From resilience to conscious tourism: at the “Clean Economy” conference, Venice’s best practices for sustainable development

The Venice Sustainability Foundation (VSF) took part in the fifth edition of the conference organized by “Clean Economy – Future, Business and Sustainability”, a side event of the Sustainability Biennial 2025, entitled: “Tourist Mobility and the Evolution of Passenger Transport: Demand and Supply of Services – Towards Sustainable and Ethical Tourism.”

Damiano De Marchi, VSF project manager, spoke on the panel, which also featured the mayor of Modena, Massimo Mezzetti, as co-host. The topic analyzed in the Biagi Auditorium-Bologna Stock Exchange was “Issues for Sustainable Tourism,” during which De Marchi offered some “lessons from Venice”

Venice, De Marchi explained, is universally identified as a paradigm of overtourism. But from its millennial history and the ability of its people to adapt to the times, the latest example being the Mose, come “lessons” applicable to the world.

A first track concerns resilience: the lagoon city has been designated as a Resilience Hub by the UNDRR, an award that recognizes Venice’s ongoing commitment to protecting its cultural heritage from climate change threats, and VSF has been commissioned by the City of Venice to support this track.

The second lesson concerns urban functionality: analyzing The behaviors of its city users not only extends the boundaries of Venice far beyond the administrative boundaries, but overcomes the tourist-resident dichotomy to identify other people present in the city on a daily basis.

Finally, through a logic of socioeconomic integration and investment, VSF facilitates the possibility of systemization, of creating a functional network involving different components of the territory, representing a model of urban sustainability in which the historic center and peripheral areas are not separate realities, but parts of a single civitas acting cohesively.