Passengers arriving at Venice's Santa Lucia train station on Thursday morning were told by an overhead announcement that they might have to pay a €5 fee to enter the city's historic center. Ta. Failure to pay could result in fines ranging from 50 euros to 300 euros, the statement said.
Police officers in riot gear stand outside the station, while a swarm of assistants in colorful safety vests stop arriving travelers with QR codes indicating they have registered to visit on the city's website. I confirmed that I have the code. Those who did not were directed to an available booth. After registration, guests are sent on their way without paying, but those who plan to stay only for the day will be charged a fee (though there were other exemptions).
It's a welcome addition to Venice, the world's first city to charge a nominal entrance fee for day-trippers, a move city officials hope will help combat overtourism.
“I only found out about it when my partner emailed me this morning letting me know it was happening,” Lorraine Colcher, a hospital administrator in Wirral, UK, said at the booth. “I thought he was joking.”
And she didn't think people should have to pay for the privilege of seeing “a beautiful city that everyone wants to visit,” she said.
Hundreds of demonstrators were making noise not far from the station. For them, charging an admission fee was an alarming step toward moving Venice closer to becoming the theme park many fear unless the tide turns. They blew whistles and handed out fake tickets with the words “Welcome to Veniceland” written on them. Some held placards reading “Venice is not for sale” and “Stick your tickets” and chanted: “We want our city back.”
“Tickets are not the solution to overtourism,” said Renata Marzari, one of the protesters and a former teacher from Venice.
Like other locals, she acknowledged that the influx of tourists – which reached nearly 20 million last year – could pose a challenge. She says that often involves physical confrontations, including “a finger-pointing incident where you walk over with a suddenly raised hand, or a photo shoot where the other person peeks into their phone and turns back to you.” This includes accidents. But the ticket only applies to day-trippers arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., which she says is “ridiculous”. She added: “You could make more money if you charged for every cigarette butt left on the ground.”
Venice is just one of dozens of cities, including Amsterdam, Athens and Barcelona, struggling with an overabundance of tourists. Speaking outside the train station Thursday morning, the city's mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, said he had been contacted by other locations interested in the initiative, but declined to say which locations “for confidentiality reasons.” Ta.
Venice, a floating city criss-crossed by canals, is traditionally said to have been founded in 421, although that date is disputed, and is extremely fragile. Last year, experts from UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural agency, recommended that it be added to the World Heritage List of Endangered Species, citing mass tourism as a key concern. Venice was removed from the “danger” list after admission fees were approved, but UNESCO officials said in a statement that “further progress is still needed.”
Critics of the fees say they do little to combat the city's real problems that are forcing many residents out. According to city statistics, the population living in the city center has fallen from about 175,000 in 1951 to less than 49,000. They cite a lack of affordable housing due to short-term rentals. Decline in services such as schools and transportation. And the tourism industry has invaded virtually every class.
Federica Toninelli, a member of a local association that supports affordable housing in Venice, characterized the ticket as “propaganda” and said the city needed to put “the needs of residents at the center of its policies.” City officials need to “take strong steps to return the city to more manageable tourism levels,” she said.
Otherwise, “this is how cities die,” says Nicola Camatti, an economics professor and tourism expert at Venice's Ca' Foscari University.
Franca Cartarossa, who once ran the city's after-school program, said it has lost much of its funding under the current mayor and said “tourism is distorting the city.”
“Venice is a living city, not a theme park,” she said.
A 2020 study by tourism experts from Ca' Foscari, Venice's main university, found that the optimal number of visitors to Venice per day is around 52,000, of which around a quarter are daily excursions. Something was suggested. However, Venice does not impose limits on the number of visitors.
“We are against limiting the number of visitors. This is an open city,” said City Councilor Michele Zuin, who is in charge of the budget. Instead, the city plans for that day's visitors — about 10 million last year — to come on off-peak days when the city is “calder,” Zuin said.
“We believe this is the solution to managing day visitors,” he said.
On Thursday, a public holiday in Italy, 113,000 people registered to enter Venice. Of these, 15,700 paid fees, 40,000 were exempt as overnight guests, and the remaining visitors (also exempt) included students, workers, and relatives and friends of residents.
In 2024, the fee will be applied on the 29th peak day as an “experiment”, Zuin said. They say the data collected at this stage will help city authorities better manage resources and better control the phenomenon. Mr Zuin said that next year more days will be added to the price calendar and the price could be up to 10 euros.
“By doubling the prices, the city becomes a commodity, nothing more than a theme park or a museum,” said Giovanni Andrea Martini, a local opposition lawmaker. He said City Hall's future projects include plans to expand the airport and dig a new canal into the lagoon to allow boats and even cruise ships, which were banned in 2019, to dock nearby. questioned the usefulness of the fee given that He ended the interview Thursday after a brief scuffle between demonstrators and police, saying, “This means more suffocation in the city.”
At the station, tourists patiently lined up at the admission booth to sort out their passes.
Charlotte Dean, a wine merchant from England, and Caroline Meatyard, a former schoolteacher, were happy to pay the fee. “That's fair enough,” Dean said. “Venice is a wonderful place. It should be cherished.”