What You Must Know About The Venice Pay-To-See Tourist Tax

By Anthony K

What are your tourist destinations for the coming year? It’s best to learn more about places you intend to visit to plan effectively and avoid unplanned expenses. This article will help you prepare better before visiting Venice, the “Floating City.”

Photo Credits: @cobblepot / Unsplash

Venice is famous for its magnificent architectural designs, canals, and art gallery-like cathedrals, attracting millions of tourists annually. Unfortunately, visitors have to pay the pay-to-see tourist tax before enjoying the beautiful scenes and rich history housed in the ancient city.

The tourist tax shall be in effect from the third week of January 2023, when reservations will include a daily fee of $3 to $11. Fees depend on a city’s population, where higher prices are expected to discourage more visitors when the city is crowded at the time.

Photo Credits: @donatellotrisolino / Pexels

To avoid reaching an overwhelming number of tourists, reservations are made through the digital reservation system monitored by city officials. An overnight stay at a Venice hotel doesn’t feature a separate reservation, but hotel costs include a tourism fee.

The initiative may have been propagated by recent concerns about rising sea levels against the weight of over 100,000 tourists visiting the city built atop 118 islands linked by 400 bridges stretching across a network of canals shaped like shallow lagoons.

Photo Credits: @lvanleeuwen1 / Unsplash

Select groups, like children under six, guests of Venetian residents, and those visiting people serving jail time in Venetian prisons, are exempted from the tourist tax and reservation requirements but have to show proof of entry.

As of 2022, the city forbade large cruise ships from entering Venetian waters to reduce the frequency of giant waves that could destabilize the city further. We hope such measures will suffice in protecting the iconic UNESCO World Heritage Site from demise.