New tourist tax in Venice postponed for a year

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Luigi Brugnaro the mayor of Venice has announced that the city will be postponing its new tourist tax for a year. An entry fee of up to€10 was to be introduced from July 1, 2020.

The Italian city has long battled overtourism and is perpetually inundated with tourists. It has also introduced a ban on cruise ships too.

Last year the mayor announced a new entry fee to the city  in a bid to cut down on the number of visitors and make the city “more liveable”.

It was due to get effective in May 2019, but it was later postponed to 1 July 2020.  The entry fee has been postponed again to 1 July 2021 as Italy is suffering under the pressure of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Day visitors were expected to make a booking to visit the city and to pay a fee to gain entry where starting rate was €3 (£2.64) for a quiet day but goes up to €10 (£8.80) for the busiest days.

While the overnight visitors are exempted as they pay a separate hotel tax.

The city could risk economic disaster as Italy was still on lockdown and there were uncertainty over when it might. Brugnaro felt it would be “ill-timed” to introduce the tax now.

Tourism is currently zero and it will take at least a year to get back on track.

By a number of events last year Venice’s tourism industry has been heavily impacted and currently coronavirus keeping tourists at home, the city has now turned into a ghost town.

Venice is known to suffer the second most severe flood on record during the end of last year  which was described by Luca Zaia, governor of the Veneto region as an  “apocalyptic devastation”.

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