Campaign For A Living Venice

The program begins on 16 January 2023: those who reserve early will pay less. On some days the prices will go up to discourage arrivals. “Veneto residents are exempt, but only within certain limits”

1 July 2022

VENICE. Starting on 16 January 2023 it will be necessary to pay an entrance fee to visit Venice, independently of the means of transportation with which one reaches the historic city. This provision is part of broader system with which the city administration wants to regulate the flows of tourists entering the city.

The heart of the system is a multi-channel and multilingual platform through which one can obtain the permit, for example in the form of a QR code which would have to be shown in case it is checked. The fee will be applied in a different way than the hotel tax, and therefore will apply only to people who do not stay the night in the city, with specific exemptions: residents of the Municipality, and therefore also on the mainland, people who work in the historic city, students attending schools and institutes, and property owners (and their nuclear families).

Also exempted from the payment will be people who were born in the municipal territory, children under the age of six, the disabled and their assistants, people who need to visit healthcare facilities for various types of healthcare services, public administrators, volunteers and law enforcement personnel, family members up to three levels of relation. Residents in the entire Metropolitan City and even the entire Veneto Region will be exempt from payment within certain limits, which will be deliberated by the city Administration. Once those thresholds are exceeded, however, it will trigger the payment for this group as well.

The entrance fee to Venice will range between 3 and 13 euro and will be established periodically based on the tourist season, day, time slot, the number of reservations already made on the portal or anticipated from reservations. The earlier the reservation is made, the lower the fee to pay will be.

“We are thinking of setting a capacity limit for the city, which doesn’t mean closure, the city will always remain open”, explains Budget Commissioner Michele Zuin. “When a certain number of people is exceeded visitors will pay a higher fee. It is a system to discourage tourists from crowding in on certain days, but this does not mean closure of the city”. The daily limits will be able to be changed over the course of the year.

-Source: La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre