‘This is not the kind of tourism we want’: Venice to ban large groups of visitors
Venice is to ban tour groups larger than 25 people and the use of loudspeakers as it continues to crack down on mass tourism.
In a statement released on Saturday, the city council said the new rules would take effect in the historic centre of Venice and the islands of Burano, Murano and Torcello from June.
The council said the regulations sought to balance the needs of residents, workers and visitors and also aimed to reduce the “confusion and disturbance” caused by loudspeakers. Any tour operators or guides who breach the rules will face fines from €50 to €500 (£43 to £430).
Simone Venturini, the city councillor responsible for tourism, said the new regulation was designed to change visitors’ habits and better manage the city’s tourism. It also aimed to deter illegal unauthorised tour guides.
“Venice is increasingly fragile and we are taking action to ensure its long-term future,” Mr Venturini told The Telegraph.
“Large groups of tourists are blocking the alleys, the bridges and squares in the historic centre and that creates big problems. This is not the kind of tourism we want.”
Mr Venturini said the latest measure was part of a broader framework of interventions aimed at improving and better managing tourism to ensure a greater balance between the needs of those who live in the city and its millions of visitors.
More than 20 million tourists visited Venice in 2023 and amid claims that the city is turning into an Italian version of Disneyland, it introduced regulations to limit the expansion of cheap souvenir stores in 2022. It also plans to introduce a tourist tax of €5 for day trippers from April 2024.
Elisabetta Pesce, the city councillor responsible for security, described the rule to limit tour group numbers as an important measure “promoting sustainable tourism and guaranteeing the protection and safety of the city”.
Permanent residents have been steadily fleeing the historic centre in recent years. Local citizens’ groups Venessia and Ocio have calculated that the number of beds now available for visitors has overtaken the total number of residents, which is around 50,000.
“In the past five years in the historic city of Venice, every two days on average a house has disappeared from the residential market to enter that of tourism,” Ocio said on its website.
When asked about the declining numbers, Mr Venturini stressed that greater Venice, including the mainland, retains 260,000 residents. In an attempt to provide for the 50,000 residents in the historic centre, he said the council had restored 500 homes for public housing and 300 of those had already been assigned to families and young couples in the past two years.
But citizens’ groups argue that Venice is being transformed into “a tourist village” and residents are being pushed aside to make way for new hotels and other projects to expand the tourism sector.
Earlier this year Unesco said the city should be added to a list of endangered heritage sites as the impact of mass tourism and rising sea levels threatened to cause “irreversible damage”.
After lengthy protests, large cruise ships were banned from the historic centre of Venice via the Giudecca Canal in 2021 amid complaints about pollution and erosion.
