Residents in Venice protested against the introduction of a new €5 fee for day-trippers, with some calling the city a “theme park” and expressing concerns about overtourism. The fee, implemented on a national holiday, requires visitors to pay for access to the city from 8.30am to 4.30pm on certain days.
Simone Venturini, the city councillor responsible for tourism, defended the fee as a way to find a balance between residents and tourists. However, residents like Cristina Romieri criticized the measure, saying it would not address the issue of overtourism and would be difficult to enforce due to its complexity.
Protesters, including Giovanni Andrea Martini from an opposition group, marched through the city holding banners reading “No to ticket for Vene-Land” and chanting “Here we live and here we stay.” They expressed their opposition to turning Venice into a museum or theme park.
Despite the protests, the city plans to enforce the fee with inspectors conducting random checks and issuing fines to those who fail to register. Italian tourists also voiced their concerns, with one visitor from Lecce calling the fee unfair and limiting access to the beautiful city.
The fee is part of a series of measures aimed at managing tourist flows in Venice, where roughly 20 million people visited last year, outnumbering the resident population. The city narrowly avoided being placed on UNESCO’s ‘World Heritage in Danger’ list last year, and has also banned large cruise ships and imposed limits on tourist group sizes to protect its delicate ecosystem.