Rome: Venice will this week start charging day-trippers for entry in a move aimed at easing pressure on the Italian city, which is sinking under the weight of mass tourism.
On Thursday – a public holiday in Italy – visitors must buy a five-euro ($5.3) ticket for the first time to be watched by inspectors carrying out ground checks at UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Venice is one of the top tourist destinations in the world with 3.2 million tourists per night in the historic center in 2022.
Tens of thousands of people, often from cruise ships, pour into the city’s narrow streets to see sights such as St Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge.
The purpose of the ticket is to encourage daily commuters to a quieter time, trying to avoid the worst crowds.
First, during 2024, 29 working days are required, especially on weekends in May and July.
But the plan appeals to many tourists, boosts the local economy but harms most communities and fragile ecosystems and historic sites.
In Spain, the second most visited country in the world after France, tens of thousands of people protested on Saturday in the Canary Islands demanding a ban on visitors to the archipelago.
The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, described the city plan as “an experiment and a first in the world”.
“Our goal is to make Venice more alive,” he said.
Spread over 100 islands and islets in northeastern Italy, Venice is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
In 1987, the UNESCO World Heritage Site registered the city and its lagoon as “an outstanding work of architecture”.
But UNESCO threatened to delist Venice last year, citing mass tourism and rising water levels linked to climate change.
Venice escaped scandal only after local authorities adopted a new ticketing system.
This idea has been mooted for a long time, but has been postponed several times due to concerns that it would seriously affect tourism revenue and harm freedom of movement.
In a debate on the plan last September, the opposition council rejected the move as a hasty compromise with UNESCO that had no effect.
“Fifty euros might do something,” said Gianfranco Bettin.
By 2021, Venice has banned large cruise ships, which take thousands of passengers a day and transfer them to more distant industrial ports.
He also imposed a tax on overnight visitors.
The mayor of Venice promised that the new system would be given “very gentle control” and “no queuing”, rejecting speculation that the city would set up barriers or turnstiles on the road.
Managers will be stationed in and around the main entrance of the city, especially the Santa Lucia train station, conducting ground checks on visitors.
They also face fines between 50 and 300 euros.
The “Venice entrance fee” only targets tourists entering the old city between 8:30 am and 4 pm, with tourists staying in hotels, under 14s, and disabled among those exempted.
For now, there is no ceiling on the number of tickets that can be downloaded daily from the distribution website (https://cda.ve.it/en/) in the form of QR codes.
