2023-09-23 17:19:59
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“Life in Venice has become disgusting. You can’t live anymore, there are too many people, too much tourism that doesn’t contribute anything, that gets dirty and leaves,” says Giovanni, an 87-year-old resident, lamenting.
And he is still right. In Venice there is no longer a place for Venetians, which is why many have chosen to leave because it has become an unlivable and impassable city. Faced with this situation, the authorities have been studying strategies for years to prevent La Serenísima from becoming an open-air museum taken over by mass tourism that has been deteriorating it.
In the middle of the month, and after several comings and goings, the municipal council approved the payment of 5 euros for visitors who arrive in the city during the day and do not spend the night. It is the first city in the world to implement this type of ‘tourist toll’ (or access contribution) in order to reduce the number of tourists known as ‘hit and run’: those who arrive, tour the city, They leave a lot of garbage in their wake, and leave almost no euros in the public coffers.
In the case of Venice, this type of visitor is almost the majority because for them it is a place that can be visited by walking, riding in gondolas or even on the ‘vaporettos’, the boats used by the majority of locals to get around. by the islets and whose cost is minimal.
Visitors and tourists gather along the Grand Canal during the Venice carnival on February 11, 2023. (Photo: AFP)
/ MIGUEL MEDINA
Although no details have yet been given as to when the collection of this toll will begin, it is estimated that it will take place in the spring or summer of 2024 (between the end of March or the beginning of June) and will last, in principle, 30 days yet to be designated. . Visitors who spend one or more nights, minors under 14 years of age, those arriving in the city for study or work, residents of the Veneto region and law enforcement agencies will be exempt.
IN FIGURES
150 mil tourists receive the city at peak hours in a single day. 7% The city’s population has decreased since 2017, the same proportion in which tourists have grown.
The objective “is to discourage daily tourism at certain times, in line with the delicacy and uniqueness of the city,” highlighted the Consistory, or council of Venice, in a statement.
It should be noted that those who spend the night already pay a kind of tax, as happens in other cities in the world also affected by tourist overload, an amount that is included in hotels, hostels or rentals. The detail is that, precisely, those who stay overnight in Venice are the least compared to the mass of tourists who only spend the day and, therefore, do not pay that tax.
Flooded with visitors
The big question is whether charging a symbolic amount, like 5 euros, will effectively discourage mass tourism and save the city.
“The World Tourism Organization has invited the Setnet group (Cities of Southern Europe against touristization) to its next summit, which is made up of 14 cities to address the issue of mass tourism and discuss solutions, since there is already a problem for those people who live in these destinations,” Tito Alegría, executive director of the National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), explains to El Comercio.
For Emanuele Dal Carlo, director of Fairbnb, an accommodation platform linked to social projects in Venice, long-term plans are needed and not just emergency ones. “We need a radical change and for the municipality to take significant measures, such as offering financial incentives to owners who, for example, only rent to Venetians,” expresses concern Matteo Secchi, who directs Venessia.coma group that fights to preserve the city’s legacy and keeps track of the population, which continues to decline.
“Venice is an open and free city, and it will always remain that way. But we have decided to act to safeguard it after years of immobility.”
Luigi Brugnaro, mayor of Venice
“Tourism is a double-edged sword because, on the one hand, it receives money from travelers, but on the other it forces the expulsion of residents. The danger is that we become extinct and Venice becomes a theme park,” he tells “The Guardian.”
Excessive tourism has caused the cost of living to rise greatly in the city, with excessive prices not only in food, but especially in housing, since the majority of owners prefer to rent their houses to visitors, while many Stores that have been selling basic products for several years now prefer to sell souvenirs, which are not even made in Venice but in China or India.
UNESCO has stated that “insufficient” measures have been taken to combat the deterioration of Venice due, in particular, to mass tourism and climate change. (Photo: AFP)
/ ANDREA PATTARO
Heritage in danger
Days after the Venice municipal council decided to charge the ‘tourist toll’, the UNESCO committee (the UN agency for education, science and culture) decided to give the city more time to not include it in the list of world heritage in danger, but once again warned of the consequences if actions continue to be taken. The city of canals has been a world heritage site since 1987.
According to UNESCO, three factors threaten to “cause irreversible changes in the universal and exceptional value” of Venice: the impact of climate change (due to sea rise), mass tourism and city reform projects.
“When Venice is not defined by its own problems of subsidence, flooding, saturation and high costs, it is presented as a ‘postcard city’, ideal for selfies and photos on Instagram. Ironically, it is never considered a cultural city,” Dal Carlo points out to the British newspaper “The Telegraph.”
And Venice is not only St. Mark’s Square, its canals and its gondolas. Its historical and cultural heritage is enormous, not only because of its extraordinary architecture with its Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque palaces, but because its museums house works of incalculable value. This in addition to being unique for its engineering since it is built on swampy terrain and is supported by more than 20 million wooden posts.
If in 16 centuries, Venice has stood up to the inclemencies of time and climate, it would be impossible to believe that it would collapse just because of the exaggerated pace of irresponsible tourism.
INTERVIEW
“It will be very difficult to control access”
Tito Alegría
President of Tourism Lima and executive director of Canatur
Is charging an alternative to discourage mass tourism?
Personally, I believe that further analysis is required, because if the objective is to reduce passenger flows, the authorities should look for a strategy to differentiate the destination, and it has been proven that for this purpose the segmentation of the tourist offer helps much more than barriers. or taxes that a destination may incorporate.
What do you mean by segmentation?
It is to find out about the motivations of tourists. For this reason, the authorities have to do coordinated work with the tour operators – who are the ones who are in the field every day – and define guidelines with them to reach consensus. What’s the point of collecting a tribute if then others, on the cheap, offer to enter without paying? Coordinated work with the actors in the sector is vital to achieve the objectives. In the case of Venice, there is massive tourism in proportions that threaten not only the good living of the city, but also its monumentality and heritage.
Could it serve as an example for other highly visited sites?
I think it will be very difficult to control visitor access to cities. In the case of Venice, I believe that this tax could be a double-edged sword because it is proven that when there is little supply, demand increases. It can be a boomerang because it can open spaces for illegality and informality.
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