Europe 1 with AFP 16:33 p.m., January 16, 2024

The municipality of Venice on Tuesday began selling five-euro entrance tickets, a tax applied in spring and summer to tourists who come for only one day to the City of the Doges, a victim of mass tourism.

For a total of 29 days over a period from April 25 to July 14, the peak tourist season, day tourists will need to purchase this ticket to enter the Old Town of Venice between 08:30 and 16:00 local time.

The ticket-buying site went live on Tuesday on https://cda.ve.it/en/, in English and Italian. However, there are many exemptions, including for children under 14, students and law enforcement officers. There is no limit on the number of visitors under this program, which was approved last year.

A world first

The project, announced in September, aims to deter day visitors who contribute to congestion in the city, which is famous throughout the world for its works of art, bridges and canals and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

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"Venice is the first city in the world to implement this system, which can serve as an example for other fragile cities (...) that must be safeguarded," its mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, said in November when the municipality made public the dates of application of this tax.

A "first step in a system that regulates visitors' access to the day"

"This is not a revolution, but the first step in a system that regulates visitors' access to the day," Brugnaro said, adding that the goal was "the quality of life in the city." In mid-September, the city of Venice narrowly escaped being listed as a World Heritage Site in Danger by UNESCO.

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At the end of July, UNESCO experts recommended that Venice, a jewel threatened by excessive tourism and global warming, be classified as "in danger" because of "insufficient" measures taken in Italy to combat the deterioration of this site.

Some 3.2 million tourists spent the night in Venice's historic center in 2022, according to official data, a figure that does not include the thousands of visitors who go there only for the day.