Venice will prohibit loudspeakers and tourist groups with more than 25 people, in an effort to ease the impact of mass tourism on the Italian city.
The new rules will come into effect from June, the city said in a statement. The use of loudspeakers is prohibited as they can “generate confusion and disturbances,” it added.
Overtourism is widely recognized as an urgent issue for the city, one of the most visited places in Europe. In September, Venice approved a 5€ fee for daily visitors.
Elisabetta Pesce, the official in charge of city security, said the recent policies “aim to improve the management of organized groups in the historic center.”
The city is only 7.6 square kilometers in size, but it hosted almost 13 million tourists in 2019, according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics. The number of visitors is expected to surpass pre-pandemic levels in the coming years.
Earlier this year, UNESCO said the city should be added to the list of World Heritage sites in danger, as the impact of climate change and mass tourism threaten to cause irreversible changes.
In 2021, large cruise ships were banned from entering Venice’s historic center via the Giudecca canal after a ship collided with a port. Critics also argued that the ships were causing pollution and eroding the city’s foundations, which suffer from regular flooding.
