by For more than 160 years, visitors have been arriving at Venezia Santa Lucia train station and landing straight into the heart of one of the most historic and beautiful cities in the world. Until Thursday, however, they were never met by a group of rangers in white and yellow bibs demanding to know if they had downloaded their QR code.
On the first day of what Venice’s mayor has described as a bold experiment to reduce over-tourism, there was a €5 (£4.30) day visitor charge, which started at 8.30am on Thursday and will apply on 29 peak days. until July 14 as part of a trial.
The scheme aims to help the city better manage the millions of tourists who visit each year, even if it’s just one-dayers – and even then, critics argue, it’s unlikely the relatively low cost is a hindrance. .
Related: Venice access fee: what is it and how much does it cost?
However, the scheme appeared to get off to a rocky start on Thursday, angering many visitors and even drawing protests from some residents.
Most day-trippers arriving in Santa Lucia came prepared with a QR code proving they paid the toll, but there was still confusion among people with hotel reservations who didn’t know they had to go through the process to declare their exemption online.
Showing proof of booking is not enough, as Yvonne McKenna and Ken Mehan, visitors from Ireland who arrived by overnight train from Vienna, learned. A steward guided the couple through the online process, which took about 10 minutes.
“I knew about the new tax and the exemption but I didn’t know we would be doing this when we got there,” McKenna said. “It seems to take a long time … Imagine if you weren’t so advanced with all the technology.”
As more trains arrived at the station, Mehan thought about how easy it would be to manage the controls in high season. “I understand why they want to do it, but it feels like it could be a recipe for disaster.”
Natalie Liddell, a visitor from York who was in Venice for the first time, said: “It’s very confusing. When we got to the hotel they said something about this, but we didn’t know what they were talking about. But I don’t think €5 will put people off.”
Others were completely oblivious to the new measure. “What fee?” asked Elizabeth from the US, before being shown how to pay online.
By the end of the evening, 15,700 people had paid for a ticket, either pre-booked or bought on arrival.
The initiative is hotly contested in Venice, with opponents arguing that it is against the principle of freedom of movement and will do nothing to sensibly tackle over-tourism.
The main island of Venice, where the measure applies, attracted 3.2 million overnight visitors in 2022. On the busiest days, an average of 40,000 day tourists arrive in the city.
At Piazzale Roma, where Venice’s main bus terminal is located, there was tension between police dressed in riot gear and the estimated 500 people protesting the fare.
Federica Toninello, one of the organizers of the protest, said: “None of the measures taken by this council meet the needs of the residents. It’s just tourism and speculation, that’s why we’re angry.”
Toninello said that although the Venetians were exempt, the measure still affected their daily lives because they had to prove that they were not liable for the charge, and were subject to checks. Likewise, commuters or students had to endure the “impracticality” of receiving a QR code.
Guido Sattin, an activist from Arci, gave “symbolic passes” to tourists outside the station as a way to highlight the “dubious constitutional legitimacy” of the measure to restrict free movement.
“This sets a dangerous precedent,” he said. “We are the only city in the world where you have to pay to enter. This goes against the Italian constitution and the European principle of freedom of movement.”
Simone Venturini, Venice’s tourism councillor, defended the council’s move. “These protesters consider us the enemy,” he said. “This is not a magic wand, but after 60 years of talking about how to manage tourism, this is the first time anyone has taken action.”
Venturini said the fee was mainly aimed at discouraging Italian day visitors. “For example, many Italians come to the nearby beaches in the summer and, on a rainy day, they skip Venice. Yes, most of them are from Veneto and they are exempt, but this is a way to disincentivize them because they still have to go online to confirm.
Jana Plevova, from Prague, sympathized with the residents’ plight, but supported the fee. She was spending five nights in the city and was therefore exempt, as she had already paid a night tourist tax, but said she would not worry about paying to enter on the day.
She said: “Prague also suffers from over-tourism, so €5 has to be paid to try and preserve this beauty and architecture.”
Edel, from Ireland, said: “For me, €5 is nothing if you want to come.” Her husband, John, was more skeptical. “It will be €5 this year, €10 after that… Who knows what the price will be in a few years? Venice will not lose its good name and will begin to be seen as a rip-off.”
