There’s even word that visitors would enter the city via electronic turnstiles, in an effort to maintain capacity controls and honour advance bookings.

Venice residents would be exempt from the entry fee, along with young visitors under the age of 6, as well as anyone staying in a local hotel.

This isn’t the first time Venice has clamped down on overtourism. The city’s long-discussed cruise ship ban finally went into effect on Aug. 1, banning large cruise ships from the lagoon basin near St. Mark’s Square and the Giudecca Canal.

Venice is one of the higher-profile cities grappling with overtourism, but it’s not the only one.

Before the pandemic upended international travel, crowds were getting so unwieldy at the Louvre in Paris that security and reception staff at the museum staged a strike in May 2019 to protest unworkable conditions amid huge crowds.

Another traveller favourite, Amsterdam, has for several years looked at halting construction of new hotels; banning “beer bikes; shifting the cruise ship terminal out of the city centre and outlawing new tourist-only stores in the oldest part of the city and its busiest shopping streets, as measures to maintain peaceful city life for residents while still welcoming visitors.