Venice vs. Bezos: The Wedding That Could Sink A City

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez's wedding in Venice poses a lot of questions about sustainable tourism and the future of the floating city

Stunning. But for how much longer? (Photo by Henrique Ferreira on Unsplash)

This weekend a party will take place with one of the most stunning backdrops imaginable. The amount of celebrities in attendance will be reminiscent of a royal wedding.

Jeff Bezos will be marrying Lauren Sánchez in Italy. And, of course, they had to choose Venice.

Who wouldn’t want to get married in Venice if they had the means to do so? Who would say no to reciting their vows in such a fairytale setting if they could afford it? Who could resist the temptation to invite hundreds of ‘friends’ from all over the world to such a scene-stealing location?

But with all the options at his disposal, did Jeff really have to choose the one place on earth that would not have welcomed him and his flock of jet-setting celebrities with open arms?

Surely, he could have hosted his invite-all-the-cool-kids-so-they-think-I’m-one-of-them nuptials anywhere in the world. Ever heard of Lake Como, Jeff? I’m sure George — who also happened to get married in Venice — could put in a good word. What about the rolling Tuscan hills? I feel like a private island could have been appropriate. Even one of his Blue Origin rockets would have felt more fitting.

But it just had to be Venice. It had to be one of the most over-touristed spots on the map, a place that is literally sinking due to climate change. A place where there are constant protests against mass tourism.

Okay, okay. Maybe he didn’t know. Or maybe he hasn’t been reading up on the news, despite owning one of the biggest newspapers in the US. Or perhaps, like many successful entrepreneurs of his cohort, Jeff hasn’t had a conversation with a normal person in ten years.

More likely, he just decided he doesn’t give a damn. Honestly, we shouldn’t be surprised. In recent times, he has stopped caring about a lot of things — including editorial integrity at the Washington Post.

Part of it is a normal evolution of his midlife crisis which saw him go from nerdy librarian visionary to a buff, vest-and-aviator-wearing tech-bro launching rockets into orbit. But another part of it is an impressive ability to not read the room.

A more appropriate venue for a tech-bro wedding? (Photo by Natalya on Unsplash)

Guess who does care though? The people of Venice. These are the same people experiencing a housing crisis prompted by the 120,000 day trippers their city averages per day during peak season (in a city with just 50,000 residents). They are also the same people whose city probably won’t exist in two generations because of the effects of rising sea levels (2.8mm/year) and subsidence (1.5mm/year).

Venetians made clear this week, that they don’t want Amazon weddings there any more than they want Disney cruises, regardless of how many suites are booked in five-star hotels. The city will essentially be closed off for his private party and the locals will not gain anything from it.

Their protests managed to get the venue moved and avoid a procession passing through the center of the city. It was one of the rare cases of a tourist hotspot successfully rising up against the powers that be (take note, Barcelona). Now, whether Jeff truly got the message and how much of a difference it will actually make to Venice’s long term prospects is another question.

Flooding in Venice has become all too common of an occurrence. (Photo by Egor Gordeev on Unsplash)

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Insult to injury

I understand that the discussion around sustainable tourism is contentious at best. It is easy to make the argument that economies dependent on tourism complaining about tourists, they are like a child biting the hand that feeds them. I’ve made the argument myself, even on this newsletter. I send my clients to Venice if they request to go there. In this case, however, we enter a different dimension of the debate altogether. Insult is added to injury.

Why does Mr. Bezos get to do whatever he wants and not be held accountable for the potential damage?

To put into perspective just how existential this is, with the current rate of subsidence and sea-level rise impacting the Venice lagoon, it is estimated that the historic city center will become unlivable by 2100.

If, inspired by Jeff, billionaires decided to host as lavish of a party as the Amazon wedding every weekend during high season in Venice (because, let’s remember, he decided to have this wedding when the city is spread as thin as it gets, when he could just as easily have done so in October), then the impact of the increased emissions and the tripling of the erosion on the canal, could accelerate the city’s death date to 2035.

Bezos is a numbers guy, so maybe this will resonate.

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Leo the savior

A Scottish barber of mine used to tell anyone in his shop who came back from a ski holiday — including yours truly — that their flying to a ski holiday was the entire reason nobody would be able to ski fifty years from now. He had a point.

Ironically, Leonardo DiCaprio — Hollywood bad boy turned climate change evangelist — will be attending the celebrations. Like many others he will arrive on his private jet and take a mini-yacht through the lagoon. This is the same guy that upon winning Best Actor at the Academy Awards, indulged us all in a Greta Thunberg-style speech about the perils of climate change.

I guess Greta would agree that we can make an exception for a bald billionaire’s wedding celebrations though, right?

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Up Next: Albania!

I was planning to release my Albania destination spotlight this week, but decided to indulge in writing about a celebrity wedding instead. Maria and I spent a great wedding weekend in Albania and in the next edition of GlobeFoxing, I’ll make my pitch to Jeff on behalf of Albania to host his next party.

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That’s all for this edition of GlobeFoxing. Thanks for reading and happy travels!

N.V. Foxes