Officials in the Italian city say the move is an effort to limit the impact of excess tourism at the world-famous destination, which began charging entrance fees last month.
Venice reportedly attracted 20 million tourists to its two-square-mile historic district last year. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
New rules regulating tourists visiting Venice have come into force, including limiting the size of tour groups and banning the use of loudspeakers.
Officials in the Italian city say the measures are an effort to curb the impact of excessive tourism at a world-famous destination that, along with climate change, has previously been seen as putting the city at risk.
Venice’s historic canals attract tens of millions of tourists and were once the most visited in Europe, but UNESCO had previously threatened to put the site on its “endangered” list.
It is the latest in a series of measures the city has taken to curb the impact of tourists: in April it introduced a 5 euro (4 pounds) a day entrance fee and in 2021 city authorities banned cruise ships from docking in the historic centre.
Venice reportedly welcomed 20 million tourists to its two-square-mile historic center last year, an area with a permanent population of just 50,000 but 49,000 beds available for tourist hire.
Despite attracting millions of tourists, the historic center has a permanent population of just 50,000. (Getty Images)
In a recent update, Osio, a citizens’ group that tracks the housing situation in the city, said the number of accommodations available to rent to tourists in the area actually exceeds the number available for residents.
Overtourism is seen as one of the most pressing problems facing the city, and the rise of rental housing to cater to tourists has caused the number of residents in the historic district to plummet from around 175,000 in the 1970s to less than a third of that today.
Last year, UNESCO experts warned that Venice could be put on a list of World Heritage sites in danger due to irreparable damage from mass tourism and the threat of climate change. But the UN backed down and removed the city, citing efforts to build flood protection systems on the island and curb tourists.
Meanwhile, residents of a holiday village on the island of Menorca known as the “Mykonos of Spain” say they want to ban tourists altogether, after previously telling locals they could only visit between 11am and 8pm so they could enjoy breakfast.
One million tourists are expected to flock to Biniveka Bel village, which has become popular among Britons after images of the beautiful area went viral on social media.
