Italian holiday spot launches new 'tourist tax' today - with £250 fines for not paying

Venice’s new pilot scheme to charge day visitors a five euro fee is launching today. Authorities hope the charge will deter tourists from arriving in the city during busy periods.

The scheme will initially be tested across 29 days from today, April 25 - a public holiday in Italy - until July. Initially it will be in place for 11 days from April 25, followed by seven weekends, until (and including) Sunday July 14. After that the charge will be lifted, according to the Independent.

Day trippers visiting Venice between 8.30am and 4pm will be required to pay the fee, which equates to £4.28. Visitors can either download a QR code, while a kiosk has been set up for those not equipped with a smartphone.

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On Thursday Signs advising arriving visitors of the new requirement were erected outside the main train station and other points of arrival. Some 200 stewards have been trained to politely walk anyone unaware of the five euro fee through the process of downloading a QR code.

Once past designated entry ports, officials will carry out random checks for QR codes that show the day-tripper tax has been paid or that the bearer is exempt. Transgressors face fines of 50-300 euros (£53-£257).

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,” said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of over-tourism, but officials say that pre-pandemic estimates ranging from 25 million to 30 million visitors a year — including day-trippers — are not