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The Italian city of Venice is pitching itself to the young working class across the world in a bid to become more than a tourist destination.

Venice’s problem is its dwindling population - down to 50,000 from over 1,70,000 in the 1950s; to make matters worse the city’s population is also aging.

There are double the number of 50 year-olds in Venice than there are people in their 20s, which has led to the need for a younger populace, even if only for a few months at a time.

Career opportunities in the city of Venice are pretty restricted, considering the fact that the city is a collection of islands with no roads connecting them, just water.

Graduates of the Università Ca’ Foscari don’t always want to be gondoliers, tourist guides or waiters, which makes building a career in Venice challenging

All these factors have contributed to the creation of Venywhere in December 2021, a program that targets remote workers, digital nomads and freelancers. People who don’t need a lot of infrastructure to work with, who would fit right into Venice.

Venywhere is also trying to get large companies on board, conglomerates that can afford to send entire teams to Venice to work for a month, essentially a large-scale team exercise.

But even remote work has its challenges - Venice needs to improve its Wifi, carve out co-working spaces and ease the transition for arriving workers. All problems Venywhere is fixing, with open-air wifi, repurposed heritage buildings and constant support.

Professionals moving to Venice get access to a concierge service that eases them into Venetian life and promises to help newcomers navigate the city. In return, Venice gets an influx of young professionals to rejuvenate their city.