On Thursday, the northern Italian city of Venice launched a pilot program under which they will collect an entrance fee of five euros (roughly 126 crowns) from tourists who intend to come to the city only for one day and do not spend the night there. This was reported by the AFP agency.
The authorities have placed signs at the main arrival points alerting arriving visitors of the new requirement. They started a test phase that will last until July.
Around 200 stewards have been trained to instruct anyone unaware of the fee how to download a QR code. Visitors who are not equipped with a smartphone can use the kiosk. QR codes proving that the day trip fee has been paid or that the holder is exempt from the fee will be randomly checked by auditors.
Fines from 50 to 300 euros can be imposed for violation of the rule. The obligation to pay applies only to persons arriving between 8:30 and 16:00, otherwise entry is free. This year, the city will collect the fee for 29 days – from Thursday to the coming Sunday and then practically every weekend until mid-July.
“A new balance needs to be found between tourists and residents. Of course we have to protect the spaces for residents and we have to try to discourage day-trippers from coming, at least on some specific days,” explained the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. As he added, problems arise when the number of one-day visitors reaches 30,000 to 40,000.
Last year, Venice crossed an imaginary milestone, when the number of tourist beds for the first time exceeded the number of official residents, which fell below 50 thousand in the historic center with picturesque canals.
According to Venturini, about 6,000 people have already paid to download the QR code, and officials expect the number of paid day-tripper arrivals to reach around 10,000 on Thursday. Another more than 70,000 downloaded a QR code indicating an exception to the system, which includes people who work in Venice or live in the Veneto region. People staying at a hotel in Venice should receive a QR code confirming their stay – this includes the hotel tax.
However, not all residents of the city are convinced of the effectiveness of the new system. “The introduction of a ticket to the city will not reduce the number of visitors arriving by a single unit,” argues activist Tommaso Cacciari, who organized a protest against the measure on Thursday. Cacciari says more attention needs to be paid to empowering the population and the services they really need.
“You pay a ticket to ride the subway or visit a museum or an amusement park, but you don’t pay a ticket to enter the city. It is the last symbolic step of this city administration’s idea to kick residents out of Venice,” he added.
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