Venetian officials hope that the tourist fee will be able to bring some peace to locals.
Starting from January 16 next year, anyone with the intention to visit the sinking city for a day will have to pay a tourist fee.
Prices will range from €3 to €10 (A$4-$15), depending on the amount of travellers. Venetian officials have said that the more tourists that apply, the higher the price of the ticket but that anyone who books overnight accommodation will be exempt from the fee.
Other exemptions will be children under six, people with disabilities and owners of holiday homes in Venice who can demonstrate they pay real estate taxes.
Moreover, anyone visiting Venice for health, family or sporting/cultural events will have the fee waivered.
People making the day trip will have to show proof of booking through a QR code which will be available on an app that is set for release later this year.
Reservations will also be done on the app, and this will help officials to determine how many tourists might be in Venice on a particular day. Adding to this, representatives said that they would send messages to people looking to book on certain days, telling them it might be overcrowded.
According to Venice councillor for tourism Simone Venturini this initiative has been brought in to ensure that there can be a “balance between residents and long-term and short-term” visitors and is the first of its kind in the world.
“COVID made us realise that what was an everyday occurrence before COVID isn’t acceptable anymore, the mentality has changed, as has the sensitivity.”
According to Statista, pre COVID-19 levels of tourists were at 4.78 million but when the pandemic hit dropped to 1.3 million during 2020. Last year saw numbers rise to 2.1 million.
Mr Venturini said that tourist peaks can make living expenses and taxes for Venetian residents very high and that revenue from the tickets will go towards lowering this cost.
While a day-trip ticket might not actually cost that much, anyone found to have violated ticketing rules could face a €50 to €300 (A$75-$450) fine.
