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Day-trippers will have to pay €5 to visit Italian city under scheme designed to protect it from excess tourism
Authorities in Venice have been accused of transforming the famous lagoon city into a “theme park” as a long-mooted entrance fee for day trippers comes into force.
Venice is the first major city in the world to enact such a scheme. The €5 (£4.30) charge, which comes into force today, is aimed at protecting the Unesco world heritage site from the effects of excessive tourism by deterring day trippers and, according to the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, making the city “livable” again.
But several residents’ committees and associations have planned protests for Thursday, arguing that the fee will do nothing to resolve the issue.
“I can tell you that almost the entire city is against it,” claimed Matteo Secchi, who leads Venessia.com, a residents’ activist group. “You can’t impose an entrance fee to a city; all they’re doing is transforming it into a theme park. This is a bad image for Venice … I mean, are we joking?”
The fee is only charged on certain days, I believe a total of 29 days this year, to dissuade people from visiting on those days that are considered to be the busiest.
This isn’t going to dissuade anyone though. No one is going to change their vacation plans for $5.
This is just the city wanting money from tourists directly.
which will further entrench the city gov to cater to tourists if they become dependent on such fees
Which they should tbh, it’s a crowded sinking town that’s only real industry is tourism. Help anyone that wants to move out and put in more facilities for tourism to help fund surrounding areas and build the local economy.
29 days is counted until the end of the three months trial in July. So it’s every weekend + every holiday, like 120 days per year