Flooded by Tourists, Venice to Start Charging Access Fees | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

Tourists flock to Venice for its architecture and waterways. Pedro Szekely via Flickr under CC BY-SA 2.0 Tourists flock to Venice for its historic architecture and beautiful waterways. But starting next year, they’ll pay for the privilege, Venice officials recently announced. The bridge-rich city—one of the world’s top tourist destinations—is instituting the charge as part of a pilot program designed to better manage its annual summer surge of travelers. Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro announced the program—first approved by the Italian government in 2018—on Twitter. The fee is “ … the right path to take for a more balanced management of tourism,” he wrote, per Google Translate. “We will be the first in the world [to take on] this difficult experiment.” The first-of-its-kind attempt at crowd control will launch in June, and the official program will go live in January 2023, the Guardian’s Angela Giuffrida reports. The pilot program, voluntary for now, is aimed at helping the city better understand how to set entry fees. Tourists this summer will be encouraged to register their trip online to receive incentives like museum discounts. Previous reports hinted that the city would charge between €3 and €10 (roughly $3 to $11), with costs changing based on demand…
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