What do locals really think about solving the problem of overtourism?

Earlier this year, the Italian city of Venice introduced a surcharge scheme for day-trippers four months ago. Visitors not staying overnight had to pay 5 euros ($5.40) on certain days considered the busiest, including weekends and national holidays.

The fee was tried as a way to “deter” visitors from arriving on crowded days and thus help solve the problem of overtourism in Venice.

In 2023, 5.7 million people visited Venice, with more than 80,000 arriving on peak days. By comparison, the historic center of Venice now has fewer than 50,000 inhabitants.

However, the experiment has not led to a reduction in the number of visitors to the iconic canal town. Instead, about 750,000 visitors were registered in the first 11 days of the pilot period. On the same days in 2023, there were approximately 680,000 entries.

Despite the poor results, Venice authorities announced that the tax on day-trippers will return in 2025, this time doubling to 10 euros ($10.80) on some days.

Many residents of Venice were against the entrance fee from the very beginning, staging protests, including on the day of its opening. Campaigners say the solution to Venice’s tourism problems lies in supporting the local community.

Venice entrance fees are an ‘invasion of privacy’

Susanna Polloni is an activist with the organization Rete Solidale Casa, which fights for housing rights for residents of Venice.

She emphasizes that the entrance fee affected not only tourists who were required to pay, but also those who did not pay entrance fees in the city.

“What reasonable grounds can justify an attack on privacy by reducing the most beautiful city in the world to the only toll city, forcing its inhabitants to prove that they are citizens of their own city?” she says.

“The severity of overtourism has taken its toll on the lives of the citizens of Venice.”

Short-term rentals in Venice need to be cut ‘urgently’

Polloni examined official data from Venice’s “smart control room,” which collects all sorts of visitor statistics, and identified another problem that she thinks authorities should address instead.

The number of registered overnight visitors exceeds the number of registered beds in the city, leading her to conclude there are dozens of cases of illegal short-term rentals.

“The city urgently needs to implement rent controls that will significantly reduce short-term rentals in the city,” she says.

Venice authorities need to invest in tourism management

According to many campaigners, it is not just the number of tourists that is damaging Venice, but also the type of tourism.

Valeria Duflo created the visitor advice site Venezia Autentica in 2015 and now advocates for a tourism model that benefits local communities.

“I believe that (the day-tripper tax) is by no means sufficient to address the core problems caused by tourism today: the displacement of local businesses and local people,” she says.

“We must all view the decline of Venice, its community and its heritage as a cautionary tale and work collectively to change the way we measure success and engage communities in the tourism industry.”

Duflo would like to see more emphasis placed on impact and allowing tourists to spend their time and money where it benefits the local community, economy and heritage.

According to Polloni, the €5 entry fee is not only ineffective, but also does not allow funds to be used for actions to help residents.

“Other necessary and urgent measures are the renovation and allocation of empty public housing, economic diversification to create jobs that are not the only channel of tourism, improving local public transport and social and health services,” she says.

“This is the only way to save the city.”

This story was originally published on Fortune.com