Venice begins implementing a tax to reduce excessive tourism

The municipality of Venice has set the twenty-nine days of the year 2024 in which it will impose its new tax of five euros on tourists who come for one day to the Italian city, which suffers from the disadvantages of waves of mass tourism.
This measure begins to be implemented in the period that witnesses the peak of tourist activity and extends from April 25 to May 5, and then the tax is imposed during the weekends in May (11, 12, 18, 19, 25, and 26 of it) and in June (8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, and 30 of it). , in addition to two weekends in July (6, 7, 13 and 14).
The targets of this tax, whose implementation has been postponed more than once, are limited to tourists who enter the Old City between 8:30 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, local time, as the municipality explained in a statement.
The statement quoted Mayor Luigi Brugnaro as saying, “It is not a revolution, but rather the first step in a system that regulates the arrival of visitors who come during the day for one day.”
He explained that it is “an experience aimed at improving the quality of life in the city, for those who live and work in it.”
Brugnaro acknowledged that “the margins of error are large,” but stressed the municipality’s readiness to “introduce all necessary amendments to improve the procedure,” recalling that “Venice is the first city in the world to implement this system, which may serve as an example that can be adopted by other fragile and sensitive cities that must be protected.” “.
The main goal of this measure, which the municipality announced in September, is to discourage one-day visitors from contributing to crowding in the city, which is famous all over the world for its works of art, bridges and canals.
In mid-September, Venice narrowly escaped inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List in Danger, even though the organization’s experts recommended at the end of July that it be classified as such, considering that Italy had so far taken “insufficient” measures to combat the deterioration of the site.