Hundreds of cities around the world charge their tourists a nightly fee that gets added to the hotel or short-term rental bill. Yet the Italian city of Venice was one of the first in the world to begin charging a similar “tourist tax” for day visitors during peak summer periods.
First introduced by local councillors as an anti-crowding measure in 2024, the fee started out as €5 for any person older than 14 coming into the city’s historic center on weekends between April and July.
After a trial run, the fee was reintroduced (and expanded to €10 for those who do not book more than three days in advance) for the 60 busiest days in the subsequent summers.
“The current €5-10 charge is affordable for virtually everyone”: Venice on tourist tax
Although the period when the fee was charged in 2026 has now come to an end, local budget and taxation councillor Michele Zuin said the experiment of charging day trippers has not helped with overcrowding in the way the officials initially predicted, Reuters reported.
“The current €5-10 charge is affordable for virtually everyone; the risk is that it no longer has the deterrent effect that this measure is supposed to have,” Zuin told local newspaper Il Gazzetino, according to Reuters.
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Zuin said local councillors were now weighing raising the fee to €30 (approximately $34 USD) and, in remarks widely picked up by local media, potentially even up to €50 during the busiest periods.
Any specific numbers are currently at the budget proposal phase and would need to be approved by the city council and discussed by the Italian government before taking effect for 2027. The other proposal is to expand the current fee to longer periods during the summer.
The city of Venice released numbers showing that the 680,000 day-tripper entry tickets it sold in 2026 brought just over €5.2 million into the city budget. While there are no official entry checkpoints like at a museum or tourist attraction, local police conduct random checks throughout the city on the days when the entry fee is in effect.
What the day tourist tax in Venice means for tourism and overcrowding
Those caught without a QR code confirming payment of the daily fee can be hit with a fine of between €50 to €300.
The daily tourist fee has been controversial since it was introduced in 2024. Some see it as targeting less wealthy tourists who already cannot afford to stay at a central hotel overnight, while failing to address longstanding issues of noise and affordability that affect the local population.
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The Venetian model is rare and possibly unique, as almost all other destinations handle the tourist tax either through a nightly accommodation levy or a fee charged to international arrivals coming into a local airport.
The daily fee charged to anyone, regardless of residence, has been floated by individual lawmakers in cities such as Amsterdam and Dubrovnik, which also deal with overwhelming summer crowds. So far, these have not come to fruition.
Related: The latest tourist tax could soon come to all of England
