by InTrieste
Venice is to trial a €5 entry fee system for day-trippers in 2024 as officials seek to ease the pressure on the fragile lagoon city from hordes of tourists.
The move, first mooted a few years ago and stalled several times due to the covid pandemic and various logistic obstacles, was announced by the city council on Tuesday.
The entry fee system will be introduced on a 30-day experimental basis in the days around key public holidays in the spring and summer, the council said.
The exact dates and how the system will work are set to be announced following final approval by the council on 12 September.
The entry fee system will position Venice as a “trailblazer on a global level”, according to the city’s tourism councilor Simone Venturini, who said the aim was to find a “new balance between the rights of those who live, study or work in Venice, and those who visit the city”.
The fee would only apply to tourists on day trips, not those staying in Venice overnight.
Residents of the surrounding Veneto region and visitors under the age of 14 would be exempt from paying the fee, as would those visiting the city for academic, medical, work or family reasons, according to news reports.
UNESCO said recently that Venice was at risk of “irreversible damage” from climate change and mass tourism, warning that the canal city faced being declared an endangered world heritage site unless more was done to protect it.
