Even after over a year crippled without vital tourism revenues, Venice is imposing restrictions on visitors to the city.
Unlike some other travel restrictions, these have nothing to do with COVID.
Instead, fees, a booking system - even electronic turnstiles - are being imposed to limit the numbers of tourists entering Venice and prevent the post-pandemic return to travel from being a return to ‘overtourism’ in one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations.
According to Italian newspaper La Stampa, the new measures to limit numbers of tourists entering Venice will take effect from summer of 2022.
Visitors will be required to book in advance, pay an entry fee that will vary seasonally between 3 and 10 euros, and enter the city via electronic turnstiles that will track - and cap - the number of people entering Italy’s famous canal city.
CNBC reports that both residents and children under six years of age will be exempted, along with one calculated category of tourists: those staying in local hotels.
The restrictions are not new ideas. Prior to the pandemic, the city was a posterchild for overtourism and struggled to find solutions to congestion, overcrowded waterways, and the negative impact of excessive tourism on the local way of life.
While the pandemic put overtourism concerns on hold, they’ve now returned. A report in The Times says up to 80,000 people each day have already been visiting Venice in recent weeks.
Prior to the pandemic, thousands of Venetians protested against the negative impact of overtourism on their city and the lifestyle of its residents.
After years of flip-flopping, Italian authorities also finally banned large cruise ships from the city’s canals, forcing them to dock outside Venice and bus cruise guests into the city. The ban took effect at the beginning of this month.
As travel continues to pick up around the world, Venice’s latest initiatives could set a standard for how other overtouristed destinations start to crack down on excessive numbers of visitors.
