Every year, more than 20 million people visit Venice – 400 times more than the entire population of the city
In the summer of 2019, Venice will introduce a fee for tourists to enter the city. According to RFI citing the France-Presse agency, the ticket price could range from 2.5 to 10 euros.
As the newspaper La Repubblica writes, the authorities of Venice may use a law passed by the Italian parliament on Saturday, December 29, 2018. It allows the municipality to charge travelers arriving in the city "by any means of transport."
The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, noted that the collected funds will go towards cleaning the city, which is visited by about 20 million people annually. The new fee is intended to replace the accommodation tax, which is 1.5 euros per person per night spent in a hotel. As the authors of the newspaper La Repubblica write, currently a significant portion of tourists come to the city for one day on cruise ships and do not stay in hotels within the city.
According to preliminary calculations by city authorities, the new tax should bring up to 50 million euros annually to the city treasury. It is expected that the entry fee will be included in the ticket price for ships, planes, buses, or trains.
Earlier, the authorities of Venice had already spoken about the need to reduce the number of tourists. In May 2018, Mayor Brugnaro proposed introducing special routes that would limit non-residents' access to certain areas of the city. Administration representatives also wanted to restrict daily apartment rentals in the center of Venice.