Venice tackles mass tourism with day-tripper entry fee.

Venice will charge day-trippers a €5 entry fee to visit the Italian canal city on select dates in 2024, with the new system coming into effect on 25 April, a public holiday in Italy.

The trial scheme, designed to ease pressure on Venice from mass tourism, will be active on 29 days around Italian public holidays and weekends between April and July this year.

The €5 entry fee, which is paid via a multilingual booking platform on the city's website, only applies to tourists on day trips, not visitors staying in Venice overnight.

There are various categories exempt from paying the fee, including the city's residents, children under the age of 14 and disabled visitors together with their carers.

Residents of the surrounding Veneto region are not required to pay the entry fee but must request an exemption from the booking site.

This also applies to a range of other categories, including people visiting residents of the historic centre of Venice, people visiting for work, academic or medical reasons.

Upon booking, Venice day-trippers will receive a QR code which will be checked by officials at random.

Those who violate the rules risk penalties from €50 up to €300.

The entry fee system will be effective from 08.30 to 16.00 on the following dates: 25 April to 5 May and every other weekend in May (11-12, 18-19, 25-26 May), the last four weekends in June (8-9, 15-16, 22-23, 29-30 June) and the first two weekends in July (6-7, 13-14 July).

The booking website, available in five languages including English, contains a list of frequently asked questions about the entry fee.