Venice temporary tourist tax for day-trippers has exceeded all economic expectations, authorities have announced.
Back in April, “The Floating City” introduced a €5 entrance fee for visitors who were not willing or able to spend the night in local accommodations, in an attempt to curb mass tourism.
The tax was applied on a trial basis from April 25 to July 15, from 8:30 to 16:00 on 29 selected days. City workers, students, family members of residents and people carrying out cultural or religious activities were exempted from the payment.
The government had already enforced a number of restrictions like limiting the size of tourist groups to 25 to reduce the pressure on squares, bridges and narrow streets. Authorities also banned the use of loudspeakers in the city and nearby islands because these “generate confusion and disturbances.”
But it seems like the most successful strategy so far to both contain the avalanche of tourists and collect good money has been the day-tripper tourist tax.
In the 29 days the tax was in force, the government secured some $2.64 million when the target figure was only $762,000, according to Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro.
During this time frame, 3,618,114 people booked tickets to enter the city, although many of them did not have to pay.
The mayor’s office will analyze the data collected to decide if it is a good move to reinstate the entry tax during busy months.
“It’s a positive balance: The first 29 days of experimentation have finally given the city a tool that has allowed us to know how many people would objectively arrive in Venice and will be able to give us a way to act accordingly,” said tourism councilor Simone Venturini in a statement.
So the measure worked from an economic point of view, but did it really work to reduce the number of tourists?
Local residents told CNN they had observed a visible reduction in crowds during the Redeemer Festival and other key days.
The difference between this city tax and other European taxes that only “pretend” to stop mass tourism but have zero control over the number of arrivals, is that in this case, visitors did have to register their visit at the official Venice Access Fee website.
Once the registration was completed, they received a QR code that had to be shown at the entrance points to the old city. Failing to present this code resulted in fines that ranged from €50 to €300.
“The experiment worked and we can move forward. A more in-depth analysis of the data collected will be done in the autumn,” Brugnaro told reporters.
Other European cities like Barcelona are also increasing city taxes.
Right after approving increasing the tourist tax for the second time in 2024, the government announced that the tax on stopover cruise passengers will be significantly increased in the upcoming weeks.