But because of the corona pandemic, everything turned out differently. A test phase should be carried out in the summer of 2022, but this will also be postponed to the beginning of 2023.
After the planned entrance fee for day tourists in Venice in was initially postponed by a year, but then was not introduced in 2021 due to Corona either, a new start date has now been set: 2023 should be the time.
As the online travel magazine “Reise vor9” writes, the planned test phase, which should start in June 2022 and last six months, will be postponed. Accordingly, visitors can also enter Venice this summer without paying an entrance fee. From January 2023 you will have to register for the entrance fee on a corresponding website. In return, you get certain incentives. These include, for example, reduced admission prices for museums or other institutions. Venice authorities voted to postpone the new system.
But who has to pay for admission? “Those who go to a hotel do not have to pay an access fee as there is already a tourist tax. But those who come during the day have to pay the fee,” La Repubblica quoted Simone Venturini, Venice’s deputy councilor for tourism.
Venice digitally monitors the flow of tourists
The city set up a new digital control center last year to monitor the flow of tourists in Venice. There, various data are displayed in real time on huge screens. These include, among other things, the number and type of boats on the canals of the historic city and the parking situation in public parking lots. You can also see images from cameras distributed throughout the city.
The current flow of people and tourists in the city is also displayed. To do this, sensors measure how many people enter Venice each day and how many leave the city again. The data also shows which countries or regions of Italy the people come from. You can also see where they are within the city. The award-winning system, costing around three million euros, forms the basis for the administration of the planned entry fee. “Thanks to this system, for the first time we can know with certainty how many people are in the city,” said Venturini.