Venice opens ticket purchases to combat overtourism

On Tuesday, the municipality of Venice began selling entry tickets for five euros, a tax applied in the spring and summer seasons to tourists coming for just one day to the city of dogs, a victim of mass tourism.

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For 29 days during the period from April 25 to July 14, the peak tourist season, day tourists will need to purchase this ticket to enter the Old City between 8:30 AM and 4:00 PM local time.

The ticket purchasing website was launched on Tuesday at https://cda.ve.it/en/ in English and Italian.

However, several exemptions are provided, especially for those under 14 years of age, students or police personnel.

There is no cap on the number of visitors planned under this program approved last year.

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

“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 protected,” the city’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, declared in November when the municipality announced it. Dates for applying this tax.

“This is not a revolution, but rather the first step of a system that regulates the entry of day visitors,” Mr. Brugnaro explained, explaining that the goal is “quality of life in the city.”

In mid-September, Venice narrowly escaped being placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in Danger.

However, at the end of last July, UNESCO experts recommended classifying the city of Venice as “in danger”, the jewel threatened by increasing tourism and global warming, due to “insufficient” measures taken in Italy to combat the deterioration of this site.

About 3.2 million tourists spent the night in the historic center of Venice in 2022, according to official data, a number that does not include thousands of visitors who go there during the day only.