Venice bans large tourist groups and loudspeakers

02 June 2024 , 10:56

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Venice reportedly saw 20 million tourists visit the two square miles of the historic quarter last year (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

New rules governing tourists visiting Venice have come into force, with limits placed on the size of tour groups and a ban on loudspeakers.

Officials in the Italian city say the measures are an effort to limit the impact of over tourism at the world-famous destination which was previously deemed to be putting the city at risk, along with climate change.

The canals of Venice’s historic quarter attract tens of millions of visitors, making it once of the most visited places in Europe but UNESCO previously threatened to put it on an "endangered" list.

This is the latest in a string of measures taken by the city to try and curb the impact of tourists. In April the city introduced a €5 (£4) daily entry fee and in 2021 officials banned cruise ships from docking at the historic quarter.

Venice reportedly saw 20 million tourists visit the two square miles of the historic quarter last year, an area which is home to just 50,000 full-time residents and boasts 49,000 beds for tourists to rent.

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The historic quarter is home to just 50,000 full-time residents despite seeing millions of tourists (Getty Images)

In a recent update Ocio, a citizen's association tracking housing in the city, said that the number of tourist beds to rent in the quarter had actually surpassed the number available for residents.

Overtourism is seen as one of the most urgent issues facing the city, with the number of residents living in the historic quarter plummeting from about 175,000 in the 1970s to less than one third of that figure today as tourist rentals take over.

Last year experts from Unesco warned that Venice could end up on the list of world heritage sites in danger due to the threats posed by irreversible damage from mass tourism and climate change. However the UN relented, keeping it off the list and citing the construction of an anti-flooding system on the island and efforts to curb tourism.

Meanwhile residents in a holiday village in Menorca known as the “Spanish Mykonos” say they want to ban all tourists from visiting - after previously telling them they can only visit between 11am and 8pm so locals can enjoy their breakfasts.

One million tourists are set to descend on the village of Binibeca Vell, which became popular with Brits after images of the gorgeous area went viral on social media.

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