Venice Begins Battle Against ‘Wild’ Overtourism With Day-Tripper Access Fee | EUROtoday

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the delicate lagoon metropolis of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to cost day-trippers a 5-euro (round $5.35) entry payment that authorities hope will discourage guests from arriving on peak days and make town extra livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice’s essential practice station had been greeted with giant indicators itemizing the 29 dates via July of the plan’s take a look at part, in addition to new entrances separating vacationers from residents, college students and staff.

Stewards had been readily available to politely information anybody unaware of the brand new necessities via the method of downloading the QR code to pay the payment.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Arianna Cecilia, who lives in Rome and was visiting Venice for the primary time along with her boyfriend, mentioned it felt “strange” to have to purchase a ticket to enter a metropolis in her native Italy, after which cross via a vacationer entrance.

The couple had been staying in close by Treviso, and had paid the payment and downloaded the QR code as required previous to arrival.

Workers in yellow vests carried out random checks on the practice station, and anybody caught faces fines of fifty euros to 300 euros — although officers mentioned “common sense” was being utilized for the launch.

The requirement applies just for individuals arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of these hours, entry is free and unchecked.

Venice has lengthy suffered below the stress of over-tourism, and officers hope the pilot mission might help present extra actual figures to raised handle the phenomenon.

The metropolis can monitor the variety of lodge guests — which final yr numbered 4.6 million, down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the variety of day guests, which make up nearly all of the crowds in Venice, might solely be estimated till not too long ago.

A Smart Control Room arrange throughout the pandemic has been monitoring arrivals from mobile phone information, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a yr, mentioned Michele Zuin, town’s prime financial official. That consists of each day-trippers and in a single day visitors.

But Zuin mentioned the info is incomplete. “It’s clear we will get more reliable data from the contribution” being paid by day-trippers, he mentioned.

Venturini mentioned town is strained when the variety of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. Its slim alleyways are clogged with individuals and water taxis packed, making it tough for residents to go about their enterprise.

Not all residents, nevertheless, are persuaded of the efficacy of the brand new system in dissuading mass tourism. Some say extra consideration must be paid to boosting the resident inhabitants and providers they want.

Venice final yr handed a telling milestone when the variety of vacationer beds exceeded for the primary time the variety of official residents, which is now under 50,000 within the historic heart with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park; you don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he mentioned.

Venturini mentioned about 6,000 individuals had already paid to obtain the QR code, and officers anticipate paid day-tripper arrivals Thursday to achieve some 10,000.

More than 70,000 others have downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, together with to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto area. People staying in accommodations in Venice, together with in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, ought to get a QR code testifying to their keep, which features a lodge tax.

The vacationer official says curiosity in Venice’s pilot program has been eager from different locations affected by mass tourism, together with different Italian artwork cities and cities overseas akin to Barcelona and Amsterdam.

Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, is against the brand new plan. She was passing out mock EU passports for “Venice, Open City,” underlining the irony of the brand new system, and difficult its authorized standing with citations from the Italian structure guaranteeing its residents the best to “move or reside freely in any part of the national territory.”

Rodino has seen her native butcher shut and households depart her neighborhood close to the famed Rialto Bridge as short-term condominium leases spring up. But she mentioned the brand new entrance payment requirement will nonetheless permit younger individuals to flood town within the night for occasionally rowdy gatherings.

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It is not Pompeii,” she mentioned. “It is a city, where we need to fight so the houses are inhabited by families, and stores reopen. That is what would counter this wild tourism.”