On Monday, 21 June 2021, UNESCO's World Heritage Centre recommended that the city should be added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage in Danger.
The UNESCO committee stated that "complex impacts of mass tourism, the constant decrease of population and the basic deficiencies in governance and cooperated management have led to a significant loss of historical authenticity within Venice."
"This is not something we propose lightly," Mechtild Roessler, director of the World Heritage Centre, said "It is to alert the international community to do more to address these matters together."
The number of tourists have "drastically decreased" during the Covid-19 pandemic but stronger measures must be taken to build a sustainable future in Venice. The final decision on whether to add Venice to the World Heritage in Danger list will be made by the World Heritage Committee by the end of July 2021.
There are many factors that harm the inherent characteristics of Venice and cruise ships are considered one of the key threats: The ships cause pollution and erode the foundations of the city, which suffers from regular flooding.
