Protest on first day of Venice charging tourist fees

Inspectors check the tickets of two tourists arriving in Venice on April 25 at one of the main entrances to the city.

On the first day of the toll, several protests took place against Venice being "turned into a museum or an amusement park". The largest protest took place at Piazzale Roma, one of the main road entrances to the city, with more than 300 people. Another, smaller protest took place near the city's main train station.

April 25th is a historic day in Venice – the Liberation of Italy and the day of St Mark, the city’s patron saint. This year, April 25th made history again: Venice became the first city in the world to charge an entrance fee to tourists who do not stay overnight.

Ruggero Tallon, one of the protest organizers, said his group planned to put up a banner reading: "Welcome to Veniceland" (a play on the city's theme park-like status, with visitors paying 5 euros for a ticket). They also printed fake Venice tickets and handed them out to passersby to show their disapproval. However, the police stopped the distribution of the fake tickets.

“A ticket doesn’t do anything,” Tallon said of the day-trip fee, which he said was intended to curb overcrowding. He believes it’s not a way to ease the pressure on Venice, but “a medieval tax against the right to travel freely.”

Contributo di accesso (visiting fee) costs 5 euros. The Venice entrance fee is charged to daily visitors to the old town from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Overnight visitors, children under 14, people with disabilities, city residents and people visiting Venice for work are exempt. The city has not yet set a limit on the number of tickets sold per day.

Ticket inspectors will check tickets at major city entrances, such as the Santa Lucia train station, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 25. Visitors who have not yet purchased tickets will be directed to purchase them on-site. Online ticket sales will begin on January 16. Those who deliberately violate the rules and avoid buying tickets can be fined 10 to 60 times the amount.

One of the world's most visited tourist destinations, with 3.2 million overnight visitors in 2022, despite a city population of just 50,000. The city's narrow streets, St Mark's Square and the famous Rialto Bridge draw tens of thousands of visitors. Most of them are visitors arriving from cruise ships.

Local authorities say the day-trip fee is intended to encourage visitors to avoid peak times and reduce overtourism, which can damage protected ecosystems and historical sites. The original plan was to charge visitors only on 29 peak days in 2024, mainly weekends from May to July, from 8am to 4pm. Visitors arriving before and after those times do not have to buy tickets. Overnight visitors, Venetians and those visiting the city for work, are exempt.

Crowds protest in Venice on April 25

Tallon said that instead of charging fees, the government should resettle the city, creating conditions for people to live well here.

Elena Gastaldello, president of Arci (Italian Association for Culture and Leisure), also joined the protest yesterday. She said the entrance fee “won’t control the number of visitors” because the government has not limited the number of tickets sold per day. In addition, the measure is not accompanied by urban development policies. “Basically charging visitors doesn’t solve anything,” she said.

A spokesman for the Venice Mayor's Office said 113,000 visitors registered to visit the city on the first day, of which more than 10% paid an entrance fee.

In preparation for the first day of charging, the government set up checkpoints outside train and bus stations, with separate lines for “residents” and “tourists.” A booth was set up outside the train station for people to buy tickets or show their exemption papers.

Tourists take souvenir photos while standing on a bridge in Venice

Italy is not the first country to try to curb mass tourism. In Spain, which consistently ranks among the top countries in terms of international visitors in Europe, tens of thousands of people protested on April 20 to demand that the government limit the number of visitors to the Canary Islands, a destination as popular as Venice.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro described the plan to charge visitors as “an experiment” and “a world first”. “Our goal is to make Venice more livable,” he said.

Venice, which consists of more than 100 large and small islands located in northeastern Italy, is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world and was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987. In 2023, Venice "escaped" being placed on UNESCO's list of endangered heritage sites after the local government applied an entrance fee policy effective from April 25.

In 2021, Venice banned large cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers from docking, rerouting them to a more industrial port and imposing a tax on overnight guests. The mayor of Venice said the new fee would be applied “gently” with “very gentle” controls and no need for passengers to queue.

TH (according to VnExpress)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/bieu-tinh-trong-ngay-dau-venice-thu-phi-du-khach-379970.html