Venice, which receives an estimated 25 million tourists every year, has introduced a series of measures to tackle crowding and mass tourism. From today, the Italian city has banned the use of loudspeakers and limited the access of tour groups.
Dylan Donnelly, News Reporter
Saturday 1 June 2024 17:00, UK
Venice has introduced new rules to tackle mass tourism, banning the use of loudspeakers and limiting tour groups to 25 people.
The Italian canal city, which receives an estimated 25 million visitors a year, announced the measures in December to combat mass tourism.
New rules, which come into effect on Saturday, will limit tour group sizes to 25 people in Venice and the islands of Burano, Murano and Torcello.
Loudspeakers are also banned as they “cause confusion and disturbance.”
The city’s security chief, Elisabetta Pesce, said last year that the latest rules were “aimed at improving the management of organized groups in the historic centre”.
It is Venice’s latest crackdown on mass tourism: in April the city introduced a 5 euro (4 pounds) fee for day trips during the summer in a bid to ease congestion.
“We need to find a new balance between tourists and residents,” Venice’s tourism chief, Simone Venturini, said at the time.
“Obviously, we need to protect residents’ living space and we need to discourage day trippers on certain days.”
But some residents protested the measure, saying more attention should be paid to growing the local population and needed services.
Venice reached a milestone last year when tourist overnight stays outnumbered official residents for the first time, with the historic center now home to fewer than 50,000 residents.
In August, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommended that Venice be added to its list of World Heritage Sites in Danger due to growing concerns about overcrowding and unsustainability.
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The agency said measures proposed by the Italian government to solve the problem “are currently insufficient and lack sufficient detail.”
Venice avoided being blacklisted in 2021 after Italy banned cruise ships from entering the Venetian lagoon to protect the ecosystem.
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UNESCO member states cited a then-planned fee for day-trippers as a reason to remove it from the endangered species list.
