2024-01-16 19:22:28
A few months ago, Italy’s most romantic city narrowly avoided being listed as World Heritage in Danger, despite UNESCO recommendations. Ultimately, Venice is relying on a tax to combat overtourism.
The municipality of Venice began on Tuesday selling five-euro entry tickets, a tax applied in spring and summer to tourists coming for just one day in the City of the Doges, a victim of mass tourism.
For a total of 29 days over a period from April 25 to July 14, the peak tourist season, day tourists will need to purchase this ticket to enter the Old Town between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time. The ticket purchase site has been put online this Tuesday.
However, numerous exemptions are provided, particularly for those under 14, students or members of the police. No limit on the number of visitors is planned under this program approved last year.
This project, announced in September, has the main objective of dissuading day visitors who contribute to congesting the city, famous throughout the world for its works of art, its bridges and its canals and which has been a world heritage site since 1987. of Unesco.
A first in the world
“Venice is the first city in the world to implement this system, which could serve as an example for other fragile cities (…) which must be safeguarded,” declared its mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, in November, when the municipality made public the dates of application of this tax.
“It is not a revolution but the first step of a system which regulates the access of day visitors”, explained Luigi Brugnaro, specifying that the objective was “the quality of life in the city”.
In mid-September, the city of Venice narrowly escaped being listed as a UNESCO world heritage site in danger. However, UNESCO experts had recommended at the end of July the classification “in danger” of Venice, a jewel threatened by too much tourism and global warming, due to “insufficient” measures taken in Italy to fight against the deterioration of this site.
Some 3.2 million tourists spent the night in the historic center of Venice in 2022, according to official data, a figure that does not include the thousands of visitors who go there only for the day.
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