Venice City Council approves regulation to charge and limit day-trippers to Venice and lagoon islands
At an executive committee meeting of Venice City Council on 5 September 2023, approval was given to a regulation to begin restricting day-trippers for about 30 selected days from spring 2024. The regulation was examined by the competence commission before Venice City Council voted for it on 12 September 2023 with 24 votes in favour and 12 against it. A protest was held outside the Council meeting on 12 September with about 200 people opposing the entry ticket to be introduced by the regulation. A banner at the protest read “The ticket will not save us. We want houses, jobs, low rent” and the protestors chanted “This city must not become a museum, we are against it” as reported here: Venezia dice sì al ticket d’ingresso: partirà nel 2024, costerà 5 euro. Proteste in Consiglio. Brugnaro: «Qualcosa di concreto»
The selected days for restrictions will be decided by the Council executive committee in the coming weeks and are likely to be when there are spring state holidays and during summer weekends. The regulation proposes a charge of €5 per day-tripper on the selected days with tourists who stay overnight in Venice excluded as they already pay a tourist tax. Day-trippers will also need to book to enter Venice or islands in the Venetian lagoon on those days. No limit on the number of day-trippers has been set yet, but is likely to be established by the City Council.
The list of people who will not be subject to paying the charge or booking includes City Council residents, employees, school and university students, nuclear families of people who pay property tax in the Venice City Council area, children up to 14 years old, people with specific health requirements, people participating in sporting competitions, in-service forces employees and spouses, cohabitants or relatives (up to the third generation removed) of city residents. Veneto region residents will be required to book on the selected days, but will not be charged to visit Venice or the lagoon islands. Reuters incorrectly reported “All visitors over the age of 14 will have to pay it” in this article: Venice to start charging visitors entry fee next year
The correct details of the regulation are set out in the following two articles (in Italian):
Via libera Giunta comunale al contributo d’accesso a Venezia
This Venice City Council regulation was proposed more than one year after Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro announced an entrance fee and limiting day-trippers. I examined his announcement then and set out my opposition to these measures restricting day-trippers in this article: VENICE CITY COUNCIL WILL SET LIMITS ON THE NUMBERS OF DAY-TRIPPERS WHO CAN ENTER THE CITY AND CHARGE ENTRANCE FEES
The regulation is currently only for selected dates rather than every day as previously announced, although this could change. I remain opposed to making Venice and the lagoon islands into a gated area for day-trippers and blocking the free movement of some people on selected days. Former Venice Mayor Massimo Cacciari called the entrance ticket regulation “a totally inapplicable measure”. He added “it is stupid to convey the message that it was approved to protect the city. It is about logistics and organisation, but no city in the world has ever dreamed of doing something like this, which I consider truely shameful”, as reported here: Ticket d’ingresso a Venezia, Massimo Cacciari: «Una misura inapplicabile. Fatta per tutelare la città? E’ una stupidaggine»
Parts of Venice do sometimes get overcrowded, yet overcrowding could be significantly reduced with an underwater train system. Another former Venice Mayor, Paolo Costa, stated previously that constructing a subway train system under the water would mean Venice would not be dependent on an obsolete water transport system: Dati certi e false diagnosi
Such a train system could lower the number of people queuing at busy water boat stops. Alternative train routes around the city could reduce the number of people in alleyways that connect popular parts of the city, such as those between St. Mark’s Square and Rialto. Generally, an underwater train system could spread tourism more widely around the lagoon and its islands, as well as helping residents, commuters, students and business people move around the city and lagoon more easily.
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