1
The tax will vary
depending on the
season and the day,
costing anything from
€3 per person mid-week
in low season to €1 0
per person on bank
holiday weekends2
It applies to day-
trippers only and is
separate from the ‘city
tax’ already in place.
Those staying overnight
in Venice won’t have to
pay the new tax3
There’s no consensus
on how or when the
fee will be introduced,
but the council is aiming
for January 2023Why is this happening?
Venice has around 50,00 0
inhabitants in the central area, but
is swamped by approximately 20
million visitors a year. Around 90%
of those visitors are what the locals
call ‘hit and runs’ — day-trippers,
often bussed or boated in from the
surrounding area and even as far
away as Croatia. These visitors tend
to spend less money in the city, clog
the areas around the main sites and
leave plenty of rubbish in their wake.
Keen to reduce overcrowding, the
authorities’ solution is to introduce
an entry fee of up to €1 0 (£8.50) for
day-trippers in the hope of putting
some of them off, or persuading
people to visit on a less busy day,
when it’ll be cheaper to get in.
How will it work? That’s not yet
clear. This project was in the works
before the pandemic and although
solutions such as turnstiles and
QR codes have been mooted,
nothing has yet been confirmed.
However it’s enforced, the idea
is that you book your day trip to
Venice ahead of time to enable
authorities to plan for busy days,
and to encourage visitors to
spread the numbers across the
year. For instance, if you select
a bank holiday or another day in
peak season, you’ll get a message
suggesting you rebook to avoid
overcrowding, tourism councillor
Simone Venturini told Italian state
TV, RAI. If you continue, you’ll pay
up to €1 0 for your ticket. Go on a
quieter day and it’ll be €3 (£2.50).
I already paid a tourist tax on
my last trip to Venice — will I pay
twice? No. Like many other major
European cities, Venice already
charges a ‘city tax’ for overnight
guests. Introduced in 2011, this
charge depends on factors such
as the kind of accommodation and
HOT TOPIC
In a bid to tackle overtourism, the city is set to charge day-trippers a ‘tourist tax’ of up to
€10 in 2023. But what does this mean for travellers, and will other destinations follow suit?IS VENICE’S TOURIST TAX A
SIGN OF THINGS TO COME?
the season. It covers the first five
nights of your stay — you could stay
five nights or a month and you’d
pay the same fee. The fee — from € 1
(85p) to €5 (£4.25) per person per
night — is payable to the hotel, B&B
or rental you’re staying at.
However, day-trippers don’t pay
this tax, yet they’re the ones who
have the most impact on the city.
The new entry fee aims to redress
that balance. If you’re staying
overnight (and therefore paying the
original city tax), you’ll be exempt.When will it start? In April, the city
council said that the fee would be
imposed from January 2 023, but
don’t take that start date as gospel,
particularly since they haven’t
decided how to enact it yet. But,
Venturini has said that the city will
launch an online portal this summer
as part of a pilot scheme. Visitorswho voluntarily book through the
pilot scheme won’t have to pay the
tax and will receive discounts and
fast-track entry at tourist sites.Will other destinations follow
suit? Venturini told RAI that “other
European cities are watching
us” to understand how they can
introduce something similar. This
includes the UK, too: the SNP
are keen to implement one in
Edinburgh, despite not taking full
control of the council in the recent
elections. Wales is scheduling
a consultation on a visitor tax
for autumn 2022 , though it’s not
clear whether that would apply
to day-trippers or those staying
overnight. But Venice’s fee is
nothing compared to Bhutan,
which taxes visitors upwards of
$250 (£200) a day to keep numbers
down. JULIA BUCKLEY