Visitors to Venice will have to pay a new tax to help cover the costs of keeping the tourist-thronged historic city clean and safe, city officials have announced.
The measure, passed late on Saturday as part of the budget bill, allows the city authorities from July to being charging tourists a landing fee of between 2.5€-10€. The charge covers all visitors, whether they are staying overnight or not.
That means it will apply to day-trippers such as the thousands of cruise ship passengers who currently escape the existing tax charged by hotels and the owners of rented properties for those staying overnight.Some 600 cruise ships stop at Venice every year, helping drive complaints that the city is being swamped by the millions of tourists who visit each year.
Airlines and coach companies may also pass on the new tax in their charges. City officials estimate that the tax could bring in 50 million euros a year.
Nicola Gatta, the mayor of Candela, a small village/town in Puglia, Italy, has made the offer in the hope of reversing the town’s declining population.
Visitors to Venice will have to pay a new tax to help cover the costs of keeping the tourist-thronged historic city clean and safe, city officials have announced. 
The charge covers all visitors, whether they are staying overnight or not. 
Some 600 cruise ships stop at Venice every year, helping drive complaints that the city is being swamped by the millions of tourists who visit each year. 
