Venice Begins Battle Against 'Wild' Overtourism With Day-Tripper Access Fee
HuffPost
Authorities hope the fee will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.
VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.
Visitors arriving at Venice’s main train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates through July of the plan’s test phase, as well as new entrances separating tourists from residents, students and workers.
Stewards were on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.
“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”
Arianna Cecilia, who lives in Rome and was visiting Venice for the first time with her boyfriend, said it felt “strange” to have to buy a ticket to enter a city in her native Italy, and then pass through a tourist entrance.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing the biggest test of his political career following the resignation of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long one of his most powerful and loyal ministers.
Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia from western Syria after rebels captured Damascus, ending the nation's decades-long tyrannical regime.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed almost 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is the first U.S. official to publicly confirm contacts between the Biden administration and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik said Yoon’s impeachment was an outcome driven by “the people’s ardent desire for democracy, courage and dedication.”
Timmerman said he was released Monday morning alongside a young Syrian man and 70 female prisoners, some of whom had their children with them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described it as one of the heaviest bombardments of the country's energy sector since the full-scale invasion began.
"In nearly twenty years as a journalist, this was one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed," Clarissa Ward said.
It’s beginning to look a lot like visitor overload in Rovaniemi, where an onslaught of tourists arrives each year at Christmas time,
The South Korean president has defended his martial law decree as act of governance and denied rebellion charges.
An official says former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun attempted to kill himself but failed to do so.