Venice, the famed floating city of Europe, is taking steps to safeguard its future amidst concerns about overtourism. The increased footfall in recent years has sparked worries about the impact on locals residing within the city’s historic walls.
As part of a new initiative, city officials have announced plans to introduce a ticketing scheme in 2025 that will charge tourists for visiting Venice and hike up the price for late bookings. Currently, tourists have 29 days to purchase a ticket to enter Venice, but under the new rules, this will increase to 54 days.
Additionally, tourists who book with less than four days’ notice will have to pay €10 per day, doubling the current fee of €5. These measures are being introduced as popular European tourist destinations grapple with an overtourism crisis affecting places like the Canary Islands, Barcelona, and the Balearic Islands.
Speaking to the Times, Simone Venturini stated that Venice was at the forefront of tackling overtourism, acting “proactively” rather than reactively. He said: “Venice has gone from being the city most exposed to and criticised for the phenomenon of overtourism, to being the city that is reacting to this phenomenon the earliest and most proactively on the global stage.”
Despite the introduction of new measures to manage tourism in Venice, concerns linger that they won’t prevent an influx of visitors which could overwhelm local infrastructure. Stringent strategies earlier this year, including the institution of an entry fee, did not curb tourist numbers, reports the Express.
City councillor for Tutta la Citta Insieme, Giovanni Andrea Martini, conveyed his frustration to the I, stating: “After the years of Covid, tourism in Venice has undergone a huge increase, exceeding the threshold reached in 2019. The consequences for Venetian residents are very serious.”
He expressed disillusionment with the city’s management system: “On the contrary, we have the number of entrances that are higher by more than 10,000 tourists on average per day compared to last year. As a system of flow management, the entrance ticket has been a real failure.”
There’s also growing anxiety that the combination of mass tourism and climate change could be causing Venice to sink. It’s recognised that the city is sinking at a rate of approximately one to two millimetres annually, but other factors may accelerate this descent.
To counteract potential flooding, authorities have poured about £4bn into MOSE, a network of gates aimed at preventing high tides from overwhelming Venice. These defences were notably deployed in October 2020 during an extreme tidal event.