Travel hotspots around the world are likely to follow Venice in charging entry fees to tourists who often rile locals by driving up prices, the head of one of the world’s leading tourism associations has said.
Even as tourism helps drive a growth surge in southern European economies, last summer locals took to the streets across the region to voice their anger about overcrowding. Venice began charging day-trippers €5 fees during peak days, and is expanding the programme this year.
The policy should be used as a “last recourse” alongside a radical shift of industry priorities away from boosting visitor numbers, to focus instead on ensuring locals do not see tourists as a “burden and impediment”, said Don Welsh, chief executive of Washington-based Destinations International.
“I would hate to advocate for it, but if all other areas are exhausted, then I think the head tax has to be considered,” Welsh, who represents tourism organisations from nearly 800 destinations, told the Financial Times.
Venice’s fee system, which slightly reduced visitor numbers and eased temporary bridge closures, has caught the eye of other hotspots, said deputy mayor Simone Venturini. “We are receiving a lot of questions from all the cities in the world, from Kyoto to Charleston,” he said. “They are curious to know how we are managing this.”
Local discontent is a quandary for policymakers on a continent desperate for economic growth that was flooded by a record 747mn international tourist arrivals in 2024. In Spain, for example, tourism makes up a critical 12.3 per cent of GDP, but last summer residents in Barcelona took to squirting diners in tourist areas with water pistols.
“You’re seeing a lot more alignment between city government and the chambers of commerce to figure out what is the ideal visitation mix for that community,” Welsh said.
Authorities have responded to protesters’ complaints about housing shortages, high rents and decaying infrastructure by cracking down on short-term lets, banning entry to certain areas and capping overall visitor numbers.
Barcelona last year vowed to close all its Airbnb-style apartments by 2028, while Pompeii said it would limit the number of daily visitors to its archeological site to 20,000 a day. Greece is introducing a fee of up to €20 for cruise ship passengers to popular islands Santorini and Mykonos.
Venetians initially feared their fee would encourage locals to treat their city as an “amusement park”, but are now asking the city council if the fee could be applied during this month’s Carnival event, Venturini said.
