Venice tourists to face €300 fine if they dodge new €5 entrance fee

DPA
·2 min read
The new controversial entrance fee for day tourists in Venice costs €5 and will initially be charged on 29 busy days in 2024. Evading the fee incurs a steep fine, officials have announced. Andrea Warnecke/dpa
The new controversial entrance fee for day tourists in Venice costs €5 and will initially be charged on 29 busy days in 2024. Evading the fee incurs a steep fine, officials have announced. Andrea Warnecke/dpa

People visiting Venice without paying the city's new €5 entrance fee face fines of between €50 and €300 if caught, local officials say.

City officials say staff will be carrying out inspections at entry points to make sure tourists can present a code showing they have paid the new fee, set to be in effect on certain the city's busiest days.

Venice had in January launched an online platform allowing visitors to pay the city's much-debated entry fee, set to come into force from late April onwards on certain days when crowds are expected.

The online platform for bookings and payments lets visitors download a QR code to prove they have paid upon arrival. An April update now reflects that fines will be handed out to anyone avoiding the entry fee.

The hotly debated new Access Fee, set to apply on days when Venice is particularly crowded, will be in force on 29 days from April 25 to May 5, the mayor of the Italian lagoon city, Luigi Brugnaro, announced late in November. It will then also apply on all weekends until mid-July, with one exception of June 1/2.

You can pay the fee on the website: cda.veneziaunica.it. Once you have paid the €5, you receive a QR code, which you download onto your mobile phone.

The scheme does not apply to overnight guests, local residents or commuters. Children under the age of 14 are exempt. The fee, made official in September after years of debate, is intended to prevent mass tourism in Venice from causing even more damage than it already does.

Postponed and watered down several times, the €5 fee on certain days is down from a €10 fee that some officials previously wanted to be in place all year round.

More than 5 million people visit Venice every year. In peak tourism season, there are often more than 100,000 foreigners in the city at any one time, outnumbering residents by at least 2 to 1.

Some experts are sceptical that the fee will do much to slow tourist numbers, however, questioning why visitors would be deterred by a €5 fee for a city that likely already costs them hundreds more to get to and visit.

The entrance fee is tiny when compared to the official fee for a half-hour gondola ride in the evening - now €100. At Caffè Florian on St Mark's Square, a cappuccino costs €11.50. The Bellini cocktail at Harry's Bar costs twice that.