Venice to Require Entry Fee for Tourists Starting Next Summer

The City of Venice is making yet another move to try and stem future overcrowding issues in one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations. 

Starting next summer, inbound tourists to Venice will have to pay an entry fee of somewhere between 3 and 10 euros (up to about $11.75 USD) and book their stay in advance with the city, in order to visit the destination. 

The plan is for the fee’s total cost to depend on the season and for electronic turnstiles to be installed at the city’s main entrance points. Residents, along with their relatives and children under the age of six, will be exempt from the fees

Venice, which has long dealt with infrastructure and other issues attributed to overcrowding, hopes to alleviate some of those issues with the entry fee, which it believes will help control crowds during the busy tourist seasons. 

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Venice was routinely attracting between 25 and 30 million tourists a year, according to the Italian Tourist Bureau. While that number has dropped off significantly since the start of the pandemic, the city has long been one of the most popular destinations for international tourists. 

Venice has long sought a solution to its overtourism problem and, right before the pandemic, had approved a series of tourism taxes that it hoped would stem the tide. However, those taxes were put on hold because of the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and just last week were finally approved by the city. 

The news of the new entry fee comes just a month after Italy voted to ban large cruise ships from sailing into Venice, a decision that came after UNESCO drafted a recommendation in June to add Venice to its list of World Heritage in Danger. The ban applies to ships exceeding 25,000 gross tons or longer than 530 feet sailing the lagoon basin near St. Mark’s Square and the Giudecca Canal.