The City of Canals is making a bold move to protect itself from tourists. They need visitors to stop viewing Venice as an easy day trip and nothing more. Here’s how the city has begun to proactively address the erasure of its rich cultural legacy. It has declared a new toll on day-trippers who pass through its remarkable streets without engaging with its deep history and traditions. This measure comes as Venice struggles to mitigate overcrowding and protect its unique identity from the pressures of mass tourism.
Soaring from last year’s euro 5 fee, effective immediately, the new toll will jump to euro 10, about $10.65. Update for removal of mail order provision Overnight guests, however, will continue to be exempt from this fee, as they already pay a daily tourist tax. The much-hated fee, originally passed last session, has officially gone up. It seeks to limit or pre-filter visitors and like so many other measures it provides a financial padding for the city’s over-extended coffers.
Tourism chief Simone Venturini underlined the dramatic value of the toll. She announced it an “a very important instrument that no other city has.” Last year, the program brought in about $3.2 million. In reality, this revenue just paid for the white glove treatment that was required to deal with the flood of tourists.
UNESCO has recently threatened to place Venice on its endangered heritage list. That will be the case unless the city makes a concerted effort to address its tourism obstacles head-on. Most locals view this fight as critical to their future. They are resisting not only the disruptive tourist, but the conversion of their city into a European Disneyland.
Matteo Secchi, who lives nearby, expressed his frustration. All they’re doing is converting it into a theme park.” He added, “What’s the point in that? Having met with many Venetians, it is hard to overstate the extent to which they feel their cultural treasure to be under threat. The sheer number of visitors validates such an attitude.
To address these issues, the days of operation that the fee applies has almost doubled – from 30 days to 54 days. This shift distributes visitor traffic more evenly across the calendar year. It prevents peak periods from over-saturating. Kyoto, Zermatt and Formentera are all waiting with bated breath to see how Venice’s new measures go. They hope to learn from new and best practices to improve their own tourism initiatives.
Venice’s tourism focus must go beyond the short-term goal. She continued, “The city is wasting money on things that aren’t core functions of government. We need affordable housing policies, job creation policies—all these things that help offset this tourist monoculture.”
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