Paid season begins Venice charges twice as much admission as last year
Entrance to Venice will soon cost twice as much again as last year. Despite the entrance fee, visitor numbers continue to rise and many tourists are bypassing the system.
16.04.2025, 14:01
SDA
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- In 2025, Venice will charge admission to day visitors on 54 days, almost twice as often as in the previous year, in order to curb mass tourism.
- Despite the entrance fee, visitor numbers continue to rise and many tourists bypass the system, meaning that the revenue does not cover the costs.
- The measure is primarily intended to deter spontaneous visitors, while overnight guests and locals are still exempt.
The 2025 payment season begins at Easter: In the first round, admission will be charged every day from Good Friday to the first weekend in May. In total, visitors will have to pay on 54 days this year, almost right through to August. That is also almost twice as much as last year.
In 2024, Venice was the first city in the world to charge admission to short-term visitors - just like a museum. Anyone without a ticket ran the risk of having to pay a fine of up to 300 euros. However, hardly anyone was deterred by this. On the contrary: the number of visitors to the city, which is more than a millennium and a half old and has suffered badly from mass tourism, continued to rise.
In principle, everything continues as before - except that now you have to pay more often and more. Those who book early can still enter the city for five euros. However, those who wait until three days before their visit (or even longer) will have to pay twice as much in future. Mayor Luigi Brugnaro explicitly stated that the aim was to prevent tourists from visiting on certain dates. "Venice is the first city in the world to tackle the problem of over-tourism."
2.4 million euros in revenue last year
From the beginning of May to the end of July, admission is charged every weekend, from Friday to Sunday. Payment must be made between 8.30 am and 4.00 pm. Last year, 485,000 paying visitors were registered, which brought more than 2.4 million euros into the city's coffers. However, this also means that many tourists were passing by. The costs of developing and operating the system are far from covered. Overnight guests still don't have to pay admission, but they do have to pay visitor's tax.
The flow of visitors brings in a lot of money for the town, but also causes major problems. Today, the center with its hundreds of canals no longer has 50,000 inhabitants. But there are more than 50,000 guest beds. More than 15 million visitors come every year. And the trend is rising. On many days, it is almost impossible to get through the narrow streets around St. Mark's Square and the Rialto Bridge.
A cup of cappuccino costs more than admission
However, many people have doubts as to whether the fee will ever make a difference. Even ten euros admission is unlikely to deter many. The city is not cheap anyway: a single cup of cappuccino on St. Mark's Square still costs more than the entrance fee. Of course, the city remains free for locals. Children under the age of 14 and some other groups are still exempt from the charge.
The city's authorities will continue to refrain from setting an upper limit for when Venice will be closed due to too many visitors. Payment is usually made by obtaining a QR code via the Internet before arrival and downloading it onto a cell phone. The model is also being followed by other cities around the world that are suffering from mass tourism.
