From the European summer onwards, the city of Venice will start testing the reservation system to enter the historic center of the famous Italian town, announced the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, on Tuesday (19).
This semester, registration will be free of charge and will be used to check for any problems with the platform. But, from the beginning of 2023, fees to enter the city will begin to apply.
The exact date of entry into force of the system has not yet been announced, but it is certain that the measure will come into force in the European summer, which begins on June 21st.
“We will be the first in the world to carry out this difficult experiment. This is the right path and today many already understand this”, said Brugnaro.
The speech comes after Venice recorded an Easter weekend similar to what was seen before the Covid-19 pandemic. There were more than 240 thousand tourists between Saturday (16) and Monday (18).
And if the numbers once again show that tourism is recovering in the city so affected by the health crisis, the large number of people at the same time makes the town almost impossible to manage, according to the authorities.
“We will start with a testing phase on daily tourists [who are not in hotels in the historic center] who will be invited to make a reservation on a website linked to City Hall that we are finalizing. Whoever makes the reservation will receive incentives that could be a reduction in the value of some museum tickets or other forms that we are still perfecting and that will be published in the coming weeks. Anyone who doesn't book will not gain any benefit”, said Tourism advisor, Simone Venturini, to the newspaper “La Repubblica".
The system Venice Smart Control Room, which is already installed but not in operation, can identify people using their cell phone chip. This way, it is possible to know precisely how many people are circulating in the city.
The rates that will be implemented from 2023 will vary in price according to the number of people who are in Venice and will have prices from three to 10 euros. In other words, if the city has a minimum capacity – between 40 thousand and 50 thousand visitors, a number to be defined -, the tourist pays three euros. The maximum number has yet to be fixed.
Furthermore, there will be a differentiation between those who stay overnight in hotels in the historic center – who already pay a tourist tax – and those who only spend the day in the city.
tourist tax
Years ago Venice discusses what to do with the increasing number of tourists going to the city simultaneously and, to this day, nothing has yet come to fruition. The idea of turnstiles to control the flow had already been approved, but the Covid-19 pandemic postponed plans to implement the tourist tax.
Now, with more and more visitors returning to the city, the issue is back on the agenda, with heated debates between the government and opponents.
After Brugnaro's announcement, the governor of the Veneto, Luca Zaia, stated that “tourists will always be well accepted by all of us and are not a problem, but in Venice the debate is reopened, as it happens every spring, about access management”.
“It has been discussed for a long time and we need to intervene, we cannot have negative effects on the city. The city is under pressure. Today we can book everything… from seats in restaurants to tickets for public transport or exhibitions. We need to do this for the city too. Visiting Venice must be guaranteed for everyone, regardless of classifications or the census, but the reservation must exist”, added Zaia in a press conference. (HANDLE).
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