Protests and Doubts: The Debut of the “Access Ticket” in the International Press

“That’ll Be 5 Euros, Please” is the headline in the New York Times. The main global newspapers report on the checks at the station, the reasons the Municipality introduced the ticket and the protests of the residents. Today there were 23 thousand paying and 128 thousand registered

By Leonardo Bison

April 26, 2024

The second day of the entrance fee to Venice ended today at 4pm, with 23 thousand people paying, out of approximately 128 thousand people registered. Among the people who did not pay, there were 52 thousand tourists exempted because they will be staying in accommodation facilities within the municipality of Venice and 32,800 exemptions requested by workers and students who are here long-term, in addition to 13 thousand Venetians, 6400 property owners who pay the IMU and those who have rental contracts but do not have residence in Venice. During the day, there were 16,400 checks of the QR code that verified either payment or exemption. Today there were also widespread but “soft” checks, with agents accompanying both those who had to pay and those who had to request the exemption to the relevant ticket offices – and avoiding as much as possible conflicts with those (especially Italian residents and tourists) who are not willingly accepting the measure.

Meanwhile, as widely expected, given that this is an unprecedented measure in the world, the first day of the ticket is appearing in all the international newspapers. This was foreseen by the council, which three weeks ago organized a press conference in Rome in the foreign press room to present the experiment. The articles, despite the diversity of their approaches, have some features in common: they all report the reasons that pushed the council to such a radically new intervention, with interviews with the mayor and city councilors, but also the doubts regarding the measure’s effectiveness and, in particular, the public protest of several hundred residents [Ed. Note: the official number given for protesters was 300, but others report upwards of 1,000] who arrived in Piazzale Roma yesterday, noisy and angry.

Reuters, one of the main international news agencies, chose a straight headline: “Venice residents protest as city begins tourist entry charge“. The New York Times chose an ironic title: “Welcome to Venice. That’ll be five euros, please“, poking fun at the extreme sensitivity of yesterday’s checks (the title “updates” the one from three weeks ago on the launch of the initiative). The Guardian put the emphasis on the protests: “Are we joking?” Venice residents protest as city starts charging visitors to enter.” Other newspapers, starting with the Associated Press, had a different focus: “Venice Tests a Tax of 5 euros for Day Visitors“. But regardless of the headlines, everyone noted that the day did not go smoothly, with the international tourists who willingly accepted the news on one side, and on the other the residents who struggled quite a bit to digest it.

Giovanni Andrea Martini, a city councilor who strongly supported the demonstration organized by the Social Assembly for Housing, commented with satisfaction on the headlines in the foreign press: “If the demonstration hadn’t taken place yesterday, everything would have gone smoothly for the council. Brugnaro would have once again made the usual good impression. Instead, he was shown to be wrong all over the world. And, of course, the international newspapers didn’t stop at the entry ticket. They wanted to know how the city is doing. And so, all the critical issues and harmful choices that this council has carried out have emerged.”

Now the cameras have moved away, and tomorrow is the third day of access tickets, again from 8.30am to 4pm, charged to non-Venetian day visitors who are not staying in the municipality of Venice and have no acquaintances in the city.

Source: Venezia Today

[Ed. Note: as a follow-up to this story we have assembled a list (but certainly not exhaustive) of links to international news coverage of the first day of the ticket. Readers can see just how different the stories are in many cases. However, as someone who was there, I can guarantee that any coverage calling the event “violent” is pure hyperbole. The protest was peaceful, and the few moments of pushing and shoving with the police quickly dissipated as the march changed direction and continued along its way into the city. Venice’s protesters are NOT violent, and neither were the police.]

International News Stories About the Ticket (in no particular order)

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/venice-begins-charging-entry-fee/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/25/confusion-protests-first-day-venice-tourist-charge

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2024/04/25/venice-entry-fee-here-are-all-the-dates-when-youll-have-to-pay-to-visit-in-2024

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/venice-introduces-new-booking-system-and-entry-fee-for-visitors

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/25/venice-city-becomes-first-in-the-world-to-start-charging-an-entry-fee.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/25/world/europe/venice-entry-fee-protests.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/entry-fee-venice-italy-five-places-could-be-next/

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/venice-entry-fee-cost-date-rules-exemptions-b2534528.html

https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/venice-charging-entry-fee-tourists-residents-angry-13763942.html

https://globalnews.ca/news/10449084/venice-italy-entry-fee/

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/lifestyle/travel/2024/04/26/venice-mayor-hails-entry-ticket-debut-as-a-success_ed105228-55ad-48b6-ad1a-84dc1f1b63f4.html