Venice is launching a new €5 entrance fee for day trippers

Venice is tackling mass tourism with entrance fees for day trippers.

Venice will charge day trippers a €5 entrance fee to visit the Italian canal city on select dates in 2024, with the new system coming into effect on April 25, a public holiday in Italy.

The pilot programme, aimed at easing the pressure on Venice from mass tourism, will operate on 29 days around Italian holidays and weekends between April and July this year.

The €5 entrance fee, paid via a multilingual booking platform on the city’s website, only applies to tourists on day trips, not to overnight visitors in Venice.

There are several categories that are exempt from paying the fee, including city residents, children under 14 years of age and visitors with disabilities together with their caregivers.

Residents of the surrounding Veneto region do not have to pay an entrance fee, but must request an exemption from the booking site.

This also applies to a range of other categories, including people visiting residents of the historic center of Venice, people visiting for work, academic or medical reasons.

When booking, day trippers from Venice receive a QR code that is randomly checked by officials.

Those who break the rules face fines ranging from €50 to €300.

The entrance fee system applies from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM on the following dates: April 25 to May 5 and every other weekend in May (11-12, 18-19, 25-26 May), the last four weekends of June (8 – 9, 15-16, 22-23, 29-30 June) and the first two weekends of July (6-7, 13-14 July).

The booking website, available in five languages ​​including English, contains a list of frequently asked questions about the entrance fee.