Venice ‘bookable’: Italians lose freedom of movement

Are Venice’s new day-trip­per rules hav­ing the desired effect? Or are they unreas­on­ably restrict­ing Itali­ans’ free­dom of movement?

This is Domin­ic Standish’s second “Good Tour­ism” Insight at the invit­a­tion of Tourism’s Hori­zon, a “GT” Insight Part­ner.

[You too can write a “GT” Insight. Your organ­isa­tion can also become a “GT” Part­ner.]

Since April 25, 2024, Venice City Coun­cil has made it man­dat­ory for day-trip­pers to book to enter the city. Book­ing is required on 29 days this year. The first peri­od ran from April 25 to May 5. 

In addi­tion to book­ing to enter the city, many day-trip­pers must pay a EUR 5 (~USD 5.40) daily entry fee or risk fines between EUR 50 and EUR 300. The fee and book­ing apply if day-trip­pers enter the city between 8.30 am and 4.00 pm. People can book online or at kiosks in the city and there are ran­dom checks by appoin­ted officials. 

Trav­el­lers who stay overnight in the Muni­cip­al­ity of Venice, and pay a tour­ist tax, do not need to pay the entry fee. Venice res­id­ents are exempt. Ven­eto region res­id­ents must book and do not pay. But people from oth­er Itali­an regions have to book and pay. 

I explain the exemp­tions, dates, and how the book­ing sys­tem oper­ates in this art­icle. Now that it is in effect, the dates, times, and fees for entry can eas­ily be changed … for bet­ter or worse. And while there is cur­rently no lim­it on the num­ber of day-trip­pers or oth­er trav­el­lers who can enter Venice dur­ing des­ig­nated times, this too can change.

An unprecedented response to ‘overtourism’

“It is the first time in the world that you do some­thing like this, you make a city book­able,” declared Venice May­or Luigi Brug­naro.    

Of course, many pop­u­lar tour­ist des­tin­a­tions charge entry fees, includ­ing the Galapa­gos Islands. Bali charges a one-time entry fee. Japan has a depar­ture tax. Many oth­er places have tour­ist taxes, usu­ally as a sur­charge on accommodation. 

Such fees are often linked to claims about ‘over­tour­ism’. Venice May­or Brug­naro stated, with ref­er­ence to the book­ing sys­tem, “over­tour­ism is not a prob­lem that only con­cerns this city”. Indeed, mak­ing Venice book­able was sug­ges­ted by Brug­naro in the after­math of the city exper­i­en­cing high volumes of day-trip­pers dur­ing East­er 2022.

Also read Dr Domin­ic Standish’s “GT” Insight: ‘Mass tour­ism in Venice: Are city offi­cials over­re­act­ing?’

‘No to ticket for Vene-Land’

Although many places charge fees for tour­ists, Venice is set­ting a unique pre­ced­ent because it is the first city that requires book­ing to enter on cer­tain dates at spe­cif­ic times. This makes Venice feel more like a theme park than a city. 

At protests in Venice on the first day of the book­able sys­tem, a ban­ner was dis­played includ­ing the slo­gan ‘No to tick­et for Vene-Land’, com­par­ing the city’s new status to Dis­ney­land. Anoth­er read ‘No to the tick­et, yes to houses and ser­vices for all’ at the front of approx­im­ately 300 demon­strat­ors who clashed with police.

While the book­able sys­tem has been framed as a response to over­tour­ism, Venice is a liv­ing city with a wide vari­ety of func­tions bey­ond tour­ism. Oth­er aspects of city life, and loc­al people, are being neg­at­ively impacted by this system. 

On April 28, 2024 Pope Fran­cis came to Venice and presided over mass on St Mark’s Square. People from the Ven­eto region who wanted to attend needed to book to do so if enter­ing dur­ing the des­ig­nated times. People enter­ing from oth­er Itali­an regions were required to book and pay the fee.

Sim­il­arly, two days later, a cere­mony was held for 700 new gradu­ates of Venice Uni­ver­sity on St Mark’s Square. Fam­ily mem­bers and friends of these gradu­ates from the Ven­eto region had to book. Those from oth­er regions booked and paid for the day.

Also read Anna Richardot’s “GT” Insight: ‘Regain­ing con­trol: Venice takes ‘smart’ meas­ures to man­age mass tour­ism’

Venice has set a dangerous precedent

Loc­al people are suf­fer­ing restric­tions on many aspects of their lives due to fears about over­tour­ism. Des­pite per­cep­tions that mak­ing Venice book­able may reduce the num­ber of for­eign tour­ists, the real­ity is that this sys­tem is hav­ing more impact on loc­al people. 

As a res­id­ent of the Ven­eto region who often vis­its the city, I have observed that most day-trip­pers on busy days are usu­ally Itali­ans. Simone Ven­turini, Venice’s city coun­cil­lor for tour­ism, con­firmed that the book­ing sys­tem was prin­cip­ally to deter day-trip­pers from the Ven­eto region vis­it­ing the city: “Yes, the major­ity are from Ven­eto and are exempt, but the fact they still have to go online to con­firm this is a way to dis­in­centiv­ise them.” 

There are many com­plic­ated exemp­tions to book­ing and pay­ing to enter Venice. Vene­tian res­id­ents may apply to Venice City Coun­cil to make their friends exempt. How­ever, this means the Coun­cil has the right to reg­u­late and record what should be private relationships.

Free­dom of move­ment into Venice is no more on cer­tain days and times. While these dates and times are lim­ited, this could change. There is no threshold for the num­ber of day-trip­pers or oth­er trav­el­lers who can enter Venice dur­ing these times, but this too could change. Like­wise, the fee could increase, which has already been mooted for busy days.

By mak­ing Venice ‘book­able’ through claims about over­tour­ism, Venice City Coun­cil has uniquely estab­lished the prin­ciple that it can pro­hib­it any­one from enter­ing the city, includ­ing Itali­ans. As loc­al people are exper­i­en­cing, this has set a dan­ger­ous pre­ced­ent against free­dom. Oth­er cit­ies and places should reject the idea.

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” con­tent tagged ‘Car­ry­ing capa­city, mass tour­ism, and over­tour­ism’

Con­tents ^

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About the author

Domin­ic Standish has lived in the Venice region since 1997. 

A lec­turer at the Uni­ver­sity of Iowa, Dr Standish is the author of Venice in Envir­on­ment­al Per­il? Myth and Real­ity (UPA, 2012), with updates at dstandish.com and on Twit­ter. 

Featured image (top of post)

Are Venice’s new day-trip­per rules and reg­u­la­tions hav­ing the desired effect? Or are they unreas­on­ably restrict­ing Itali­ans’ free­dom of move­ment? Venice car­ni­val masks image by Leo (CC0) via Pixabay. “GT” added “Halt!”.

Con­tents ^