On Saturday (1 June), authorities banned visitor groups larger than 25 people – half the size of an average tourist bus – from entering the city centre and the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello as well as from using loudspeakers and microphones.
The measures, which were first announced in January 2024, aim to improve tourism in the lagoon city, striking a better balance between the needs of residents and those of tourists.
The ban on large groups follows the introduction of the €5 (£4.26) daily tourist fee on 25 April on a 30-day trial basis.
Applied to all day tourists aged 14 and above, the tax continues to be enforced between 8.30am and 4.30pm on the remaining days: 8,9,15,16, 22, 23, 29, 30 June and 6,7,13,14 July.
The measures are part of Venice’s efforts to move away from a tourism model based on quantity to one focused on quality.
Flavio Zappacosta, head of UK and Ireland at the Italian National Tourist Board, told TTG in January the fee would allow the city to improve infrastructure for both tourists and residents.
“The income generated by this new fee will be used to improve facilities in the city and make it more liveable for residents and afford a better experience for those tourists that choose to overnight in Venice,” he added.
Nevertheless, residents have opposed the measures, deeming them too weak and calling instead for a cap on the daily number of tourists allowed into the city.
“It isn’t a €5 ticket that will reduce tourist flows, especially daily ones,” opposition councillor Giovanni Andrea Martini told TTG earlier this year. “The main point is that local authorities are not setting a limit to the number of daily tourists.”
According to Martini, capping daily tourist numbers to between 40,000 and 50,000 would avoid the city becoming a museum and would allow tourists to experience a vibrant city, filled with shops, commercial activities and people.
