Congested Venice will aim to resolve the long-running problems by 2024 with the introduction of an entrance fee for day trippers and restrictions on the size of tour groups. The council’s aim, said Simone Venturini, the city’s councilor for tourism, “is to better balance the needs of residents and workers, and those of visitors to the city.”
However, Venetians remain doubtful whether much will change at all.
In 2019 – the last pre-Covid year – the 3.5 million visitors who stayed at least one night in the historic city were supplemented by an avalanche of day trippers: estimates put the total number of visitors at around 20 million. On peak days, as many as 80,000 people flocked to this delicate gem with a population of around 50,000. With the return of the public after the Covid lull, the 2023 figure – once all figures have been accounted for – is expected to break this. And many think 2024 will be even busier.
In high season – which in Venice is much of the year – the crowds create chaos for those living or working in the city, who often find large groups of tourists and their guides blocking pedestrian streets. “Tourists clog the narrow streets, creating bottlenecks and generally taking up too much space,” says Jo-Ann Titmarsh, a teacher and longtime resident of Venice.
According to Venetian photographer Francesco Allegretto, the issue has become an obsession for locals who feel oppressed and even threatened by the tourist masses. “They move like large flocks of sheep, oblivious to anyone else around. Sometimes I feel like if I don’t get out of the way, they’re just going to run me over,” he said, describing the gauntlet of the crowd during his three-minute walk from his home to his studio. “They move so slowly and spread out all over the street.”
Legislation coming into force in June 2024 will limit the size of organized groups in public places to 25, with a crackdown on unauthorized guides and a ban on the use of loudspeakers to provide information. Trade councilor Sebastiano Costalonga told the press that the government wanted “strict rules that respect the fragility of Venice, the flow of traffic and the interaction between visitors and those who live there.”
Daniela Zamperetti, who works at Venice’s city museums, is sceptical. The limit of 25 people has been in effect in museums for years. “Instead of one group of 50 people, you simply sit next to each other with two groups of 25. Actually, not much changes.”
Really, the only thing that changes, she said, is the mood of the guides. Professional guides are paid based on the number of people in their group: if they have to double their workload to generate the same income, they will be the big losers under the new rules.
Last September, Venice’s city council was threatened with the possibility of being placed on UNESCO’s list of ‘World Heritage in Danger’. She quickly activated a long-stalled decision on charging an entrance fee to the lagoon city and the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello. It remains to be seen what effect the move will have on visitor numbers.
On 29 designated super busy days in the spring and summer of 2024, anyone over the age of 14 entering the city will have to prove they have an exemption or pay a €5 (£4.31) fee. The exceptions are many: residents, of course, and those born in Venice; anyone with a booked overnight stay in the city; anyone who comes in for work, study, medical care or business.
The exemption for people visiting relatives of residents “up to the third degree of kinship” has caused much concern and great merriment among locals, who wonder how anyone can prove this, and whether they are related by blood or marriage.
The room for complications and misunderstandings seems endless, as Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro himself admitted when presenting the launch of the booking system. He described it as “a pilot project for reservations,” adding: “There will of course be problems, but we are humble enough to believe that we can try and make the necessary adjustments.”
For 2024, the registration fee has been set at €5, payable in advance via a website (cda.ve.it) that is expected to go online in mid-January. Even those exempt from payment will have to register to obtain a QR code that can be shown at checks at the main entry points. If you are not aware of the rules, you can pay upon arrival.
For now, there is a fee but no limit on the number of people who can pay to enter the city, leading opponents of the plan to accuse Brugnaro of a cynical, toothless move to appease UNESCO and keep Venice off the list of shame , where it would have joined sites facing far greater existential threats, such as the historic center of Odesa in Ukraine and archaeological sites in war-torn Yemen.
The city will make no money from the experiment, which according to council figures will cost €3 million (£2.58 million) to implement, while generating around €700,000 (£603,000) in revenue. “We just want to assess the effect and efficiency of this booking system,” Brugnaro told the Italian press.
Should the pilot system work, there will be a sliding scale of fares up to €10 (£8.62) in coming years, depending on how busy the city is and – perhaps – a limit on the number of visitors. But with mechanisms already in place to facilitate the blocking of access slots for cruise ship passengers – which no longer navigate central waterways but dock nearby – and for major tour companies, Venetians are questioning whether even this measure will strengthen the relationship between visitors and locals who find these are the very arrivals most unaware of their plight.
The locals would rather encourage more sensitive tourists. As chairman of Save Venice, a non-profit organization responsible for preserving the city’s artistic and architectural treasures, Frederick Illchman is a frequent visitor to the city. He recognizes that he is part of the problem. “When I visit Venice, I am of course also a tourist, so I am part of the hustle and bustle in the narrow streets and on the vaporettos,” says Illchman. “But I try to be a good tourist,” he added. “I don’t suddenly stop at the top of a bridge or block pedestrian traffic to take a photo.”