Otranto’s new marina rages the web between “for” and “against”

Afew days ago we wrote that the Council of Ministers released funds earmarked for the construction of the Otranto Tourist Port, an approximately 50 million euro project with nearly 500 berths, plus parking and shore facilities. Condotte d’Acqua SpA, a giant with a worldwide presence, will build the new marina. A project that, as is often the case, has had a very arduous bureaucratic process and a fierce struggle by environmental groups. This is because it is not a project to modernize the existing port area, but a real new tourist marina along the coast, outside the one present today. Also adding meat to the fire is an unfavorable opinion from ARPA Puglia (Regional Agency for Environmental Protection) this spring. We asked you what you thought, and you went wild with comments for and against. Let’s see some of them, and continue to express your opinion by writing to us as the gentlemen below did:

YOUR FAVORABLE COMMENTS…
Domenico: “In Otranto,in the South and in the whole of Italy, receptive infrastructures, even if they are port facilities, can only be more than welcome. If we operate as we know and not in defiance of our Culture and Intelligence we can achieve the indispensable goals for the revival of tourism in one to more and better services for all of us. I omit any comment on the lack of education and respect of a small minority of us.”

Sergio49: “Let’s wake up!!! Let’s open the doors to tourism . I remind you that this year countries like Germany had more tourists than us. The beautiful country without infrastructure is no longer enough. Welcome this and other ports to the south.”

Flower: “I support the construction of Otranto’s new marina, it will bring a breath of fresh air to the fragile economy of the place.”

Paul: “Are you kidding me?” a yacht owner hulls at least 1 time a year, needs a yard, and pays labor. Also, the marina provides mooring and guarding services and again hires people and pays labor. Then, where there are marinas I see the restaurants always full, the grocery stores supplying galleys delivering even at night, the taxi drivers bringing people back and forth. And in your opinion is the bag of chips or the hotdog bought by the bagapelist better. But where do you live?”

…AND THOSE AGAINST
Totò: “I think the area of virgin coastline that will be affected will be at least 100 meters if not more. The existing harbor and its services could be improved and expanded. I remind you that boats in transit already in early October have difficulty finding a place to eat in the village and on a weekday, let’s start here…”

Francis: “You can do everything by pleasing everyone. Marinas need to be done, I think it is not necessary to do them either by cementing or defacing a historic and naturalistic landscape. You can find solutions other than concrete and bars that are horrible. I have seen marinas in Brittany full of boats but in a historical context unchanged for centuries.
I am against doing it there and the way things are done in Italy, but I agree to do it by finding different and alternative solutions. As for the backpackers, I would not despise them so much, they bring money too and to the whole territory while the rich yacht owners serve only to enrich the marina managers. Forget about the rich spending in the territory. Let’s not do with ports as they did with warehouses, everywhere and under the guise of economy creating ecomonsters that are now largely empty. They could have been done by better spatial planning.”

Francis: “Dock optimization is right to do it, just don’t make everyone’s port a private marina. If you want to make a private marina you do it somewhere else, maybe nearby but I think it is wrong and unfair to turn everyone’s beach squares with concrete into yards with travel lifts. That’s the whole problem, however a compromise can be found, doing things without distorting, maybe with new ideas and innovative solutions. Otranto is a strategic point, the home base for Greece, it absolutely must have its own marina but it is also a pearl of rare beauty that should not be distorted and subjected to one principle of profit. The marina is not the boon that solves all problems, tourism should be promoted in all its forms by enhancing the area. My cousin has a hotel restaurant in a seaside resort, famigliole, cibattine and little more, he decided to also open a restaurant in the most famous marina in Italy located a few kilometers away. Well the latter restaurant closed it years ago, the other one with the constant coming and going of famigliole still thrives.”