Too many tourists: Venice charges an entrance fee of five euros

Venice is popular – too popular. The masses of tourists are putting a strain on the residents, but also on the historic buildings. Now the lagoon city wants its visitors to pay an entrance fee of five euros. Activists and hoteliers view this with skepticism.

A normal day in Venice. Men, women and children push their way through the narrow streets, and a group of tourists stand on one of the many bridges and listen to their tour guide. Getting through is hardly possible anymore. Long queues form in front of a pier for the Vaporetti, the famous water buses.

That’s probably why many tourists don’t mind the day ticket for five euros. A woman says she has been coming to Venice regularly since she was a child. She doesn’t agree with the new fee. “But it is necessary and we will adapt.” Another says: “Millions of tourists every year, everyone has to do their part.”

A five-euro entry fee is intended to deter day visitors

Mayor Luigi Brugnaro says Venice doesn’t want to make any money with the entrance fee. It’s not about counting how many people have paid and how many haven’t. “It’s important to us that the city is less congested; it should deter people from coming as day tourists on such and such a day.”

This year, entry to the lagoon city is required between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on a total of 29 days. First until May 5th, then on several weekends until July 14th. It’s a testing phase. Experience shows that these are the days when many visitors come, sometimes there are 100,000 people.

Without a QR code you face a fine of 300 euros

Anyone who wants to visit Venice as a day tourist must register on a website and pay the entrance fee; children under 14 are exempt from this. After payment you will receive a QR code that you must show during checks. According to Simone Venturini, the city councilor for tourism, there will be no turnstiles and no barriers. Information pillars would make people aware that they are entering the old town. Visitors are randomly checked.

Without the ticket, penalties of up to 300 euros will apply. Everyone must have the QR code with them on the specified days, including overnight guests, who do not have to pay anything.

The Hotel Tivoli is located in a small street near the train station and has 22 rooms. A family has been running it for decades; daughter Emilia works at the reception. For hotels, the new fee means a lot of additional work. Emilia says that they have prepared an email that will be automatically sent to the guests. “With all the rules and instructions and with the description of how to download the QR code for the period of your stay.”

UNESCO warnings

For years there was debate in the city about what could be done about the influx of tourists. The United Nations cultural organization, UNESCO, threatened to classify Venice as a world heritage site in danger. The measures taken so far are not sufficient to protect the universal value of the historic city and its lagoons.

For Giacomo Salerno from the “OCIO” initiative, the entry fee doesn’t change anything. According to the Venetian, the housing shortage is a big problem. The city leadership could have created rules for holiday apartments in the last two years in order to reduce the number of Airbnbs and tourist accommodations in the city. “She didn’t want that,” said Salerno.

There are now fewer than 50,000 residents living in the old town, and their number has steadily declined in recent years. Emilia from the Hotel Tivoli has nothing against tourists, after all her family hotel relies on them. And yet she has one wish for them: “I think it’s less about how many people come than about obeying the rules, such as walking on the right or not swimming in the canal. That’s the problem.”