Venice prepares to charge tourists for day trips, require booking

‘CONDITIONS ATTACHED’

Some 193,000 people squeezed into the historic centre in a single day during the 2019 Carnival, before the pandemic struck. On Aug 4 this year, the city counted 148,000, with the difference explained by the fact many US and Asian travellers have still not returned to Europe.

“There is a physical limitation on the number of people that can be in the city at the same time,” said Marco Bettini, director general of Venis, the IT company that built the monitoring system in partnership with phone operator TIM.

“We don’t want to leave anyone behind or stop people from coming to Venice. We want people to book in advance, tell us where they want to go, what they want to visit, in order to provide a better quality of service.”

Residents, students and commuters will be exempt from the tourist tax. So will those spending at least one night in a Venice hotel, given they will have already paid the overnight tariff of up to five euros a day levied by the city.

Brugnaro brushed aside concerns about privacy, saying the data collected was anonymous. But his message was clear – by controlling the number of tourists that come to Venice, he also wants travellers to behave.

“There’ll be conditions attached to obtain priority bookings and discounts,” he said. “You can’t come in your swimming suit. You can’t jump from a bridge or get drunk. Whoever comes must respect the city.”

In Venice, where the number of residents in the centre has shrunk to just 55,000, from about 175,000 in the 1950s, Brugnaro’s plan is the subject of heated debate, with some worrying it will deter less well-heeled tourists and turn the city into a theme park.

Others, such as 50-year-old Stefano Verratti who sells Murano glass near the train station, backed the idea of discouraging day-trippers.

“I have been here for 30 years, and it used to be very different. Before Venice was really romantic,” he said. “Now it’s just people rushing to buy a kebab, take a quick selfie on the Rialto bridge, and then rushing to take a train. I don’t know if they really enjoy it.”