And in Venice the “light” ticket goes. The experimentation of the “access contribution” of 5 euros, designed to discourage “hit and run” tourism in the lagoon city, started yesterday, from 8.30am to 4pm. On the first day of the experiment, over 113 thousand people registered their presence in the city. Only 15,700, however, according to data provided by Budget Councilor Michele Zan, had to pay for the voucher. There were many queues at the entrances but no protests from tourists. Instead, there was a protest from some citizen committees and Arci and a stronger protest from the “no ticket” groups of social centres, against which the police were deployed. Overall, 13,600 people were randomly checked.
EXEMPT AND NOT
At the moment the municipal calendar has set 29 days in which entry to the lagoon city will be subject to a fee. And there are many exemptions. The entrance fee will in fact be required only for day tourists who are not residents of Veneto and who do not stay overnight in hotels, guest houses and B&Bs in the city (yesterday there were 39,400), who already pay the tourist tax. Those who travel to Venice from 4pm to 8.30am or those who visit the islands of the lagoon, as well as children under 14, disabled people and their companions, are exempt from paying. Excluding all Venetians, exemptions are also provided for spouses and relatives of residents in Veneto up to the third degree (yesterday 2,100) and also for those who, without family ties, go to visit people resident and domiciled in the city (yesterday 2 thousand) or in the smaller islands, for male and female workers (20,400), for students of schools and universities based in the ancient city or in the smaller islands (13 thousand) and all those who have paid the IMU in the Municipality of Venice.
PAYMENT AND FINES
Payment must be made through the online platform (http://cda.ve.it) where it will be possible to obtain a QR Code to show in case of checks, at the various ‘totems’ placed at the Santa Lucia station and at the Piazzale Roma station , but it will also be possible to purchase a coupon in tobacconists throughout Italy. The fine for anyone found not in compliance with the ticket ranges from 50 euros to 300 euros. Anyone caught making false declarations to obtain exemption risks criminal charges.
MAYOR
“Nothing has ever been done to regulate tourism, politicians don’t do it because they have no interest in doing so. I did it” said the mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro. “I apologize for the inconvenience but we have to do something – he added – we can’t just talk, we have to try to do something and now we are doing it because we have the duty and task of leaving and preserving the city for the next generations. Today we spend more money than we collect but this is not an expense, it is a way to make it clear that we need to change and therefore dilute visits to the city by avoiding congestion and people are understanding this, is there any protest there? we accept it is legitimate, I just hope it helps to improve.”
FORMER MAYOR AGAINST
Among those against it is former mayor Massimo Cacciari. “Pure madness, completely illegitimate, unconstitutional – he said –, in no city in the world do you pay to enter. It is unheard of that in this country there is no Council, someone who says: ‘you have lost your mind’ ? In Venice, tourists already pay three times as much as residents for transport tickets, they pay for museums, they pay for everything. Such a brutal declaration of considering Venice a pure museum is a cultural disgrace nothing, because I want to see in front of any judge how they can support the legitimacy of an entry tax into the city!”.
