Stewards check tourists’ access to QR codes outside the main train station in Venice, Italy, on Thursday.
Luca Bruno/AP
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Stewards check tourists’ access to QR codes outside the main train station in Venice, Italy, on Thursday.
Luca Bruno/AP
VENICE, Italy — With global media watching, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (about $5.35) entrance fee that officials hope , will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.
Visitors arriving at Venice’s main train station were greeted by large signs marking the 29 dates through July of the plan’s testing phase, which also designated separate entrances for tourists, residents, students and workers .
“We need to find a new balance between tourists and residents,” said Simone Venturini, the city’s top tourism official. “We must of course protect residents’ spaces and discourage the arrival of day-trippers on particular days.
Not all residents, however, are convinced of the effectiveness of the new system in deterring mass tourism, insisting that only a resurgence of the population will restore balance in a city where narrow streets and boats- Buses are often crowded with tourists.
Hundreds of Venetians demonstrated against the program, marching festively through the city’s main bus station behind banners reading “No to tickets, yes to services and housing.” Protesters briefly clashed with police in riot gear who blocked them from entering the city, before changing course and entering via another bridge escorted by plainclothes police. The demonstration ended peacefully in a square.
Citizens and activists are holding a protest against the Venice tax in Venice on Thursday.
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Citizens and activists are holding a protest against the Venice tax in Venice on Thursday.
Luca Bruno/AP
Tourists arriving at the main station encountered almost as many journalists as stewards on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.
Arianna Cecilia, a Roman tourist visiting Venice for the first time, said she found it “strange” to have to pay to enter a city in her native country and be funneled through separate entrances for tourists. She and her boyfriend were staying in nearby Treviso and so downloaded the QR code as required, but she was still caught off guard as she soaked in her first ever view of the Venice canals at the view of the entrance signs and her boyfriend telling her to take out the ticket.
On the other side of the entrances, yellow vests carried out random checks at the station. Violators face fines of 50 to 300 euros ($53 to $320), but officials said “common sense” was applied in the launch.
This obligation only applies to people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of these hours, access is free and uncontrolled.
Venice has long suffered from the pressure of overtourism and officials hope the pilot project can help provide more accurate figures to better manage the phenomenon.
The city can track hotel visitor numbers, which stood at 4.6 million last year, down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the number of daily visitors, who make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.
Stewards check a tourist’s QR code access outside Venice’s main train station.
Luca Bruno/AP
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Luca Bruno/AP
Stewards check a tourist’s QR code access outside Venice’s main train station.
Luca Bruno/AP
A smart control room set up during the pandemic tracked arrivals from cellphone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 to 30 million arrivals a year, said Michele Zuin, the most senior economic official of the city. This includes both day trippers and overnight guests.
But Zuin said the data was incomplete.
“It is clear that we will obtain more reliable data on the contribution” paid by excursionists, he declared.
Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day visitors reaches 30,000 to 40,000. On peak days, local police have implemented one-way traffic for pedestrians to maintain the moving crowd.
Residents opposed to the visitor tax insist that the solution to Venice’s woes is to increase the resident population and the services it requires, limiting short-term rentals to make more housing available and attract tourists. families from the continent.
Last year, Venice reached a milestone when the number of tourist beds for the first time exceeded the number of official residents, which is now less than 50,000 in the historic center and its picturesque canals.
“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not reduce the number of visitors who come there by even a single unit,” said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a demonstration against the measure on Thursday.
“We pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park. We don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. It’s the last symbolic stage of a project of this idea. municipal administration to kick Venice residents,” he said.
Venice officials expect the number of arrivals from paying day-trippers to reach about 10,000 on Thursday. More than 70,000 others had downloaded a QR code indicating an exemption, including for working in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. Hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, must provide a QR code proof of their stay, which includes a hotel tax.
Venturini, the tourism official, said interest in the Venice pilot program has arisen in other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities and foreign municipalities such as Barcelona , in Spain and Amsterdam.
But Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, does not consider this tax to be a panacea. The neighboring apartments of his residential building near the famous Rialto Bridge, once inhabited by families, are now rented on a short-term basis.
The local butcher’s shop has closed its doors. She noted, however, that the new entry fee requirement will still allow young people to flood the city in the evening for the traditional aperitif, which can get noisy.
She distributed fake European Union passports for “Venice, Open City”, highlighting the irony of the new system and challenging its legal status by citing the Italian Constitution guaranteeing its citizens the right to “move or reside freely in any country”. ‘any part of the country’. the national territory. »
“It’s not a natural oasis. It’s not a museum. It’s not Pompeii. It’s a city where we have to fight for houses to be inhabited by families and for shops to reopen. This is what would counteract this wild tourism,” Rodino said.
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