Venice: Tourists Visiting for a Day Will Pay 5 Euros for Entry

Starting April 25, Venice, Italy’s most popular city for tourists, will charge an entrance fee. The ticket costs 5 euros per person. At the moment, Venetian authorities have clarified that this is an “experiment” that will last from April 25 to May 5, and on weekends until July 14.

According to Italian media, “on the first toll day, thousands of people lined up to go through one of the 15 ticket checkpoints.” In previous days, 113,000 people had booked tickets through the municipality’s platform, but only 15,700 had to pay €5. All others turned out to be “hotel guests, relatives, or friends of Venetians, city property owners, students on a study trip, etc.” On the first day, the municipality raised just over 78,000 euros, much less than expected. The desired effect, i.e. limiting the presence of daily tourists, was not achieved, but Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said he was still “satisfied.”

Venice is the first major city in Italy and one of the first in the world to introduce a paid ticket for tourists visiting for a day. However, tourists staying overnight in the city are exempted from paying the fee: for them the tourist tax is already obligatory. Those working in Venice, even as shuttles, do not pay. “Obviously,” the Post newspaper clarified, “students of any learning institution within the municipality, whether schools or universities, do not pay, nor do residents of the Veneto region, those who need treatment in a city municipal facility, or those who visit a person living in Venice (they have to make a request).”

In addition to the 15 checkpoints at the station, inspections were also conducted within the city limits. On the first day of the experiment, 75 controllers stopped 14,000 people for inspection. At the moment there is no data on fines, which range from 50 to 300 euros.

According to the Post, “it appears that the measure’s main goal – to discourage tourists from staying only one day – has not been achieved, although it is too early to make definite assessments.” As the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, stated, “nothing has been done so far to regulate tourism, we are trying to do something about it. Based on the data obtained, we will decide how to proceed. In the future, there will be more toll days, and we will introduce other services with QR codes.”