意大利政府正在制定相关计划，打算在机场、火车站以及游船渡口设点向进入威尼斯旅游的游客征收“进城税”。据悉，每年到威尼斯旅游的游客超过2000万，但多数为自带食物、看完就走的“一日游”游客；这导致当地财政获益甚微，想要修缮运河边的古迹建筑也缺少资金来源，由此，政府才决定向进入威尼斯的游客一次性征税。不过，有批评人士认为，此举会把威尼斯变成一个历史文化主题公园。游客“进城税”的征收金额目前还在讨论当中，不过应该不会太高。据称，威尼斯前任市长曾经提出向每位坐船进入威尼斯的游客征收1欧元的“进城费”。
Tourists arriving in Venice by train, plane and cruise ship are to be charged an entrance tax under plans being drawn up by the Italian government.
More than 20 million people visit Venice every year but many of them are day-trippers who bring their own food and drink and choose not to stay the night, depriving the lagoon city of desperately-needed revenue to restore its crumbling canal-side palaces, churches and monuments.
The idea of an entrance tariff has proved highly controversial in the past, with critics saying it would reinforce the concept of Venice as a kind of historical and cultural theme park.
But the government has now drawn up a draft plan which would allow Venetian authorities to extract a one-off tariff from visitors who fly into Marco Polo airport, arrive by train or disembark from the growing number of cruise liners which access the city from the Adriatic.
The cost of the tax is still being discussed. It is unlikely to be very high – the city's last mayor, Massimo Cacciari, who stepped down earlier this year, had suggested imposing a one euro levy on all cruise ship passengers.
The draft plan has been drawn up by Renato Brunetta, the minister for public administration and innovation, who is himself Venetian, and has been welcomed by Venice's mayor, Giorgio Orsoni. |