in full safety, following a kind of "corridor" that it prevents physically, also in relation to the backdrops and the draught of the ships, to approach itself - voluntarily or involuntarily - the rivers".

"The rigid safety regulations, dictated from the Harbour office with specific decrees - they have emphasized Harbour-office and Port Authority - preview that the ships are accompanied by two tugs. Moreover, two pilots still place side by side the commander of the ship before the cruise ships enter from Bocca of port of Lido and they assist it in the maneuvers until the Marine mooring in (San Basilio)".

Anticipating meantime the understanding expressed from the minister of the Atmosphere, Corrado Clini, to feel the shipowners, and in particular the Italian Confederation Shipping (Confitarma), "for a program voluntary and shared face to promote an intelligent tourism" and the defense of the atmosphere and the seas, yesterday the president of Confitarma, Paolo d' Amico, has sent to a letter to the minister communicating own availability with regard to.

The Italian Confederation Shipping, emphasizing the "spirit of maximum collaboration that has always animated its relationships with the institutions", therefore it has wished that it is fixed as soon as possible an encounter before is defined any provision in matter.