Holidays in Italy to become more expensive from today as popular city introduces new tourist tax
Day-trippers will incur the fine on specific dates of the year
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As of today, Britons in Venice, Italy will incur a new fee. On April 25, 2024, the beautiful city imposed a tourist tax that will affect holidaymakers visiting on certain days of the year.
In November 2023, it was announced that Venice would be introducing a pilot programme that involved charging day-trippers.
From today, tourists in Venice will have to pay a fee to enter the popular city for the day. This will add €5 (£4.29) to a holidaymaker's trip.
The tourist levy will affect travellers visiting the city on April 25-30, May 1-5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25 and 26, June 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29 and 30, and July 6, 7, 13 and 14 - just 29 days of this year.
Venice is a beautiful destination famed for its romantic essence
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It will mostly affect travellers who are escaping to Italy over the weekends. Visitors to the city between 8:30am and 4pm will be subject to the extra fee.
There are signs making visitors aware of the entrance tax outside the main train station and other points of arrival.
Holidaymakers can pay the fee by using a QR code on their smartphones or via a kiosk at entry points. Checks will be carried out randomly by municipal agents.
It has been reported that those who do not pay the fee may face a fine of between €50 (£42.89) and €300 (£257.31).
Some people will be exempt from the tax, however, these being Venice residents, Venetian-born visitors, students and workers, and tourists who have accommodation reservations.
Deputy mayor for tourism for Venice Simone Venturini told The Independent that the city hopes to find the "between the residents of the community space and the daytrippers", explaining that on some days of the year, visitors can be "overwhelming".
He said: "Our goal is to collect very, very low taxes because it means that we have less daytrippers."
Defending the tax and rejecting the notion that it's wrong to put a price on visiting a Unesco World Heritage location, he said: "I think that humanity has one duty to preserve and safeguard Venice. If this system helps us to do that, I think that the system is good."
Previously, Venice mayor Luigi Brugnarothat explained that the tax aims to "regulate tourism in an extremely popular, busy place". He called it a "first-of-its-kind experiment".
By minimising the number of people who want to visit Venice on already busy days, the city should become a more "liveable city" for locals.
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Due to its popularity with tourists, Venice can get incredibly busy
GETTY IMAGESVenice isn't the other holiday hotspot considering a tourist tax. Popular tourist destination Lisbon is considering doubling its tourist levy.
Britons have also been warned that holidays in Spain could be getting more expensive as the Canary Islands consider a tourist tax.
Britons in Barcelona have already been hit by the tax as of April 1, 2024.
In other travel news, holiday hell has ensued as 2,000 flights are cancelled, with easyJet, Ryanair and BA affected.