Venice’s entrance fee will resume from Friday, with the main novelty this year being that last-minute day-trippers will pay double.
Last year, as part of an experiment aimed at dissuading day visitors during busy periods, Venice became the first major tourist city in the world to charge people to enter.
Although the initiative made little impact on visitor numbers, it did rake in €2.4m for the lagoon city’s coffers, much more than expected, and Venice authorities still believe it will eventually contribute to helping the Unesco world heritage city tackle overtourism.
This year’s levy, which is bookable online, remains €5, but will double if bought within three days before arrival in the city. Furthermore, it has been expanded to apply on 54 dates, mostly weekends, between 18 April and 27 July, almost double the number of days compared with last year. The measure applies between 8.30am and 4pm local time.
Visitors are provided with a QR code which they will need to present to stewards hired to patrol the city’s main entrance points, for example Venezia Santa Lucia train station.
Anyone who books an overnight stay in Venice is exempt from paying the fee, as are tourists from the wider Veneto region, which is where most day-trippers come from, as well as children under the age of 14. But even if a visitor has booked a hotel room they are still obliged to register their presence on the website.
Last year set a new record for visitors to Venice and its wider area, with more than 3.9 million staying overnight in the city’s historic centre. However, roughly 30 million people visit each year, the majority coming just for the day.
More than 35,000 day-trippers have already booked a ticket, according to the local news website Venezia Today.
While the fee was mostly embraced by tourists last year, it was bitterly contested by Venice’s residents. Many of them believe the only real way to achieve more sustainable tourism would be to target the people who stay overnight by clamping down on short-term holiday lets and improving services for the year-round population, which in 2022 fell below 50,000 for the first time.
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