Venice Airport Expands as the City Tries to Hold Tourists Back

The New York Times reported this week that European cities complaining of too many tourists are simultaneously expanding their airports, a contradiction the paper says can undermine local efforts to restrain overtourism and may even enable more visitors to arrive. Venice is named among the examples, alongside Barcelona and the Spanish island of Mallorca.

The finding lands squarely on the lagoon, where the day-tripper levy and entry rules have been the city's principal instruments for thinning the crowd. According to the Times, airport growth works against such measures: capacity added at the terminal converts directly into arrivals at the water's edge.

The paper frames the tension as a general European one, not an Italian peculiarity. Cities that publicly lament their visitor numbers are, in the same budget cycle, approving the infrastructure that delivers more of them.