Ticket 5 euros should from today to pay those making a day trip to Venice. The ticket is global originality and according to the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro aims to protect the city, which has been declared a world heritage site by hypertourism.
The ticket is required to enter the historical Center of Venice. The city council of Venice announced that they have been done 5,5000 reservations for April 25, the first day the measure comes into force, which they will bring 27,500 euros in the city coffers. This excludes those who live and work in the city, overnight tourists, as well as students and children under 14. They will take place random checks at five main arrival points and those found without a ticket are at risk of a fine of 50-300 euros.
The imposition of tolls, of course, has caused local reactions with several committees and residents’ associations calling for protest marches for today.
“They’re turning the city into a theme park”
“I can tell you that almost the whole city is against it” argued Matteo Cecchi, who heads Venessia.com, and added “you can’t impose an entry fee on a city, all they do is turn it into theme park. This is a bad image for Venice (…) Are we kidding?’
For her part, Federica Toninello, who leads the ASC, emphasized that the measure does not solve the real problem, which is housing costs. “They think this measure will solve the problem, but they haven’t really understood the consequences of mass tourism in a city like Venice. First, 5 euros will do nothing to deter people. But the day trippers are not the problem – it’s things like lack affordable housing (…) What we need are policies that will help residents, for example, establishing rules to limit things like Airbnb,” he said.
