Venice has finalized its plans to introduce a five-euro daily fee for day tourists. At a press conference in Rome on Thursday, the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, announced that on April 25, a national holiday in Italy, day tourists will for the first time have to pay a five-euro fee to gain access to the lagoon city.
The entrance fee will be charged on a total of 29 days in 2024: from April 25 to 30, from May 1 to 5 and on all other weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) until July 13 and 14. This excludes the Republic Day weekend (June 1 to 2). The days on which tourists must pay the fee are listed on the multilingual website www.cda.ve.it. There is no admission fee between 4 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. The fee can be paid by credit card or Paypal.
First test year
Locals, people born in Venice, property owners (including those outside Venice), students and employees are exempt from the entrance fee. For other categories such as children under 14, disabled people and accompanying persons, booking is mandatory but there is no obligation to pay.
Mayor Brugnaro defended the controversial measure at a press conference in Rome. "Our goal is not to collect money, but to prevent the explosion of tourism in the city. We want to make Venice more tourist-friendly, because it belongs not only to the Venetians, but to the whole world," he explained.
"The alleys in our city are unique and cannot be compared to any other. It is urgent to regulate the flow of people. So far, no politician has dared to introduce an entrance fee. In the first two years, we will probably have more costs than income, but we consider this step necessary," stressed the mayor, who has been in office since 2015. The year 2024 will serve as a test year. "We need to find out how many day tourists arrive and whether the system of QR codes for paying the entrance fee works," added Brugnaro.
Venice has been battling the influx of tourists for years and is trying to use various strategies to cope with the mass influx. According to Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, the entrance fee will be invested primarily in the maintenance and cleaning of the city.