Earlier this year, the Venetian authorities announced that tourists heading to the city on the water will have to buy tickets from 3 to 10 euros per day starting next month.
However, it looks like the city has backtracked. The city council has voted that the booking and payment system will be launched no earlier than January 16, 2023.
But just a month ago, the city announced the launch of an Internet portal for incoming tourists to book a time to visit.
The original launch plan was part of a larger effort to tackle the overtourism that has hit the ancient city hard. Not only has rising sea levels led to part of the area being flooded, but the situation has been exacerbated by the weight of thousands of day-trip tourists.
The huge daily influx of tourists has driven the cost of living up to the point that many locals have left the city in recent years. Five years ago, Venice had 67,000 permanent residents. As of 2022, their number has dropped to 50,000.
Admission fees are just one of many measures approved by officials in hopes of cutting the 100,000 people who stroll through the city’s winding canals and historic squares every day.
The ticketing system will be supported by 500 cameras installed to monitor the flow of tourists.
In addition, the police will use mobile phone data to identify people in real-time.
“If I enter the data in an aggregated anonymous form, we can see exactly who these people are: 977 foreigners, 800 Italians, 135 locals, and 139 cruise ship passengers,” Maria Teresa Maniero, the deputy police chief of Venice, does not even hide.
Before the pandemic, Venice attracted up to 80,000 tourists daily, which is approximately 25 million per year.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has considered adding Venice to its list of endangered heritage sites. But that decision was abandoned after Italy banned large cruise ships from entering Venice waters in April.