Venice will charge tourists a tax from April 2024 – 04/08/2024 – Tourism

On its busiest days, Venice fills with tourists who clog the city’s narrow streets, leave behind piles of rubbish and often frustrate locals. Therefore, the city crossed by the canal is reacting.

From April 25th and for another 29 days, distributed mainly on national holidays and weekends until mid-July, visitors to the historic part of Venice will have to pay 5 euros, around R$27, a measure that authorities Municipal officials hope it will encourage people to visit the site at less busy times.

All tourists will also have to register their presence in the city on the specified days by filling an online form that will help authorities assess how many visitors to expect and strategize on how to deal with them.

“It’s not about making money – the costs of the operation are higher than what we will earn,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told journalists on Thursday, as Venetian authorities began a global publicity campaign.

Instead, Michele Zuin, the city’s budget and economy officer, said the goal is to “better manage the number of tourists and discourage mass tourism, which is what creates, let’s say, the difficulty of living in this city.”

Visitors staying overnight in Venice will not have to pay, nor will those traveling there to work, visit family or study. Anyone born in the city is also exempt, as are children under 14. Brugnaro also explained that there would be no limit to the number of visitors allowed.

Rising improbably from the waters of the Venetian lagoon, the city is as delicate as it is beautiful, and in recent decades it has struggled to protect a uniqueness that is threatened by climate change and rising seas, as well as mass tourism.

To counter this figurative and literal erosion, the city installed giant gates at four mouths of the lagoon to keep out seawater and dry pavements, as well as banning cruise ships from entering the inner canals. Those efforts helped keep Venice off UNESCO’s list of “World Heritage Sites in Danger,” even after experts from the agency raised concerns last year that Italy had not done enough to protect the city.

From 1976 until this year, Italy allocated funds to help safeguard Venice, and on Thursday Brugnaro rebuked the country’s central government for not renewing that funding. He said he had asked the government for 1.5 billion euros over the next 10 years to help preserve a city with a unique heritage that requires ongoing maintenance.

“We need this funding,” he said.

Occasionally, the days have been so busy with tourists that the city has had to limit some streets to one-way pedestrian traffic.

Simone Venturini, municipal responsible for tourism, commented on the new measures: “We will be the first city in the world to know exactly how many tourists will come to Venice that day – whether exempt or paying, they need to register.”

After registering on the website, the visitor will receive a QR code —valid from 8:30 am to 4 pm— which they must present when entering the city at points such as the train station, Piazzale Roma, the municipal parking lot, some seaside locations and the square. Saint Mark. There will be inspections throughout the city.

For now, anyone arriving in Venice without the QR code will be able to purchase it at the last minute, either on a smartphone or at kiosks set up leading to access points, authorities stated.

Violators will face fines of 50 to 300 euros (R$273 to R$1640), plus a fee of 10 euros (R$55), Zuin said.

The initiative is being introduced on a trial basis so city officials can see if the system works and how it can be improved, he said. In the future, the entry fee could be calibrated – “a sliding scale of prices”, highlighted Brugnaro – depending on the day.

“We ask for collaboration,” said Brugnaro, adding that the data accumulated over the 29 days would be made public. He highlighted that authorities from other cities around the world have contacted his administration to find out more about the access system.

So far, more than 50,000 people have registered on the website — about a third of them paying for day-long visits, officials said.

“The whole world wants to come to Venice,” said Venturini at the launch of the advertising campaign, which included a video message from the mayor speaking in several languages ​​using AI-generated speech translation.

In the video, Mayor Brugnaro apologizes for any inconvenience the new system may create. But, for him, “the city has to be protected.”