In the first part of 2023 the traffic of cruises in ports Italians exceeded the levels reached in 2019 except in Adriatic ports due to the sharp reduction in activity in the port of Venice resulting in transit difficulties of ships in the Lagoon determined since 2014 with the prohibition of passage in the Giudecca Canal and then with the Law 103/2021 for the protection of Venice. He denounces it Alessandro Santi, president of Federagenti, the federation of Italian shipping agents, explaining that, as noted by the agency maritime Cemar, this year the number of cruise passengers is in growth of +4% compared to 2019, with the whole of 2023 expected will be closed with almost 12.9 million passengers, while in the whole Adriatic is recorded, in the same period, a decline of -29%, with a reduction of about 800 thousand passengers compared to to pre-Covid statistics. "As was widely predictable - noted Santi - the total blockade of cruises in the basin of San Marco and the consequent exclusion, in total absence of transitional solutions that could allow passenger ships However, finding moorings in the lagoon, has generated a domino effect on the entire Adriatic basin, deprived of the destination that was the biggest attraction."

Noting that the decline in Venice was mitigated only for a small part from the other Adriatic ports and that the exit from the Venice's market has resulted in a diversion to abroad of many services, such as ship's stores and some technical maintenance services that are now carried out in particular in Greek ports, and the use of airports and national accommodation facilities, the president of Federagenti has underlined that "the case of cruises in Venice risks be paradigmatic of an incapacity, in the case expressed by the Draghi government, to take decisions consistent with the need to protect the environment, but also the fabric economic of entire territories, pointing out how, moreover, the flight of cruise passengers has triggered a phenomenon of substitution through a growth, out of control, of low cost tourism that precisely in the case of Venice is highlighting in a dramatic way, the fragility of a city whose model today seems adapt more closely to the proposed concept of "reserve" from many international institutions in defense of the site that to the real citizens' needs'.