Tourists planning to visit Venice from spring 2024 will have to pay an additional fee of five euros per traveler as long as they do not stay overnight in the city. This was approved this Tuesday by the City Council after considering different initiatives in order to discourage mass tourism at certain times of the year, such as spring long weekends or weekends in the summer months.
The measure, which will be applied on an experimental basis, will affect those over 14 years of age, with the exception of residents in the Veneto region and their families, students, workers and those who own second homes, among others. Tourists who spend the night in the city are also exempt from paying.
The first phase of testing will be carried out during the 30 days with the highest influx of foreigners throughout the year and the special calendar will be published in the coming weeks by the local City Council. With this, the capital of Veneto will become the first city in the world to establish a toll that affects tourists who simply intend to spend the day in the city.
The announcement of the new measure comes months after UNESCO included Venice on its list of heritage in danger. According to the organization, mass tourism, renovation projects and climate change are three of its main threats, since they damage the structures of buildings and urban areas, degrading their cultural and social identity.
Despite recognizing that Italy has improved in tourism management, UNESCO considers that the measures applied so far to protect Venice and the lagoon are still not enough, for this reason, in its opinion, it considers that they should be expanded.
