Venice will start implementing its long-planned charge for day visitors from April 2024.
The fee, which was first floated as an idea in 2019 but postponed several times, will initially be in effect for 29 days and cover most weekends from 25 April 2024 until mid-July, Reuters reports. The fee will apply to travellers visiting Venice between 8.30am and 4pm each day it is in force.
“It’s the first time in the world you do something like this, you make a city bookable,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told the wire service, adding, “We want to measure the effect of this trial, we want to measure the effect of this bookability.”
The fee will be €5 ($5.46) per person and will be charged to all travellers over the age of 14 visiting the famous canal city for the day. Travellers under the age of 14 will still need to register, but will be exempt from the fee.
Tickets to visit the city will be sold through an online platform, which is expected to be ready by January, according to The Local Italy. Travellers will then receive a QR code to be scanned at certain entry points, Reuters reported.
The fee will not apply to overnight visitors who book a hotel stay, as they are already subject to a different tax. Travellers will also not have to pay the fee to visit the smaller islands in the area, such as Murano, known for its glass, Reuters noted.
Travellers who don’t pay the required fee could face a fine of between 50 euros ($54.64) and 310 euros ($338.78).
The fee comes after UNESCO in September again spared Venice from its list of World Heritage Sites in Danger, despite recommendations that it be added.
Venice has been in UNESCO’s crosshairs for years and was spared the same fate in 2021. The city has since taken a number of steps to preserve the site, including declaring the waterways around Venice a “national monument” and banning large cruise ships from its canals.