Venice tourist entry charge does not stop gondola tours

A ride through the picturesque canals of Venice on board a gondola is a dream for many, and the introduction of a new tax for daily trippers certainly did not prevent tourists from giving up this romantic experience.

In the narrow canals of the lagoon city, gondola traffic has not suffered the introduction of a payment system for tourists, the world’s first city to do it, on Thursday (April 25) in an effort to thin the crowds that throng its canals and alleys.

On board the typical Venetian boats led by rowers, tourists agreed with the measure consisting of a 5-euro charge daily trippers must pay on certain days before diving into Venice’s narrow alleyways.

Venice became the world’s first city to test the system that will be enforced in a total of 29 days this year.

People must buy a ticket if they want to access the lagoon city from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Reservations are meant to be made online but there is also a booth on hand for those who don’t have smartphones.

Although there are no turnstiles at the city gateways, inspectors will be making random checks and issuing fines of between 50 and 300 euros to anyone who has failed to register.

Some 20 million people visited Venice last year, a city official said, with roughly half of them staying overnight in hotels or holiday lets – an influx that dwarfs the resident population currently put at around 49,000.

People with hotel reservations and visitors aged under 14 do not need to pay the entry fee but still need to register beforehand. Residents, students, and workers are exempt.

Venice narrowly escaped being placed on UNESCO’s /”World Heritage in Danger/” list last year partly because the U.N. body decided the city was addressing concerns that its delicate ecosystem risked being overwhelmed by mass tourism.

Besides introducing the entry charge, the city has also banned large cruise ships from sailing into the Venetian lagoon and has announced new limits on the size of tourist groups. -Report from Reuters

Subscribe to the ABS-CBN News channel! – http://bit.ly/TheABSCBNNews

Watch full episodes on iWantTFC for FREE here:
http://iwanttfc.com

Visit our website at http://news.abs-cbn.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abscbnNEWS
Twitter: https://twitter.com/abscbnnews
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abscbnnews