Venice to charge an entry fee to tourists?

Meraviglioso (The original*)
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In "'Themepark Venice' to charge for entry," The Independent reports:

Venice may soon become the first city in Italy to charge tourists for the pleasure of visiting it as authorities look to introduce an "entrance charge" to offset the damage done to the unique architecture by hordes of holidaymakers.

The idea of a compulsory fee for the city that receives about 16 million visitors per year has been in the air for months now. But this week the city's Mayor, Massimo Cacciari, indicated for the first time that it was under serious consideration.

"The great tourist centres have the problem of sustaining the costs of maintenance and conservation caused by the massive presence of guests," Mr Cacciari told Panorama, a news weekly. With nearly 50,000 tourists pouring through the city every day, he added: "People who use the city's services and make it dirty... Venice is in difficulties. If a subsidy from the state is out of the question, we will be obliged to think of a new entrance tax or something of the sort." ...

While a consensus on charging tourists seems to be close, the arguments are likely to rage over what to do with the money. Mr Cacciari implies that he would expect the money to offset the cost of providing services such as refuse collection. But Professor Kay and Ms Somers Cocks would like the money to be funnelled into the troubled "Moses" flood barrier system.

Index Keywords: tourism