Officials in Venice, Italy, have come to the conclusion that imposing a “tourist tax” on tourists is the best way to control the city’s overcrowded tourist industry.
The Venetian authorities have said in the past that visitors to the city would be required to purchase tickets ranging in price from $3.14 to $10.56 each day, but the implementation of this tax will not take place until January 16, 2023.
In spite of the fact that the preliminary announcement was made earlier this year in an effort to curb excessive tourism, the formal booking and payment system is not scheduled to begin operating for at least another month. This repression is carried out as a direct response to the increasing water level and the continued subsidence of the historic canal city.
During the month of April, the Mayor of Venice, Luigi Bruniar, said through Twitter that “making the city open for booking is the proper route for more balanced tourist management.” It will be the first city to conduct an experiment with such a levy and will place restrictions on the total number of visitors who are permitted to enter the city.
Not only has the expansion of tourism had an effect on the city’s infrastructure, but it has also had an effect on the city’s economics. The expense of living has increased pretty dramatically, to the point that the number of permanent inhabitants has decreased by 12,000 over the course of the last five years. The most recent projections suggest that by the year 2022, Venice will be home to a mere 50,000 people who will call the city their permanent address.
As was just indicated, this fee will be a component of a larger strategy to discourage tourists and visitors in order to bring the daily population of the city down to 100,000 people. In addition to the ticketing system, there will be an additional 500 inside TV cameras installed so that the number of attendees can be accurately tallied.
Tourism is very important to the people of Venice, but it also has a significant influence on the city’s architecture and the economy of the region as a whole, so maintaining this delicate equilibrium will be challenging. This is such a significant problem that the World Historic Committee of UNESCO has considering adding Venice to the list of endangered heritage sites, but they have ultimately decided against doing so.