Venice puts its tickets on sale to tourists, a world first

Gabriel Boyce / AFP

St. Mark’s Square in Venice. The city is introducing a 5 euro tax to combat mass tourism from January 16, 2024.

Italy – From now on, we have to pay. The municipality of Venice started selling this Tuesday, January 16, a five-euro entry ticket, which applies in spring and summer to tourists coming for just one day to the city of Doge, a victim of mass tourism.

For a total of 29 days in the period from April 25 to July 14, the peak tourist season, day tourists will need to purchase this ticket to enter the Old Town between 8:30 am and 4 pm local time. The ticket purchase site went live on Tuesday at https://cda.ve.it/en/ in English and Italian.

However, numerous exemptions are granted, particularly for those under the age of 14, students or members of the police. No limit on the number of visitors is planned under the programme, which was approved last year.

Unclog the city

The main objective of the project, announced in September, is to discourage day visitors who contribute to overcrowding in the city, which is famous worldwide for its works of art, its bridges and its canals and which has been a World Heritage Site since 1987. of UNESCO.

“Venice is the first city in the world to implement this system, which can serve as an example for other fragile cities (…) that must be saved”Its mayor, Luigi Brugnarone, announced in November, when the municipality announced the dates of implementation of this tax.

“It is not a revolution but the first step in a system that controls access to day visitors”Luigi Brugnaro explained, clarifying that the objective was “Quality of Life in the City”.

Venice “in danger”

In mid-September, the city of Venice narrowly escaped being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in peril.

However, UNESCO experts recommended the classification in late July “in danger” Venice, a jewel, is under threat from measures, over-tourism and global warming “inadequate” It was taken in Italy to fight against the deterioration of the site.

About 3.2 million tourists spent the night in Venice’s historic center in 2022, according to official data, a figure that does not include the thousands of visitors who only visit for the day.

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