by Donald Wood
Last updated: 9:00 AM ET, Thu April 25, 2024
On Thursday, the Italian city of Venice debuted a new
fee for travelers visiting the city for the day designed to help alleviate
the pressure of overtourism on residents.
According to The
Associated Press, the pilot program charges visitors arriving on 29 peak travel
days through the end of July five Euros ($5.35), a plan intended to limit the
number of tourists in the city.
The funds collected from the fee will be dedicated to
enhancing the living conditions in Venice for the remaining permanent
residents. This fee will only be applicable to travelers entering the city
between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., with unrestricted access outside those hours.
When tourists arrive in the Italian city, they will be
required to download a QR code on their mobile device that is used to pay the
fee. While officials said enforcement would be lenient in the early onset of
the program, those caught skipping the fee would be fined between $53 and $320.
“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and
residents,” Venice’s top tourism official Simone Venturini said. “We need to
safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the
arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”
Venice officials expect 10,000 paying travelers on Thursday,
but officials said the QR app has been downloaded over 70,000 times. Tourists
staying at hotels in the city or the surrounding areas will be provided a QR
code that includes
a hotel tax.
Some city residents say the fee is not a long-term fix for
the issues overtourism presents. They also believe the local government should
do more to focus on existing residents by limiting or eliminating short-term
rentals so more locals can live in the city again.
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