When the fight against surcourism turns to Orwellian surveillance – Liberation

Since April 18, the « Contributo di Accesso » in Venice is in effect on advanced attendance days (55 days, this year); This contribution, set up experimentally last year, is now established (it costs 5 euros per person and per day, 10 euros if you do it at the last moment) and weighs on day visitors, this category of tourists that tourist places do not like, because they clutter, dirty and spend little. It is true that Venice has to deal with a very high number of these visitors for a day, around 10 million per year, against 13 million tourists who sleep at least one night.

It is the first time, in the (contemporary) world, that a pedestrian toll is organized to access a city of this importance. This first is based on a device of a particular complexity to the point that it is allowed to think that even a French administration would probably not have been able to do better. Thus, the list of exempted categories of the payment of the access contribution (but having the obligation to request an exemption) lists no less than 31 cases of exemption, knowing that it is added to the five categories exempt from both payment and the request for exemption.

To make this tax pay for excursionists, a complex and expensive device for control over the entire population are paid in Venice since the days when this measure is in place, all