Sawt Falasteen - Venice extends tourist tax for 2025

The Italian city, built on islands in a lagoon, will designate 54 days this year when visitors will have to pay in advance for a ticket to enter the historic centre, up from 29 last year.

Venice rolled out the trial last April. Day-trippers paid a "Venice Access Fee" of five euros ($5.15) on certain days in what officials called an experiment to make the historic city more "liveable".

Those without tickets risked fines ranging from 50 to 300 euros, with spot checks at key points of entry.

Venice is one of the world's top tourist destinations, but many residents say it is drowning under the weight of crowds.

At peak times some 100,000 tourists spend the night in the city, while tens of thousands descend on the city just for the day, many of them from cruise ships.

The main aim of the project is to discourage day-trippers, who contribute to the overcrowding of the city, world-famous for its works of art, bridges and canals. Venice has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

For 2025, the city has blocked out dates in April, May, June and July in which the ticket will be required between 8:30 am and 4:00 pm.

Overnight visitors, who already pay a tourist tax, are exempt, as are residents.

If purchased four days ahead of arrival, the ticket is five euros, but rises to 10 euros for those who book within three days of their visit.

The strategy aims to "define a new system for managing tourist flows and discourage daily tourism in Venice in certain periods, in line with the sensitivity and uniqueness of the city," said city councillor in charge of tourism, Simone Venturini.

In a statement, the authority cited a recently commissioned study that found visits in 2024 were on average booked "well in advance", and with a "slight reduction" in flows of day-trippers.

B.Khalifa--SF-PST