By admin ROME – Venice will extend its tax on day trips into next year, increasing the number of days tourists must pay a fee to enter the city and doubling the fee to 10 euros ($10.80) for last-minute visitors, authorities said Thursday city.
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro emphasized that the tax is intended to help the city and its residents fight overtourism and avoid a huge influx of tourists on crowded holidays and weekends.
The new tax will apply from Friday to Sunday and on holidays from April 18 to July 27 next year, for a total of 54 days. That’s almost double the number of days this method was used this year. Tourists who do not book four days in advance will pay 10 euros ($10.80) instead of the usual 5 euros ($5.40).
The tax will apply during peak hours, from 8.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The exemptions apply to residents, visitors born in Venice, students and employees, as well as tourists with reservations at a hotel or other accommodation facility.
At the end of the first testing phase last July, officials said the tax was 2.4 million euros ($2.6 million), equivalent to about 1,000 entries on each day of the test.
On Thursday, Brugnaro again responded to critics who called it a failure and said it had not deterred as many visitors as expected.
“Venice is the first city in the world to try to deal with the problem of overtourism. We achieved important results,” said the mayor.
But some civic groups and opposition councilors say the entrance fee has completely failed to curb overtourism.
“The data provided by the control room show that on average during the period when the fee was in force, we had approximately 7,000 fewer more tourist entries than in previous years,” said Giovanni Andrea Martini, opposition councilor. “This shows that the entrance fee is not a system at all capable of managing flows.”
The world-famous lagoon city has long struggled with an overwhelming influx of tourists. As of 2020, estimates based on mobile phone data indicate that 25 to 30 million day-trippers and overnight visitors will arrive each year from 2020. The city’s population is only about 50,000 people. mayor.
The tax on one-day trips delayed by the pandemic was supported by UNESCO member states, which did not recommend including the city on the list of endangered world cultural heritage sites. The city also avoided inclusion on the list two years earlier, when it imposed a ban on cruise ships sailing through the Giudecca Canal and St. Stephen’s Basin. Mark.
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