Venice has became the first city in the world to introduce a payment system for visitors in an experiment aimed at dissuading tourists during peak periods.
Around 30 million tourists visit Venice in a typical year – with about seven out of 10 (or 21 million) staying only for the day. Just before the Covid pandemic, Unesco warned the city’s “status as a World Heritage property is in jeopardy”.
A leading city transport and tourism official, Arianna Fracasso, told The Independent the scheme is aiming “to safeguard the city from overtourism”.
Ms Fracasso said: “It’s like a museum in the open air, so we want to safeguard it.”
However, Venice isn’t the only place in Italy that has recently introduced new measures aimed at slowing tourist flows.
Here are some of the initiatives currently in force across Italy:
Venice
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The lagoon city has introduced tickets for day trippers that cost €5 and are valid from 8.30am 4pm local time. The experiment came into force on 25 April, a national holiday in Italy. Tickets will be needed for the following 10 days and thereafter for most weekends until mid-July.
Venice residents, students, workers and home owners are exempt from paying or booking a slot. Visitors aged under 14 and tourists with hotel reservations will need to be registered, but access for them will be free of charge.
How does the Venice system work?
Simon Calder explains:
Any visitor who wishes to be in the historic heart of Venice – anywhere in the city apart from the Piazzale Roma transport access area and the offshore islands – between 8.30am and 4pm on the prescribed dates must register online, in advance, at cda.ve.it/en.
You will need a QR code on your smartphone or printed out to be allowed inside the ancient city.
If you simply want to pay the fee, clicking on “Pay the access fee” will take you through a fairly straightforward process. One tricky aspect is that you have to pretend you have read the privacy policy (all in Italian) by clicking on it, before you can enable a checkbox.
Other cities, such as Como, have said they are considering introducing a similar measure, but are waiting to see how the Venice initiative works before deciding.
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