The Lemon Fool

Venice wants to combat ‘overtourism’ by imposing a €5 entrance fee for day visitors - surely at this level no-one will be deterred? Hence, solely a revenue generating scheme that after the costs of implementation and management will probably lose money.

T7

It is already here. On a recent stay at the Manchester Hilton I was charged an extra quid per day "Visitor Tax".

Some parts of Belgium already have a tourist tax (e.g. Bruges); Barcelona also has one. These are typically applied via tourist hotel surcharges I understand.

Tourist taxes are very common in Europe when collected by the hotel you're staying in but how will it be collected from day visitors?

Dicky99 wrote:Tourist taxes are very common in Europe when collected by the hotel you're staying in but how will it be collected from day visitors?

Venice could collect it via the road bridge, railway or at the ferries. If I remember correctly there are limited ways by which you can enter the city.

Dod

This is targeted primarily at the cruise line visitors I suspect - they eat breakfast on the boat, come into town and spend 20-30 ph Euro on coffee and tat, then disappear back to the boat for a big dinner.

I think they've already stopped the ships coming right close to town because of the erosion damage over the years. Don't know if they'd enforce a tap'n'go at the disembarkation points, or try to get the cruise companies to collect on their behalf as many hotels already do where such schemes exit.

It's being called an "entrance" charge, but it's for day visitors only, and anyone staying overnight will be exempt.

Which makes the practicalities of collecting it even harder.

Scott.

Who cares whether it is to minimise visitors or raise money from them - if it is to be spent on preserving the amazing city and provide services for the local population?