Venice weighs record EUR 30 fee for day-trippers amid overtourism
Dhaka: Venice authorities are considering extending the period covered by the city's tourist entry fee and raising the daily charge to as much as EUR 30, according to local officials.
Since the measure was introduced in 2024, the city has struggled to find an effective way to curb overtourism. Protesters blame day-trippers for the pressure on Venice, while others point to overnight visitors, who pay a separate nightly tax of EUR 1 to EUR 5 per person.
The entry fee started as a EUR 5 charge on 29 peak days in 2024. It expanded to 54 days in 2025, when the rate doubled for last-minute visitors, and then to 60 days this year.
Despite these adjustments, the charge has not produced the intended results, prompting authorities to weigh further changes.
Michele Zuin, Venice's Budget and Taxation Councillor, told a local newspaper that the current EUR 5-10 fee was too affordable to work as a real deterrent. He said talks had floated a rate as high as EUR 50 per person per day, though officials may ultimately cap it at EUR 30.
Zuin added that the 2027 pricing plan still needs approval from the national government.
Venice's new mayor, Simone Venturini, shares the concern, having said in July that the EUR 10 fee had failed to keep enough visitors away on peak days. Rather than a blanket hike, he favors a dynamic pricing model that would let the fee rise with demand.
Venturini noted that the city spends EUR 100 million a year maintaining Venice, without support from the European Union, the Italian government, or international critics of the scheme. He said the cost falls on residents and, in part, on tourism taxes.
Provisional municipal data show the 2026 trial generated more than EUR 5.2 million from nearly 680,000 tickets sold. An average of 11,326 tickets were sold per charging day, down 32.3 percent from 2024.
The number of exceptionally busy days also dropped, from four days with at least 20,000 entries in 2024 to three in 2025 and just one in 2026, even though the number of charging days more than doubled.
Municipal officials have cautioned that the figures are still provisional, noting that weather, holidays, and overall tourism demand must be factored in before determining how much of the decline is linked to the entry fee itself.
