rome tourists descending on venice for the long may day weekend can expect some major transit changes enacted in order to preserve the city while also keeping local residents happy for years venetians have been torn between the need to save their unique surroundings keeping it livable for the dwindling resident population while also continuing to welcome millions of tourists every year trying to channel the flow of tourists who gravitate towards the famous landmarks of saint marks basilica and the rialto bridge has remained a challenge more than 200000 flooded the historic city over easter weekend and with the good weather even more could arrive for the upcoming international labor day a cruise ship sits in the distance as a gondola with tourists navigates the grand canal in venice on april 7 2017 miguel medinaafpgetty images with local hotels reporting near capacity bookings the mayor of venice luigi brugnaro has decided to take urgent action and test a new system of channeling the hordes expected to descend on the lagoon islands and clog up canal routes brugnaro has ordered that from saturday into next week police can direct tourist flows on route to the venice islands and moving about the scenic canals and tourist attractions furthermore special excursion boats from the mainland that normally dock near st marks will be forced to dock away from the main sights speaking to reporters earlier this week brugnaro said the city needs to remain livable for those who live and work here we will study these occasions to work on finding the optimum solution for the future a local police officer tells tourists to move away from saint marks square on aug 14 2017 in venice italy luca zanonawakeninggetty images tourist arrivals will be tracked attentively with street cameras allowing police to block off various entry points to the main island canal walkways or streets if some become too crowded these will be closed off and tourists rerouted other ways all venice residents holders of resident transport cards will be allowed to move freely without any restrictions we want to defend and save venice the mayor said it is a duty we have taken on with unesco but above all with our residentsvenice is delicate if they respect the city they are welcome a tourist takes a picture of one of her friends at the top of rialto bridge on aug 1 2017 in venice italy stefano mazzolaawakening via getty images but brugnaro added we want to let people know that there are certain days the city will be crowded and we want to control the flows in different ways and move the crowds in different directions paola mar venice city councilor for tourism told abc news today that this is an important occasion to try and test a solution to deal with tourist flows we hope that venice will open the way for other famous cities known for their art works like florence and rome and we hope that our