Venice proposes dynamic pricing for day-tripper fee, up to 50 euros on busiest days.

Venice’s new mayor is proposing a dynamic pricing system for the city’s three-year-old day-tripper access fee. He is seeking government approval to raise the charge to as much as50 ($59) on the busiest days in an effort to ease overcrowding in the UNESCO World Heritage city.

Mayor Simone Venturini told The Associated Press in an interview Friday that the current10 fee for last-minute reservations has not done enough to discourage visitors on peak days. Instead of imposing a fixed higher fee, the city wants to introduce a form of surge pricing, allowing the charge to rise with demand on the busiest days.

Venturini said the system would both discourage overcrowding and help cover the costs of maintaining the city. The proposal for a surge-pricing structure would require an amendment to Italy’s special law governing Venice, and Venturini said he had already discussed the idea with the tourism minister.

The access fee itself has been widely criticized by activists, housing advocates and opposition politicians for failing to do enough to ease crowding in the city, while reducing Venice to a tourist attraction by charging admission. Critics also say the focus is too heavily on managing tourist flows and not enough on bringing more residents back to the historic part of the city.

Venturini said the money is necessary to clean and maintain Venice. "Day-trippers obviously generate waste — they eat, they drink, they throw things away. That comes at a huge cost," he said, adding that expenses are higher "because everything has to be done by hand, with brooms, boats and handcarts." He added that the goal is not to raise money or turn Venice into a ticketed city, but to give both residents and visitors a better experience on days when the city would otherwise be too crowded.