Venice is one of the most beautiful and well-known cities in Italy, but it may slowly be getting destroyed. The reason for this is over-tourism. Thousands of tourists go to Venice every year, putting stress on many of the buildings. These buildings have old infrastructure and the foundations of many of them are beginning to crack. To combat over-tourism, Venice is going to start charging a fee to enter the city. 

Venice is famous for its canals, and many people love riding Gondolas down them. Since there were so many boats in the water, the waves have grown much bigger and are beginning to erode the foundations of buildings. Venice usually welcomes around 30 million tourists every year while only having 50,000 citizens, which is devastating to the old and brittle buildings. So, Venice has been thinking about charging 5 euros to traveling tourists who don’t live there. This will make Venice the first city to charge an entrance fee.

The Italian government has tried to ban cruise ships from entering Venice, but it was to no avail. Now their only option to save the thousand-year-old city is to charge this fee. Tourists only provide little economic value to the city. The aim was to make people who stay for only a day reevaluate their travel plans, with the idea partly inspired by small Italian islands like Ponza that charge a disembarkation fee. As expected, when the fee was announced, there were heated protests to try and get rid of it. Unfortunately for them, Venice has already made up its mind. The fees will begin in the spring of 2024.