Venice begins charging entry fees to curb mass tourism heres why residents are protesting in the streets
They want it gone-dola.Venice began charging day trippers a 5 euro ($5.36) entry fee this week, reportedly in order to protect the UNESCO World Heritage Site from the adverse effects of over-tourism — but weary locals say the measure is just a drop in the bucket, and could end up sinking the struggling city.Angry activists took to the streets, passageways and canals of the proud former maritime republic on Thursday to protest the new scheme, saying that Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro — who commended his own, Marco Polo-level “bravery” in making the unprecedented move — has now turned one of the world’s most romantic destinations into little more than a “theme park,” The Guardian reported.“I can tell you that almost the entire city is against it,” claimed Matteo Secchi, who leads Venessia.com, a residents’ activist group.
“You can’t impose an entrance fee to a city; all they’re doing is transforming it into a theme park.This is a bad image for Venice … I mean, are we joking?”Venice is the first major city in the world to take the step, at a time when popular destinations around the world — from Barcelona to America’s top national parks — suffer from overexposure.Brugnaro hoped, he said, that the fee would make the city “livable” again.
Constituents instead took to the streets on Thursday to protest, saying that real action is required to correct the various issues plaguing the city of canals.Venice has lost more than 120,000 residents since the 1950s.The local population is now typically dwarfed by the many looky-loos who crowd onto the celebrated string of urbanized islands on a daily basis.The fee can be paid online — the traveler will then receive a QR code that can be scanned at a number of strategic entry points.
Tickets can be purchased on arrival if preferred, but random checks will be carried out and fines levied — between 50 and 300 euros — for those attempting to evade the pedestrian congestion charge.For...