Western Daily Press (Saturday)
VENICE PILOTS DAY-TRIPPER FEE
THE city of Venice has launched a pilot programme to charge day-trippers an entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more liveable for residents.
Signs advising arriving visitors of the new requirement for a test phase of 29 days through July have been installed outside the main railway station and other points of arrival. Some 200 stewards have been trained to politely walk anyone unaware of the five euro (£4.28) fee through the process of downloading a QR code.
A kiosk has been set up for those not equipped with a smartphone. Once past designated entry ports, officials will carry out random checks for QR codes that show the day-tripper tax has been paid or that the bearer is exempt.
Transgressors face fines of 50-300 euros (£53-£257). The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8.30am and 4pm. Outside of those hours, access is free.
“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,” said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini.
“We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of daytrippers on some particular days.”
Venice has long suffered under the pressure of over-tourism, but officials say that pre-pandemic estimates ranging from 25 million to 30 million visitors a year – including day-trippers – are not reliable and that the pilot project also aims to come up with more exact figures to help better manage the phenomenon.
The tourist official says interest in Venice’s pilot programme has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities, and cities abroad such as Barcelona and Amsterdam.