Brits visiting Venice will soon be charged up to 10 euros as the Italian city introduces new tourist tax
The city will be introducing the measure as a way to prevent mass tourism
BRITS visiting Venice will soon be paying up to ten euros to enter the city after a new tourist tax was approved by the Italian government.
The tax will apply to all visitors to the city - whether they're just going for a day or staying longer - and will be a way to curb mass tourism.
Venice receives some 30 million visitors a year, meaning the detrimental effects of tourism, such as a surge in waste, is a huge issue for the city.
It's an especially expensive problem for Venice, as the city's layout makes waste removal more costly compared to other cities.
At the moment, tourists staying in Venice have to pay a hotel tax, which helps to address the problem in some way and contributes towards the local economy.
However, a significant number of visitors are day-trippers who arrive via cruise ships or bus tours.
While adding to the number of visitors, the locals have long complained that they bring very little to the local economy.
As well as not having to pay the hotel tax, they also sometimes bring their own food and beverage so spend very little in the city.
It's expected that the new tourist tax will replace the existing hotel tax so that every visitor to the city must pay the fee, .
The tax will be levied at between €2.50 to €10 euros per person, depending on the time of year that they are visiting the city.
Venice has yet to reveal how the new tax will be applied.
The city believes that the new tax can bring in between 40 and 50 million euros, which can then be used to restore the city's monuments and contribute towards its cleaning fees .
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Earlier this year, Sun Online Travel revealed how Venice already had to introduce measures to separate tourists from the locals to make the city liveable.
Over the May bank holiday weekend, the city applied designated visitor-only routes for St Mark's Square and the Rialto Bridge.
It was part of Venice's crowd control measures as the city was expected to be particularly busy.