With day-trip fee 'Disney-fication' of Venice, the world hits its overtourism tipping point

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Demonstrators try to break through the blockade created by police officers to enter the city at Piazzale Roma, opposing the charge for tourists to enter the city on April 25, 2024 in Venice, Italy. Today Venice authorities launched a pilot program charging visitors a 5-euro entry fee in the hope that it will discourage at peak time, making the city more livable for its residents. Stefano Mazzola | Getty Images News | Getty Images Venice isn't only sinking, it's shrinking. In the 1970s, there were about 175,000 residents in Centro Storico, the main island and historic center of Venice. As of last year, that number was below 50,000. What has been growing steadily is tourism, which due to economic and quality-of-life pressure, has been pushing out residents. In fact, there are now more tourist beds in Venice than there are residents. Last year, 20 million people visited, winding their way through its two square miles. Last week, Venice took action on overtourism, introducing a 5€ fee to day trippers who want to access the city. The aim, Venice's Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in a press conference, "is not to close the city, but not let it explode." The program, officially launched on April 25 — a historically significant day, as it is both Italy's Liberation Day and the feast day of the city's patron saint, St. Mark — took the mayor's words in a direction he hadn't intended, with roughly a thousand protestors gathered in Piazzale Roma to oppose the measure, ultimately clashing with police in riot gear. Residents voiced a range of concerns despite the measure being designed in part to help make their city more livable. They objected to the idea of living in a closed city. Some argued that selling tickets reduces their city to an amusement park — Veniceland. There's also a central irony, critics say, in a government that at the same time is considering multiple ways to increase tourism, from weighing the idea of cruise ships returning to the lagoon to relaxation of limits on Airbnbs. A once-in-a-lifetime destination for many travelers from around the world, the most important criticism may be that the cost is unlikely to deter anyone from visiting the city. "Almost the entire city is against it," Matteo Secchi, leader of a residents' activist group, told the Guardian. "You can't impose an entrance fee to a city; all they're doing is transforming it into a theme park. … I mean, are we joking?" On the first day of its implementation, according to data from the mayor's office, 113,000 people registered, and of those 16,000 paid the fee — others were exempt for various reasons, including hotel stays, being a commuter, a student, or visiting family or friends. Tourists stand in front of Santa Lucia train station in Venice as they wait to pass controls and buy the five-euro ticket to enter the historic city center on April 25, 2024. Marco Bertorello | Afp | Getty Images Despite its many detractors, the day fee is a significant move on the part of Venice's government to confront the challenge of overtourism, which has become a significant global problem since the pandemic. "This administration is the first one after 30 years of chit-chat on putting a brake to tourism growth that has actually done something," said Antonio Paolo Russo, who was born in Venice and is a professor of urban geography at Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain. But Russo, offering a view representative of many experts, said the measure seems likely to fall short in terms of effectiveness, and smacks of political gestures, as well as obscure profit motives. "5€ won't make any difference with such a large demand. ... the tourist destiny of the city is scripted in the way it is regulated," he said. The program is in its experimental phase and has been in its planning stages since 2019. Covid and travel restrictions associated with the pandemic first paused the action, and then accelerated it once travel resumed. "Covid made us realize that what was an everyday occurrence before Covid isn't acceptable anymore — the mentality has changed, as has the sensitivity [towards crowds]," Simone Venturini, the city councilor for tourism, told CNN in 2023. "Aware of the urgency to find a new balance between the rights of those who live, work and study in Venice, and those who visit the city, we are setting ourselves up as global frontrunners," he said. Although plans initially included different fee structures — from higher fees, to sliding scales, to fees charged on more days — and the possibility of raising funds to help offset the cost of spikes in visitors, the current plan will serve only to cover the administrative costs of the program. Venice is the first location to require a ticket to enter a city — to make the city itself the attraction — and legal challenges could still be ahead, in national or EU courts, under laws covering freedom of movement in public places. Other popular tourist destinations have similar programs, but limited to locales and attractions within a city, such as Barcelona's Park Guell. Charging tourists to enter popular destinations has worked around the world, but only when there is a clear indication of where the money will go, such as environmental preservation, and when the revenue is kept separate from the general government ledger. Belize's Protected Area Conservation Trust was a pioneering movement 25 years ago which met these criteria, and programs of this type are on the rise. Bali recently introduced a tourist tax to protect the destination's environment, nature and culture. Barcelona just increased its tourist tax, while Amsterdam recently raised its tourist tax to the highest rate in Europe. The various taxation schemes being applied to tourists are likely to continue to grow around the world. watch now