‘Quality over quantity’: Venice to charge day tourists up to €10 to enter; readies day-trip booking system

As the visitor numbers hit pre-pandemic levels for the first time over the Easter weekend, day-trippers will now be charged 10 euros to enter the Italian city. According to the city’s mayor, visitors can make reservations from this summer, with an entrance fee due from January 2023.

“Tourism in #Venice starts again. A breath of fresh air for operators. Today many have understood that making the City bookable is the right way to take, for more balanced management of tourism,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted, announcing that Venice “will be the first country in the world to do this difficult experiment.”

Riparte il turismo a #Venezia❤️
Una boccata d’ossigeno per gli operatori.
Oggi in tanti hanno capito che la prenotabilità della Città è la strada giusta da intraprendere, per una gestione più equilibrata del turismo.
Saremo i primi al mondo in questa difficile sperimentazione💪😃 pic.twitter.com/XmTOptMfG0

— Luigi Brugnaro (@LuigiBrugnaro) April 18, 2022

According to The Guardian, the plans for an entrance fee have been in the pipeline since it was first approved by the Italian government in late 2018 as a solution to mass tourism in the city. Before the pandemic, it attracted an estimated 30 million people every year.

This new measure will be applied to day-trippers who will need to book in advance and pay between three to ten euros, depending on how busy the city is on the day they want to visit.

“The experimental phase begins in June when day tourists will be invited to book through a website that is being completed by the council,” Simone Venturini, Venice’s tourism councillor, told La Repubblica. “Those who book will receive incentives, such as discounts on entering museums. To determine the access fee, we will set a maximum threshold of 40,000 or 50,000 visitors a day.”

People living in the Veneto region, however, will be exempted from paying the entry fee. They will still be required to make an advance booking. Exemptions for events such as attending a funeral or visiting family will be announced in the coming weeks. Additionally, visitors who stay overnight will be exempted as they already pay the tourist tax.

Having the booking system “will give us the chance to know how many people are predicted for that day, and to calibrate services according to the number. We want less quantity and more quality,” Venturini added.

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