This year, Venice to launch entry fee and limit tourist groups

These measures will be introduced in two steps over the spring and summer

It looks like 2024 will finally be the year when Venice will introduce its radical tourist measures with a view to limiting unpleasant and unsustainable phenomena, such as day-tripping and overcrowding. The media headlines are awash with reports that the city council aims to limit the walking tourist groups to 25 people and ban loudspeakers for the guides leading them.

The plan is to implement this restriction starting in June, which is when the full-blown tourist season kicks off in earnest.

The idea is to fight back against the process of turning the UNESCO-protected historical city into a theme park, which only exists for the entertainment of visitors. Tourist groups will not have the right to stop at bridges and narrow streets.

Loudspeakers will be turned off, too

The new regulations will follow two months after the introduction of the long-time-brewing entry fee, which has faced numerous delays and postponements since the idea was first floated five years ago. Day trippers should expect to pay 5 euros to visit the historic core in the lagoon.

The regulations regarding the cap on tourist groups, which also seek to combat overcrowding and noise pollution, will apply to Venice proper as well as the nearby islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello, which are also popular side trip destinations.

Security councillor Elisabetta Pesce described the development, quoted by Yahoo!Life, as “an important measure aimed at improving the management of groups” as well as “promoting sustainable tourism and guaranteeing the protection and safety of the city.”

Apparently, Venice museums are ahead of the game as they’ve already been limiting visitor groups to 25 people at a time.

Last year, UNESCO called on the Italian government to “ensure the utmost dedication” to address “long-standing problems” in the city and recommended putting Venice on the endangered sites list.