Day-trippers will have to pay €5 to visit the Italian city under the scheme designed to protect it from over-tourism
Venice is moving ahead with an entry fee for day-trippers from today, with authorities now accused of turning the famous city with its magnificent canals into a ‘theme park’.
Venice is the first major city in the world to implement such a plan. The €5 fee aims to protect the Unesco world heritage site from the effects of over-tourism by deterring day-trippers, according to the city’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro.
However, as the Guardian website points out, several committees and associations have planned protests for Thursday, arguing that the entry fee will do nothing to solve the issue.
“I can tell you that almost the whole city is against it,” claimed Matteo Secchi, who heads Venessia.com, an activist group made up of Venice residents.
“You can’t ticket a city, all they do is turn it into a theme park. This is a bad image for Venice… I mean, are we kidding?’
The entrance ticket, which is only required to access the historic center of Venice, is available online and will be valid for 29 days when Venice is at its peak, mostly weekends. The high tourist season for Venice is between April 25th and July 14th.
Residents, commuters, students and children under 14 are exempt, as are overnight tourists.
Day trippers will need to purchase their ticket online and will then be given a QR code. Those without a ticket will be able to purchase a ticket on arrival. Those who do not have a ticket risk fines between 50 and 300 euros.
Venice council said 5,500 people had booked a ticket for April 25, a national holiday in Italy, bringing 27,500 euros to the city’s coffers on the first day. Although Brugnaro has denied it is a money-making initiative, he has promised to lower local taxes for residents if the program is successful.
Federica Toninello, who heads ASC, a housing association, said: “They think this measure will solve the problem, but they haven’t really understood the consequences of mass tourism in a city like Venice.
“For a start, €5 will do nothing to deter people. But day-trippers aren’t the issue, things like the lack of affordable housing are… what we need are policies to help residents, for example, put in place rules to curb things like Airbnb.”
Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.
