Venice launched this Thursday its entrance ticket for single day visitorsa measure for combat mass tourism but that arouses reluctance among residents who do not want their city to become a “museum“.
The city, the first to implement a device of this type, sold online some 10,000 entriesat a price of 5 euros ($5.30), the deputy head of Tourism, Simone Venturini, told AFP.
These tickets, which are presented in the form of QR codes, have to be presented to the conductors, displayed in various places, but above all at the Santa Lucía train station, the main access to this famous town, Heritage of humanity by unesco.
Although the rate is moderate since the system does not impose a limit on daily visitorsmunicipal authorities hope that it will deter some of the tourists who crowd its alleys and the bridges over its canals on the busiest days.
“I think it’s good because this will perhaps stop the tourist influx in Venice,” says Sylvain Pélerin, a French tourist who has visited the city often for half a century, proudly showing his pass.
In the lobby of the Santa Lucia train station, ticket offices have been installed to inform and sell tickets. The mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro considered on Thursday, first day of application of paid incomethat tourism must “change” and “decrease visits” to the city.
“Today we spend money that we have not yet collected (…) but It is a means to make people understand that they must change and reduce visits to the city.“, he declared in a statement, and assured that “people understand it.”
An experiment
Venice thus becomes the first city in the world to impose an entrance ticket on its visitorsas if it were a theme park.
The problem of excess tourism It has generated rejection movements in other places, especially in Spain, which have led the authorities to try to reconcile the well-being of the inhabitants with a crucial economic sector. For Venturini, it is “above all to discourage local tourism from the inhabitants of the Veneto region, who can visit Venice whenever they want.”
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro acknowledged in April that It is an “experiment”, whose development will be followed closely by other tourist cities in the world who are in a similar situation. His commune, one of the most visited in the world, has already banned large cruise ships from docking in the city.
At busiest times, Venice has 100,000 overnight tourists, in addition to tens of thousands of daily visitors. This contrasts with the approximately 50,000 residents of the city center, which continues to decrease.
The project however has a very limited scope: by 2024, Only 29 days of large tourist influx will be affected with the new ratewhich begins this Thursday, a holiday in Italy, and will apply almost every weekend from May to July.
Reluctance
The ticket is intended only for day tourists who They enter the old town between 08:30 and 16:00 local. They have to upload their QR code from the website (https://cda.ve.it), also available in English, Spanish, French and German. Tourists who try to walk around without paying the entrance fee could be punished with a fine of between 50 and 300 euros (53 and 320 dollars), although local authorities have already said that they will first try to persuade visitors, before sanctioning them.
The Tourists who spend at least one night in the city will not be affected and will receive a free QR code, and there are several exceptions planned, especially for children under 14 years of age and students.
But some residents do not see the measure favorably, because they think it is a attack on your freedom of movement and one more stage to turn the city into a museum.
“We are not a museum or a nature reserve, but a city, we should not pay” for access, criticizes Marina Dodino, who is part of the local residents’ association, ARCI Venezia. A demonstration is planned during the day to protest against the measure.
