(25 Apr 2024)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4490718
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Venice - 25 April 2024
1. Pan of Venice station with Venice municipality officers checking for payment of access fee to canal
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Venice - 24 April 2024
2. Wide of canal
3. Saint Mark Square and Rialto bridge
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Venice - 25 April 2024
4. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Arianna Cecilia, day-tripper from Rome:
++PARTIALLY OVERLAID WITH CUTAWAYS OF MUNICIPALITY OFFICER AND FLYER
“We paid the five euro (USD$5.35) ticket per person, because we read on the internet that the fee was being enforced starting from today, for several days during the year. It was very easy.”
5. Municipal officers checking access fee payment
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Abbey Falconei, tourist from New Zealand staying in hotel in Venice:
++CONTAINS CUTAWAYS OF PEOPLE PAYING FOR ACCESS FEE++
“It was pretty smooth, the host from our accommodation just sent us the QR code. So I just had to fill out a form. It took a few minutes, but it was ok.”
7. Various of anti-fee protester showing mock-passport of Venetian residents and saying UPSOUND (Italian): “No to the fee”
8. SOUNDBITE (Italian), Marina Rodinò, local resident and activist against overtourism and the access fee:
++CONTAINS CUTAWAYS OUTSIDE STATION++
“This is not a natural park, it is not a museum, it is not Pompeii, this is a city where we have to fight to have the houses lived in by families and we have to reopen local shops. This would also limit this wild tourism.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Venice - 24 April 2024
9. Wide of tourists looking at canal
STORYLINE:
Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launches a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more liveable for its dwindling residents.
Signs advising arriving visitors of the new requirement for a test phase of 29 days through July have been erected outside the main train station and other points of arrival.
Some 200 stewards have been trained to politely walk anyone unaware of the fee through the process of downloading a QR code. A kiosk has been set up for those not equipped with a smartphone.
Once past designated entry ports, officials will carry out random checks for QR codes that show if the day-tripper tax has been paid or that the bearer is exempt.
Transgressors face fines from 50 euros to 300 euros. The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free.
Venice has long suffered under the pressure of over-tourism, but officials say that pre-pandemic estimates ranging from 25 million to 30 million visitors a year — including day-trippers — are not reliable and that the pilot project also aims to come up with more exact figures to help better manage the phenomenon.
By contrast, registered visitors spending the night last year numbered 4.6 million, according to city figures, down 16% from pre-pandemic highs.
Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism, and say more attention needs to be paid to boosting the resident population and services they need.
“This is not a natural park, it is not a museum, it is not Pompeii, this is a city where we have to fight to have the houses lived in by families and we have to reopen local shops," said access fee protester and resident Marina Rodinò.
AP Video shot by Paolo Santalucia
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