Far From Gentrification and Touristification? Residents’ perceptions of displacement on Murano Island

Abstract

Murano, an island in Venetian Lagoon, is world-renowned for its historical glassmaking industry. In the last decades, similarly to what is happening in central Venice, Murano has seen a significant decrease in its population and a reduction of its traditional activities, both being connected to broader tourism gentrification dynamics. Prompted by this, the authors devised and circulated a wide-ranging questionnaire that aimed to investigate the economic, social, and territorial factors affecting people’s quality of life on the island. The questionnaire was completed by almost 15% of Murano’s residents and one aspect that it captured was various inhabitants’ perceptions of issues concerned with tourism gentrification, which we analysed using Cocola-Gant’s (2018) concepts of residential, commercial, and place-based displacement. We found that Muranese residents these dynamics most keenly when they impact their daily life on the island, and they are concerned about the loss of the identity of places they know and live in. We conclude by affirming that this situation is not irreversible, and that policy makers can act to address it.