The waters are rising around Venice. Each year the floods worsen and last longer. Carpets of slime coat St Mark's Square. Statues and church walls are coated with filth. The city is drowning. But there is a solution: run the place like Dis-neyland, leading UK economist John Kay says.
According to Kay, author of The Truth About Markets and other key works on economics, there should be a major restructuring of the city's operations.
Venice can no longer be run like a normal European city, he argues. Turning it into a theme park offers its only hope of salvation. Thus the gondolas of the Grand Canal could one day rival Space Mountain in providing free rides -- and hour-long queues -- to visitors from across the world.
"If the Disney Corporation was in charge of Venice it would not be in peril as it is today," Kay said. "I am not saying Disney should be given the job, however. My point is that an enterprise that is used to providing entertainment for the masses is best placed to save the city. At present, no one is running Venice. That is why it is dying."
Under Kay's scheme, tourists would be charged an entrance fee of between 20 euros (US$25.80) and 30 euros. Once inside, they would be able to visit Venice's glorious churches, restaurants and hotels, which would be run as franchises dispensed by the corporation in charge of the city.
The idea will form the core of proposals to be outlined at an international symposium at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Monday. It will debate the proposition "Enough money has been spent saving Venice."
Kay will speak for the motion. The novelist and journalist A.N. Wilson and architectural historian Joseph Rykwert will oppose it.
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