When the media released the news that the city authorities in Venice City have decided to collect Venice entry fee it brought up responses from most quarters. The reason is that Venice in Italy is one of the most sought after tourist destinations in the entire world with over 25 million tourists visit the lagoon city every year. Until now there was no such Venice entry fee but the City Council has decided to collect such entry fee from visitors.
Why the Decision to Impose Venice Entry Fee
The common question from all quarters was why the City Council decided to impose an entry fee for tourists visiting the city. The reasons extended by the Council are as follows.
- Venice in Italy is a World Heritage Site;
- It is the first for an Italian city;
- Around 25 million visitors arrive in the city every year;
- Around 14 million out of these visitors spend only one day in Venice;
- Many visitors bring their picnic kit along with and do not benefit the local businesses; and
- Collection of the entry fees will help the upkeep of the heritage city and also will be a big source of revenue for the city and the country.
Suggested Fee Structure
In the meeting of the City Council, the members overwhelmingly voted in favor of the imposition of Venice entry fee on the tourists from this year. The suggested fee structure was –
- 3 Euros or 3.42 US Dollars from each person entering the City starting with the year 2019;
- It was also decided to enhance the entry fee to 6 to 10 Euros in 2020;
- The difference in the entry fee shall be based on the seasonal variations; and
- Fees will be higher in the tourist season.
“This is a significant turning point in the management of Venice’s tourist flows,” said Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, the pioneer of the entry fee plan.
The issues of Maintenance of the City
One of the issues that prompted the decision of the City Council for introducing entrance fees for tourists visiting the city is the consistent complaints raised by the citizens about the cleaning and security in the city affected adversely due to the huge crowd of tourists every year.
The native population of the city has drastically reduced to around 50,000 only in comparison to the population of around 175,000 it housed immediately after the Second World War. The existing residents feel the weight of cleaning and maintaining the security quite heavy financially and this prompted the City Council to introduce the Venice entry fee for the tourists to ease the financial burden on the residents.
Collection of the Fee from Tourists
Though there is no clear cut statement on how the fees shall be collected from the visiting tourists; a suggestion is that it should be added to the price of transport tickets by travel agencies and authorities. Thus the tourists and travelers are likely to face a hike in their transportation costs for reaching Venice City in the upcoming days. The transporters will have to deposit the collected amount with the City Council account like other payable taxes.
Who are Exempted from Venice Entry Fee
In its decision, the Venice City Council has also incorporated certain exemptions. These are –
- Tourists that spend a night in local hotels because the hotels collect visitor taxes in their hiring charges; and
- Children under the age of six years accompanying their parents or guardians.
Some Notable Reactions on the Decision
There have been some notable reactions to the decision of the city council to introduce a Venice entry fee. According to the Governor of Veneto Luca Zaia, the city would have the status of an open-air museum for tourists. “Venice needs respect, and as is the case with museums, sports stadiums, cinemas, trains, and airplanes, it needs to have planned visits… which make it sustainable both for tourists and the city,” he said.
Preventing Bad Behavior of Tourists
Visitors often show bad behaviors while visiting the city like –
- Swimming in the canals;
- Sitting down and eating in the street; and
- Holding local workers as hostages.
All these have earned Venice City the tag of the poster child for tourists behaving badly. The introduction of the entrance fee would work as a deterrent preventing the huge contingent of day-tripper visitors to the city that counts over 20 million per year.
Postponement on the Wake of Covid19 Pandemic
One of the worst affected due to the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic was the tourism industry and Venice City was no exception to it. Italy is also one of the worst-hit countries with massive casualties due to the outbreak. Plummeting numbers of visitors to the heritage city prompted the City Council to revise its decision regarding the date for the introduction of the entry fee to be collected from the tourists.
The imposition of fees was postponed though it was to be introduced in 2020. Fortunately, the situation in Venice City and Italy is improving and therefore the Council has decided that every visitor entering the city without overnight reservation shall pay the Venice entrance fee with effect from the first day of January in the year 2022. Thus the decision to impose an entry fee is back once again.
Before that justifying the decision to postpone the imposition of entry fee was taken by the Council due to the extraordinary situation created by the pandemic. “In light of the current situation around the Covid-19 pandemic, we have decided to make an important gesture regarding the optics of wanting to encourage the tourists’ return,” announced Michele Zuin, the councilor responsible for the economy.
The economy of Venice City in Italy is largely dependent on tourism and before the outbreak of the pandemic huge crowd was quite a familiar sight in the city. It was an absolute necessity regulating the huge unregulated entry to the city that was not providing support to its economy.
The decision to impose Venice entrance fee by the City Council was a move to introduce order in the system balancing the process making tourism regulated and beneficial to the city economy. It all depends now on the trend of the Covid19 pandemic that can contribute to the success or failure of the move.