From January 2023 it will be mandatory to make a reservation to enter Venice

From 16 January 2023 it will be Necessary to book a ticket to enter to Venice. The Italian city will thus become the first in the world to adopt this system for the control of mass tourism.

“This is certainly a complex method, which will not immediately get applause or electoral consensus, but will put a stone in the tourism model” of the future, the councilor for tourism Simone Venturini said at a press conference.

To enter you will need to book through an online system available “a couple of months before” and pay for a ticket whose price will vary between 3 and 10 euros.

For example, as in the case of trains or planes, if the tourist books well in advance, the price will be lower, because in this way it will allow better management of tourist flows, said the councilor for the budget Michele Zuin.

The city, he stressed, “will never be closed”, but a maximum number of tourists will be established that they can enter it every day and, if this limit is exceeded, those who arrive will have to pay more, and this also applies to passengers on huge cruise ships.

However, the ticket booking and payment system will continue to be developed and constantly monitored for any changes or improvements.

“Be the first city in the world to experiment with this system (…) it would be arrogant to believe that everything will work perfectly with the snap of a finger. It will be a process that can be improved, “said Venturini, who has put forward other measures to stop mass tourism.

Who will not have to pay to enter Venice

they will be exempts tourists sleeping in the city from booking and payingas they will already pay the daily rate of accommodation in their hotels (4.50 euros for a maximum of five days).

The exemption also applies to residents, workers of Venice and its smaller islands, born in it, students, property owners, children under the age of 6, the handicapped and their carers or those who go to their hospitals.

Neither will the residents of the Veneto, participants in sporting events, public administrators, authorities on mission, emergency volunteers or the Armed Forces pay.

The municipality will introduce a system of controllers e fines of up to 300 euros for those who do not prove that they are entitled to the exemption and for those who lied to obtain this benefit.

“Going through and enjoying this city will be nicer if you book it,” said Zuin, who insisted on this. Venice will “never” and “nobody” close.

“We don’t want to make cash, it’s just an incentive and disincentive method to have fairer flows”, he concluded.

The troubles of Venice

Venice has embarked on a path towards ensure the safety of its unique urban heritagesuch as the ban on the passage of large cruise ships in front of its delicate Plaza de San Marcos or the implementation of the system of barriers that prevent flooding with the arrival of high tide from the Adriatic in its lagoon.

Now it will try to limit the tourism it has suffered from for decades and which has only grown (5.5 million arrivals and almost 13 million stays in 2019, before the pandemic), while the indigenous population of its historic center continues to decline, up to about 50,000 inhabitants.

Source: EFE