Venice on Sunday wraps up a pilot program charging day-trippers an entrance price, greater than two million euros ($A3.3 million) richer and decided to increase the levy, however opponents referred to as the experiment a failure.
A number of dozen activists gathered exterior the Santa Lucia prepare station overlooking a teeming canal on Saturday to protest the 5 euro levy that they are saying did little to dissuade guests from arriving on peak days, as envisioned.
“The ticket is a failure, as demonstrated by metropolis knowledge,” mentioned Giovanni Andrea Martini, an opposition metropolis council member.
Over the primary 11 days of the trial interval, a median of 75,000 guests had been recorded within the metropolis. Martini mentioned that’s 10,000 extra every day than on three indicative holidays in 2023, citing figures offered by town primarily based on cell phone knowledge that tracks arrivals within the metropolis.
Venice imposed the long-discussed day-tripper tax on 29 days this 12 months, largely weekends and holidays, from April 25 via mid-July.
Over the past two-and-a-half months, greater than 247,000 vacationers have paid the tax, elevating revenues of some 2.19 million euros, in line with AP calculations primarily based on knowledge provided by town.
Officers mentioned the cash can be used for important companies, which value extra in a metropolis traversed by canals, together with rubbish removing and upkeep.
The levy was not utilized to individuals staying in accommodations in Venice, who’re already charged a lodging tax. Exemptions additionally utilized to youngsters below 14, residents of the area, college students, staff and other people visiting family, amongst others.
Town’s high tourism official, Simone Venturini, has indicated the levy will likely be continued and bolstered. A proposal to double the price to 10 euros is being thought-about for subsequent 12 months, a metropolis spokesman mentioned.
Opponents of the plan say it didn’t make town extra habitable for residents, as supposed, with the slender walkways and water taxis as crowded as ever. They need insurance policies that encourage repopulation of Venice’s historic centre, which has been shedding residents to the extra handy mainland for many years, together with inserting limits on short-term leases.
There at the moment are extra vacationer beds within the historic centre than official residents, whose numbers stand at an all-time low of fifty,000.
“Wanting to boost this to 10 euros, is absolute ineffective. It makes Venice a museum,” Martini mentioned.
Most of the banners at Saturday’s protest additionally indicated rising concern in regards to the system of digital and video surveillance that town launched in 2020 to observe cell phone knowledge of individuals arriving within the metropolis, which is the spine of the system to regulate tourism.
“The entry ticket is a superb distraction for the media, which solely speaks about this 5 euros, which can turn out to be 10 euros subsequent 12 months,” mentioned Giovanni Di Vito, a Venice resident energetic within the marketing campaign in opposition to the vacationer tax.
“However nobody is specializing in the system for surveillance and management of residents.”
