ROME: Starting next year, the Venice city administration in Italy will require foreigners to pay an entry fee. This is part of the city’s effort to manage its tourist population.
Those planning a visit to Venice considered the country’s prime tourist destination, will be required to pay an entrance fee of €5 ($5.35) beginning January 2024. This is a directive from the city council with the aim of refining Italy’s tourism structure.
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Furthermore, tourists are urged to act responsibly while navigating Venice, acknowledged for its beautiful canals. The northern Italian city has contended with the negative impact of over-tourism for years and has decided to enforce stricter regulations for visitors this summer season.
The entry fee will be rolled out as an experiment for 30 days in the upcoming year, obligating all visitors above 14 years old to pay, as reported by a foreign news agency.
According to Simone Venturini, the Councilor for Tourism in Venice, the proposed fee is intended to cover the cost of implementing the plan, not to serve as a revenue source.
The city administration also seeks to restrict the number of visitors to Venice. To put this into perspective, in 2019 Venice recorded 5.5 million tourists – a figure that’s 100 times greater than the actual population of the city.
The project was originally suggested in 2019 but got deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a significant drop in tourist visits to Italy, along with some technical complications.
Earlier in July of the current year, UNESCO professionals advised that due to the risks it faces, Venice and its lagoon should be incorporated into the World Heritage List. The statement insinuated that Italy has not been taking sufficient measures against the challenges of climate change and mass tourism threatening the city’s preservation.