Venice has always been a tourist favourite destination for all kinds of travellers around the world, thanks to its rich history and unique architecture and lifestyle. Even though 90% of its economy is based on tourism, some locals got to the point of complaining about the big numbers of visitors that flock the city every year, especially in summertime.
Yet from November 2019 to February 2020 the city has experienced a dramatic drop in visitors, resulting in a small economic crisis that could get worse in the months to come.
The reason? Very simple, a lot of fake news pushed by hungry-for-fame journalists around the world who are willing to sell their stories at any cost, without any care about the effects they can have on local markets. For example, Venice has been hit particularly by two fake news: the high tides and the Coronavirus panic.
Let’s address the first issue, high tides. Venice always experiences high tides during winter, yet some fundamental details were left out by the media around the world: the high tides only last for a couple of hours each time, and the total number of days affected in a year are usually 10-15 (at most). Yet people were told that Venice was constantly flooded by a massive Tsunami disaster, like a dramatic sci-fi movie with Tom Cruise trying to save the planet from extinction.
Now let’s address the Coronavirus panic outbreak that news outlets are trying to push nowadays. The virus is real, no doubt about that, but the mortality rate is so low (less than 2%) and restricted to extremely weak people (very old or already affected by some other conditions). Not to mention that the only deaths were registered in China, where healthcare systems are not as competitive as in European or North American countries.
Therefore we want everyone to know the facts and not get scared by what most news agencies are trying to sell you in order to get clicks and money off of stories based on a very limited percentage of truth.
Visit Venice, visit Europe. You won’t regret it.
Article by Vidal Venice Tours