Venice will charge tourists €10 to visit the city in world first as officials set up online booking system to combat overcrowding
- World-first scheme will see day-trippers charged flat fee to enter city – or fined
- Rulebreakers face penalty of €300 (£260) if they fail to show booking QR code
- More than three-quarters of Venice visitors – 19million in 2019 – go for just a day
- Number of tourists dwarfs locals during holidays, crowding bridges and canals
Venice will become the world’s first city to charge tourists an entry fee in an effort to stem the number of visitors who throng its tiny island centre.
From January, day-trippers to the Italian canal city must pay three to ten euros (£2.60 to £8.60), depending on the season and whether they booked in advance.
Tourists who fail to show a QR code proving the payment will face a fine of up to €300 (£260).
Venetians have long complained about the mass of visitors who flock to the city during summer.
The city’s diminishing number of residents have long complained about the mass of tourists
Venice hotspots such as Piazza San Marco, pictured in June, are visited by millions each year
The city long referred to as ‘La Serenissima’ (‘The Most Serene’) is peaceful no longer.
The miniature main island, which measures 2 sq miles and is populated by 50,000 permanent residents, was visited by 19million people in 2019.
That’s an average of 52,000 each day – and in peak season, that figure can double.
Local airport Venice Marco Polo is also Italy’s fourth busiest, with 11.2million passengers in 2018.
Yet more than three-quarters of people who amass at Piazza San Marco do so for just a day.
That also means they spend far less money than those who stay overnight.
But guests who opt to stay the night in the city will be waived from the reserve-and-fee system
City landmark Chiesa di San Trovaso is pictured as a pair of tourists sit in a Venice gondola
Guests who stay the night already pay a city tax of one to five euros per night and will be exempt from the reserve-and-fee system.
Venice last summer banned cruise ships from lining the lagoon city in order to preserve its World Heritage Site status.
Nearby industrial port Monfalcone, on the gulf of Trieste, instead became busy with the huge cruises.
Tourism commissioner Simone Venturini told a news conference yesterday: ‘We won’t talk about number cutoffs. We’re talking about incentives and disincentives.’
Last year Venice banned cruise ships from docking close to its famous lagoon (file image)
She added that the new system ‘will be simple for visitors’ and ‘reduce frictions between day visitors and residents’.
Local newspaper Corriere della Sera wrote of the announcement: ‘Venice is becoming more and more like Disneyland.’
Exceptions to the fees are set to include children under six, people with disabilities and those with homes or timeshares in Venice, provided they pay council tax.
Crowded by tourists from around the world since the 1960s, Venice has been a European capital of culture and finance since the Italian Renaissance.
Yet its resident population has steadily declined amid logistical challenges such as the high cost of delivering food, problematic ambulance access to homes, and frequent flooding to homes and businesses.
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