Venice has finally launched its tourist tax for day-trippers, with visitors required to pay €5 (£4.30) for the privilege of visiting the city without staying overnight. The tax will be applied on a trial basis from Thursday, April 25, with those entering the city between the hours of 8.30am and 4pm subject to the new levy. However, the fee is only applicable on selected dates between April and July, and there are exemptions to the payment. If you’re travelling to La Serenissima this summer, here’s what you need to know about the Venice Access Fee and the existing tourist tax.
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When is the tourist tax being introduced?
The Venice Access Fee is a new tourist tax that the city introduced on a trial basis from Thursday, April 25. It applies only to visitors to the old city who aren’t staying overnight, and costs €5 (£4.30) a day — a separate tourist tax is already applicable to overnight stays in the city.
During the trial period into summer 2024, the tax is only levied on the following days, and only between the hours of 8.30am and 4pm.
• April 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
• May 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26
• June 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30
• July 6, 7, 13, 14
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If your visit is on any other date, or if you’re visiting between the hours of 4pm and 8.30am, you won’t have to pay the fee. There are other exemptions too (see below).
In addition, visits to other islands in the Venice lagoon, such as Murano and Burano, are exempt from the fee during the trial period. It is expected that an access fee will be required in future, but will come under the umbrella of the Venice Access Fee.
How do I pay the Venice Access Fee?
Visitors are encouraged to register their visit and pay the fee in advance on the official Venice Access Fee website (cda.ve.it). The process is quite straightforward. You just pick the date of your visit, then enter the number of people in your party and their names. Payment can be made using a credit or debit card, or PayPal, and your QR code to enter the city will be sent to you by email.
Children under 14 are exempt from the fee but will still need to register for a QR code.
There are several alternatives to the official website if you cannot use it for whatever reason, including paying the tax at tobacconists that are affiliated with the Italian Tobacconists Federation (PuntoLis). There are also payment points at Piazzale Roma and the Venice Santa Lucia Station square, but the city says these are for exceptional circumstances only.
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Attendants at the entrance points to the old city will be performing spot checks on visitors. Fines for those who fail to show a QR code or exemption voucher range from €50 to €300, plus a €10 Access Fee.
Do I have to pay the tax if I’m staying overnight in Venice?
While you don’t have to pay the Access Fee if you are staying overnight in Venice, you do have to pay an accommodation tax, which was introduced back in 2011. This fee applies to accommodation ranging from hotels and B&Bs to guesthouses and Airbnb apartments.
The fee ranges from €1 to €5 per person per night, and is determined by factors including the time of year and the type and location of the accommodation.
Children under the age of ten and disabled visitors are exempt. For those between ten and 16, the tax is 50 per cent of the full price.
What other exemptions are there?
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The new Access Fee isn’t applicable to everyone entering the old city. Exemptions include:
• tourists staying overnight in the Municipality of Venice
• temporary and permanent residents, and friends and relatives visiting them
• Veneto residents
• people with certified disabilities and accompanying persons
• those requiring medical care or who are visiting someone in a hospital or healthcare facility
• athletes attending certain sporting events
• people attending legal proceedings.
Note that even if you are exempt from paying the fee, you’re still required to apply for an exemption voucher before visiting Venice. This can be obtained from the official website.
Why is Venice taxing tourists?
Venice has long suffered from overtourism, with the amount of foot traffic causing damage to the city’s fragile buildings and making it an impractical place for residents to live. On some days, the number of visitors can be many times that of the number of residents.
The accommodation tax introduced in 2011 was a step towards rectifying the issue, with the money used for repairs and restoration. And in 2017, the city banned cruise ships of a certain size from docking at the St Mark’s Square basin.
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A special day-tripper tax was written into law at the end of 2018, which gave the city the power to charge up to €10 a day for visitors who aren’t staying overnight. However, due to delays and later Covid, it was postponed for several years before finally being introduced on a trial basis in 2024. The Venice Access Fee is expected to come into full effect in 2025.
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What it’s like in Venice right now
By Lucy Perrin
I arrive in Venice on April 25, the first day of the Access Fee pilot scheme, a measure brought in by the city mayor in an attempt to make the lagoon city more liveable. The mood among tourists and locals is one of outrage and defiance. It’s 3.30pm when I get to a mobbed St Mark’s Square and trying to spot a steward to check tickets or help tourists buy them online is like playing a game of Where’s Wally. The majority of visitors simply wander around nonplussed. Guards are also outnumbered by protesters wearing placards that read “No to access fees and no to control over citizens”.
One protester, Stefan Rosso from Abruzzo, tells me “Venice isn’t a museum. People have the right to be free and to wander around a beautiful place without being charged to do so.” Even people who work in the city doubt the scheme will have a positive impact. Riccardo Caenazzo, a gondolier who has worked in Venice for the past ten years laughs at the idea of the Access Fee. “We need much stronger laws for tourists, not just a congestion charge like this one. It’s not about how many visit, it’s about how those who do visit behave. Each day I see so much rubbish left behind on the streets. That’s a bigger problem than the crowds.”
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Exactly what the €5 per tourist will contribute to does also not seem clear: some people I speak to assume it will do nothing more than line the pockets of the mayor and those who work for him.
Claire and Sean Hodge, a British couple in their thirties, are travelling around Italy by train for their honeymoon. “We’ve paid thousands of pounds for this trip and Venice was top of the list for us to visit. Five euros a day isn’t going to put us — or most people who can afford to visit the city — off coming.”
It’s only day one, but initial impressions are that the Access Fee seems impractical in terms of policing and enforcing. And, from a tourist’s perspective, far from off-putting.
