Venice to ban loudspeakers and and large groups of tourists

Venice has announced plans to ban loudspeakers and large tourist groups in their latest efforts to combat over-tourism in the historical city.

The move – which prohibits tourist groups of over 25 people – was announced on Saturday and is set to come into place in June next year.

In a statement, the city justified the measures by saying the use of loudspeakers “may cause confusion and disturbance” while the tourist group restriction will “respect the fragility of Venice.”

“It is a provision that is part of a broader framework of interventions aimed at improving and better managing tourism in Venice, thus guaranteeing a greater balance between the needs of those who live in the city, either as residents or as workers, and those who comes to visit the city,” the city’s security councilor Elisabetta Pesce said.

Councilor for Commerce, Sebastiano Costalonga added: “The administration not only wants to give precise rules for respecting the fragility of Venice, the traffic and coexistence with those who live in Venice, but also give a signal regarding the presence of unauthorized tourist guides, which with this new article will no longer be tolerated.”

The latest measures come after the city introduced a fee for day tourists visiting the city. The five euro (£4.34) per person fee will be applied on 29 peak days between April and mid-July, including most weekends.

Large cruise ships were also banned from entering the historic centre of Venice in 2021 after a ship crashed into a harbour.

The historic city is just 7.6 sq km (2.7 sq miles) in size but it hosted almost 13 million tourists in 2019 and the numbers of visitors are expected to rise even further in the coming years.

Damage done to the city by extreme tourism numbers previously prompted Unesco to recommend adding the city to the list of world heritage sites in danger in July.

They claimed the city is at risk of “irreversible” damage from overwhelming tourism, overdevelopment and rising sea levels due to climate change.

Source link