Venice’s Tourism Chief Eyes Higher Entry Fee on Day-Trippers

06.06.2024 - 16:05 / skift.com / Dawit Habtemariam / Simone Venturini

Venice considers its entry fee for tourists an early success. A top official told Skift that in the next year the city could double the fee and charge it more often.

Simone Venturini, deputy mayor for tourism, said the fee fits into the city’s broader strategy to preserve its beauty and local community while repositioning itself from being “a cheap tourism capital” to a high-end destination.

Skift talked to Venturini about the fee and the city’s efforts to manage tourism. This interview has been edited for brevity.

Venturini: We were very concerned before the first day of the entry fee about people forming crowds in the queue, causing discomfort to commuters and international tourists. The system was designed to be easy, soft and welcoming — not a police state saying you cannot enter. 

We have some encouraging signals. Everything has gone smoothly. We were very surprised when people arriving in Venice, even the people from around Italy, were very happy to show us the core code. People understood what we wanted to do. 

In the next year, we will add maybe a higher tax, maybe 10 euro, and we can add more days, not just 29 days, maybe up to 100 days. Of course, this can be even more useful, but let’s start with a small step because it’s the first experiment in the world.

This year we won’t collect a lot of money. The starting cost of the system will be more expensive than the income this year. 

In the next few years, more days, higher taxes can bring some resources to the city and we will use this money for maintenance of the city and the restoration of a unique and fragile city that is on the water, salted water that is more [corrosive] than the normal water. 

Venturini: It’s more addressed to local and short-range tourists from the nearby Italian regions. A short-range tourist can maybe be pushed to choose another day instead of a crowded day, causing less stress to the city. 

On the other end, we have sea tourists that go to the beaches. During the rainy days or the cloudy days, they arrive by boats, overwhelming the city. Even this kind of tourism can be discouraged to visit Venice in those 29 days of the trial this year.

The first misunderstanding was that Venetians were against this tax. Some small local parties were against the law and organized a protest with 200 people, but we are a city with 250,000 inhabitants. So 200 people complaining is not the majority of the city. 

On the other end we are walking on the edge of a possible misunderstanding because we don’t want Venice to be considered a theme park where you pay a ticket and you can do whatever you want. Venice is a living city.

We have at least 35,000 people arriving each day that are not tourists, but are commuters, people living in the