The Italian city of Venice is expected to approve the trial of a €5 daily fee for visitors, in a bid to control tourism, the BBC reports.
All visitors over the age of 14 will have to pay the charge and book their entry to the city in advance.
City council member for tourism Simone Venturini says the trial will run during peak tourist periods next year.
“Venice is among the most visited European cities… [and so] suffers the most from excess tourism,” he said.
Over-tourism is widely recognised as an urgent issue for Venice.
The city is just 7.6 sq km (2.7 sq miles) in size, but it hosted almost 13 million tourists in 2019, according to the Italian national statistics institute. Numbers of visitors are expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in the coming years.
“The objective is to invite daily tourists to choose [off-peak] days,” Mr Venturini said.
“We want to test [the fee] and, if needed, improve it. We cannot discuss for [an]other 40 years what’s best to do.”
