The Italian authorities have announced that they are to start charging visitors to Venice in an attempt to curb ‘hit-and-run’ tourists clogging up the historic city of canals for just one-day visits.
Previous data alleges that 100,000 visitors per day flow into the city, visiting world famous attractions like St Mark’s Basilica and the Rialto Bridge.
However, in just a matter of weeks they will have to pay for the privilege of entering the city in the first place.
So, later on in 2022 tourists will have to book a ticket online, and the tickets will be valid for just one day only, meaning that the number of tourists allowed to enter the city can be capped by the authorities.
Tickets bought on the internet will cost five Euros, and the city’s deputy mayor for tourism claims that they intend to encourage people to visit for longer, rather than just entering the city for the day and flooding the beautiful city.
Simone Venturini said: "The aim is to discourage one-day tourism, hit-and-run tourism, arriving in one day and leaving in the same day, tiring and stressing the city, and encouraging slower tourism instead.”
As well as gates – which are already in place – there will be 500 cameras monitoring people who enter the city.
They will be broadcast to authorities who will monitor them at all times, constantly on the look-out for tourists who haven’t bought a ticket in advance.
The Venetian police will also have the power to track tourists and establish their identity through real-time data provided through mobile phones.
Maria Teresa Maniero, the deputy commander of the Venice police force, said: "If I enter the data in the aggregated anonymous form, we can see exactly who these people are: 977 foreigners, 800 Italians, 135 residents, and 139 commuters.”
The idea is that the system will also make travelling around the city easier for residents, not least because they’ll be able to move about a bit easier due to the – expected – lower rates of tourists.
Also, Venice residents will be exempt from the admission fee.
The Italian government has been planning to introduce restrictions for some time, given the vulnerability of the archipelago city.
Whilst no definitive date has yet been set for the introduction of the measures, and the date has been postponed on several occasions already, they are expected to come into force within a few weeks.
Topics: World News, Travel, Money
Tom Wood