Venice will double the number of days it charges tourists entrance fees by 2025, the city’s mayor said, after a “successful” trial last year.
Luigi Brugnaro said the goal remains to discourage tourists from visiting the city on the same days “to give Venice the respect it deserves”.
Those traveling on pre-booked dates will have to pay €5 (£4.17; $5.41) to enter the Italian city on certain dates from April to July, rising to €10 if they book little in advance. more than four days.
The charge was first imposed last April and covers 29 days – mainly weekends and holidays – over a four-month period.
The tax will be applied from Friday to Sunday every week and on holidays from April 18 to July 27, 2025, for a total of 54 days.
All visitors over the age of 14 will have to pay the fee on their phone and download a QR code to show to inspectors, who will randomly check people in common arrival areas, such as train stations.
Those without tickets risk being fined.
Like the previous fee, people booking hotels and guest houses as well as residents of the Veneto region, students studying at the university of Venice and those visiting relatives living in Venice will be exempted.
City councilor Simone Venturini said: “Venice has gone from being the city most exposed and criticized for overtourism, to being the city that responded to this phenomenon early and proactively. globally”.
According to Italian media, in the first eight days of the plan in April, Venetian authorities collected the amount of money they hoped to earn in three months.
By the end of the trial period in mid-July, the city had collected about 2.4 million euros (£2 million; $2.5 million) in entry fees.
But Mayor Brugnaro said he will have to wait for further analysis to see whether the budget for the program completely breaks even.
Italian media reported that the cost of the ticketing platform and the media campaign following the announcement of the initiative was around 3 million euros.
Opposition Venice councilor Giovanni Andrea Martini said in July that the entrance fee system was a “failure” because it did not help disperse the flow of tourists visiting Venice.
At the time, Mr Martini also said that increasing the fee from 5 euros to 10 euros was “useless” and would only “turn Venice into a museum”.
Last year, UNESCO said the city should be added to its list of world heritage sites in danger, as the effects of climate change and mass tourism threaten to cause irreversible changes to the world. with it.
And in 2021, Large cruise ships are banned from entering Venice’s historic center through the Giudecca Canal after a ship crashed into the harbor.
Critics also say the ships are polluting and eroding the foundations of the city, which regularly suffers from floods.
