Next spring, tourists coming to Venice for a day will have to pay a fee of five euros to enter the city of canals. This will be a 30-day experiment for the time being, reports CNN, referring to a post by Venice Mayor Luigi Brunaro on the social network “X” (formerly “Twitter”).
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The experiment is not expected to run for 30 consecutive days, with city councilors spreading the “charge days” throughout the year, choosing the periods when tourist flows are highest, such as weekends and during the height of Carnival. The aim of the new fee is to reduce the number of day tourists and to find a new balance between those who live, study or work in Venice and those who simply visit the city.
All tourists over the age of 14 who come to the city for one day will have to pay to enter the old town of Venice.
Simone Venturini, a member of the Venice Tourism Board, explains that the fee will not bring significant income to the city, the amount will only cover administrative expenses. The exact action plan will be agreed after the council makes its final decision next week.
The plan for a tourist tax in Venice was first proposed in 2019. Its implementation was postponed first due to the Covid-19 pandemic, when movement between countries was restricted, but later technical and process obstacles hindered everything.
Meanwhile, the flow of tourists in Venice has increased rapidly again, often there are significantly more travelers than residents in the city.
Overtourism is a long-standing problem in Venice. In July, UNESCO experts recommended adding Venice and its lagoon to the list of endangered World Heritage Sites, saying Italy was not doing enough to protect the city from the effects of climate change and mass tourism.
2023-09-06 17:26:52
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