Venice (the town)

V interesting that there were protests by residents (500 people & riot police!) - unclear how many of those were libertarian nutjobs vs people protesting against an ineffective solution to a real problem. Apparently the fee is mostly aimed at deterring Italian day-trippers.

I think the fee is to deter cruise ships, since they stay on the ship not in Venice.

sorry, meant cruise ship passengers

I say, replicate this model and prevent the French from annoying the honest tourists trying to see the Eiffel tower, or the Spanish from entering Barcelona or using some of the already precious water in Tenerife. For Venice, augment it to 10 euros for people not on cruise ships. And tell the Dutch to see Kinderdijk on Mondays.

Just back from first visit to Venice and flyposters for this were everywhere - also what looked like some associated issues with public housing & tourism. I couldn't really get a political read on it either though it did seem more like 'an ineffective solution to a real problem'.

Having seen the effect of tourism in various visits with my parents back to their place of birth I think "the problem" is the tourism industry and the way economies chase that dollar. A fee isn't becessarily going to stop it if everywhere else is applying this!