One European city aims to start charging visitors an entrance fee

Venice is to become the first city in the world to charge an entrance fee. The city, which sees 25-million guests a year tramping its streets, says it has been forced to bring in the law to counteract the damage done by that many visitors.

With 14-million people a year only visiting the city for one day, not staying the night, and often bringing picnics instead of eating in local restaurants, the city says it has been left with no other choice but to charge these day-trippers an amount of three euros (R50), this is in addition to the tax Venice has been charging those who stay the night in the city a tax for the past seven years.

Venice’s local population has been  in decline since World War II, when it was roughly 175,000 to the 50,000 people who live there today.  As such the city is repositioning itself as an open-air museum and as Luca Zaia, Veneto governor, told Reuters, “Venice needs respect, and as is the case with museums, sports stadiums, cinemas, trains and airplanes, it needs to have planned visits … which makes it sustainable both for tourists and the city.”

Just how this entrance fee will be collected is still to be confirmed with options including charging any transport company that brings people to the city, and encouraging them to pass on the cost to their passengers, to setting up turnstiles at the entrance to the old city.

Given the fact that Venice is already the most expensive destination in Italy, it’s unlikely that tourists will balk at the new, relatively low fee.

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