Magnificent palaces overlooking the water, winding canals with gondolas, museums with world-famous art: Venice is unique, a place of longing – and a huge tourist magnet. The city in northern Italy, which writer Thomas Mann once described as “the flattering and suspicious beauty”, attracts millions of visitors from all over the world every year.
Because the “Serenissima” can hardly tame its legions of tourists and the approximately 50,000 residents in the center of the lagoon city are fed up, the city wanted to act.
The solution: ask for admission. In the summer of this year, the municipality presented its Contributo di Accesso (access fee) plan to media representatives from Italy and around the world. The proposal was not new, ideas have been haunting politicians in the UNESCO World Heritage city since 2019. So far, the introduction has failed.
The approval of the local council is pending
But now it should finally start. From January 16, 2023, day tourists should book their visit to Venice online and charge three to ten euros per person, depending on how busy the city is. But nothing comes of the plans for the time being. The final approval of the municipal council is missing, explains culture assessor Simone Venturini. The entry into force has thus been postponed, Venice remains free for the time being.
The city explains the lack of a decision in the council with a survey of citizens, who can submit their suggestions for admission online until January 7th. In fact, the Venice ticket could not be introduced until summer 2023 at the earliest. Because at the beginning of next year, Venice’s politicians want to adopt the project, and then it will be six months before it comes into force, explains a spokesman for the city.
Mainland unaffected by plans
Marco Gasparinetti believes the entrance fee will never come. “The way the regulation is written, it is not applicable and in fact we are already on the fifth postponement,” says the local politician. Despite mass tourism by day trippers and cruisers, the regulation of visitors through the entrance fee is highly controversial among locals.
When tourists talk about Venice, they mean that part in the lagoon with the historic old town including the famous St. Mark’s Square, the Rialto Bridge and the Grand Canal as well as many smaller islands. The city wants to charge a fee for this. This does not apply to the part on the mainland. With the tickets, the authorities could better estimate how many people would come to the city and coordinate public transport accordingly, it was said in the summer.
The city promised six million euros in income for 2023 with the entries, as budget assessor Michele Zuin says. In the years that followed even 13 million euros. Venice wanted to use the money to lower the garbage taxes for the residents and to finance the implementation of the entrance fee. Because at the train station – a main access point – there should not be turnstiles like in the football stadium, but law enforcement officers should control compliance with the entrance in the city.
day trippers and crusaders
Above all, day trippers and the unpopular crusaders should pay. Anyone reserving a hotel in Venice would have received the scan code for access to Venice with the booking. Residents of the city were exempt from the measure anyway. Anyone who invited someone to their home could have requested the code in advance, which critics saw as an invasion of data protection and privacy.
Some Venetians think the city should handle the crowds differently. With admission, Venice will become a “leisure park,” says Matteo Secchi, who runs a pro-Venice website. Above all, he sees the day trippers as a problem, who clog the streets and leave hardly any money in the city. Because of the many tourists, there are already many prohibitions in Venice: For example, you are not allowed to walk around in bathing suits or shirtless or sit on the floor to eat or drink. Fines of up to 500 euros are possible for some offences.
Space is finite
Secchi fears that the tourists would not behave better if they were forced to buy tickets, because then they would have paid. He thinks an extra tax on products sold in Venice is a better way. If you buy a bottle of water, for example, you pay more, but the money then goes to the city. Gasparinetti advocates setting a capacity limit “for reasons of public order and to protect people’s integrity” – especially on weekends with bridging days, when a particularly large number of people want to come. They should then reserve their visit, but for free.
“The occupancy limit has been talked about for 20 years. I am sure that the tourism providers and primarily the tourists will understand that a finite space cannot accommodate infinite masses,” says Gasparinetti. In this context, he also mentioned the risk of mass panics like in Seoul, Korea, or in Turin in June 2017.
