A trial fee of €5 for daily visitors is expected to get the green light in Venice in the ancient city’s bid to control mounting tourism.
The city is just 7.6 sq km in size, but it hosted almost 13 million tourists in 2019, according to the Italian national statistics institute. Numbers of visitors are expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in the coming years, the BBC reports.
Over-tourism is widely recognised as an urgent issue for Venice.
In terms of the latest proposal, all visitors over the age of 14 will have to pay a fee of €5 and book their entry to the city in advance. Tourists staying overnight will be exempt.
City council member for tourism Simone Venturini says the trial will run during peak tourist periods next year.
Venturini is reported as saying: ‘Venice is among the most visited European cities… [and so] suffers the most from excess tourism.’
He added: ‘The objective is to invite daily tourists to choose [off-peak] days. We want to test [the fee] and, if needed, improve it. We cannot discuss for [an]other 40 years what’s best to do.’
Image by Gerhard Bögner from Pixabay