‘A guinea pig’ in fight against over-tourism
Thousands of people have paid a €5 (NZD$9) entry fee to visit Venice this spring as the city tries to reduce the hordes of tourists clogging its streets and canals.
More than 15,000 visitors have bought tickets to enter the city on April 25, the first of 29 days this year when day-trippers must pay to get in.
Another 51,000 people qualified for free entry because they work or study there.
“We want to defend this city and make it liveable,” said mayor Luigi Brugnaro.
Venice’s tourism industry has bounced back after the pandemic, with 40,000 daytrippers on peak days, as well as 40,000 booked into accommodation. Their number dwarfs the city’s resident population of 49,000.
Visitors paying online will get a code they can show inspectors on their phone on arrival, with violators risking fines of up to €300 (NZ$540).
Tourists who stay overnight are exempt, as are students, commuters and residents’ relatives.
“We are running TV ads to alert daytrippers. We don’t need to worry about visitors [from overseas] who will more likely sleep in the city,” said Simone Venturini, Venice’s tourism chief.
Visitors would be able to see how many bookings have been made, which may persuade them to come on a less busy day.
“We have had to enforce one-way systems for pedestrians in alleys that are 90cm wide – we need the city to be less crowded on certain key days,” Brugnaro said.
Michele Zuin, the city’s finance chief, said: “It’s not about money, Venice had a surplus of €54 million last year.”
The scheme will run from April 25 to May 5, then most weekends until mid-July.
Brugnaro said the ticketing system was "a format that other cities can study" as over-tourism clogs up destinations around the world.
“About 20 cities have asked us for information about what we are doing," he said, including one in the United Kingdom, which he declined to name.
Venturini said that he had been inundated with questions about the scheme at a recent United Nations tourism conference.
"We are guinea pigs, and there was great interest," he said. – The Times