Venice starts trial of entry tickets for day trippers, a world first

Swamped by tourists, historic Italian city aims to ease the pressure by making day trippers buy entry tickets – initially on busy days such as public holidays

The trial of the world-first scheme is intended to persuade tourists to visit during quieter periods, to thin out the crowds at sights such as the Rialto Bridge

Reading Time:2 minutes

Thousands of people gathered along the Grand Canal in Venice to celebrate Carnival in 2019. The Italian city will begin requiring day trippers to buy tickets to enter its historic centre from Thursday, in the hope of reducing crowds at its popular sights. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 1:45pm, 24 Apr 2024Updated: 10:39pm, 25 Apr 2024

Venice on Thursday began requiring day trippers to pay for entry, a world first aimed at easing pressure on the Italian city drowning under the weight of mass tourism.

For the first time visitors have to buy a €5 (US$5.30) ticket, monitored by inspectors carrying out spot checks at key points in the Unesco World Heritage site. The tickets have been on sale since January 16.

Venice is one of the world’s top tourist destinations, with 3.2 million visitors staying overnight in the historic centre in 2022 – dwarfing the resident population of just 50,000.

Tens of thousands more pour into the city’s narrow streets for the day, often from cruise ships, to see sights including St Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge.

A calendar showing the busy days on which Venice will charge day trippers to enter its historic centre between now and July is displayed in front of its Santa Lucia railway station. Photo: AFP

The aim of the ticket scheme is to persuade day trippers to come during quieter periods, to try to thin out the worst of the crowds. Initially, tickets will only be required on 29 busy days throughout 2024, mostly weekends from May to July, and public holidays like Thursday.