Venice and other cities looking to limit number of low-budget tourists

Respect our city and its residents, says the motto of the burgeoning campaign among big European cities to limit the excessive number of tourists impacting the quality of life of the residents. After a quarter of a century of promoting tourism and attracting tourists, Barcelona, Venice, Florence, Amsterdam and many other cities are now trying to find a nice way to drive them away.

Mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau prepared a plan to this end two years ago. The first step was to put a ban on construction of new hotels (the city already has 75,000 beds, plus 50,000 in illegal apartments), following which the tourist fee was increased, and the city also started to charge for entrance to popular parks, such as Guell, parallel to those actions. The latest move is the plan to implement a fee for the tourists who crowd the city, but do not spend much and do not stay overnight in the city.

Modeled after the campaign “Barcelona is not for sale”, Florence will also start advertising using the slogan “Enjoy and respect Florence”. They were inspired by Venice, which is experiencing a lot of trouble with one-day visitors. Resident are leaving the city in droves due to tourists. If the current tempo remained, Venice would not have a single resident by 2030. The group Our Italy has asked the Government to put a ban on the arrival of cruise boats to the lagoon and sitting on St Mark's Square. They also asked for large groups of tourists to announce their arrival in advance. The increased fees haven't done much to decrease the number of tourists, and the waste continues to pile up.

The biggest problem people of Florence have is with the way tourists behave, so they've decided to show them what shouldn't be done in public. Traffic signs have been installed in the most popular places warning the visitors that it is forbidden to, for example, throw garbage on the street, sit on the steps of a church and eat, but also to sign one's name on a monument, with penalties equaling EUR 500. The signs have even been printed on t-shirts, mugs and bags.

Amsterdam is planning to raise the daily tourist fee to EUR 10, as 17 million tourists a year are slowly beginning to “suffocate” 850,000 residents. A fourth of the tourists sleep in cheap hostels and spend very little, while making a big crowd. Frustrated residents carrying banners saying “Amsterdam is not for sale” and “This is our city” are an increasingly frequent sight.

Barcelona

Venice

Florence

Amsterdam

Ada Colau

tourist fees

Our Italy

low budget tourists