MADRID, 3 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Italian city of Venice maintains its particular fight against mass tourism. After banning cruise ships from accessing the lagoon, implementing mobile tracking systems to control flows and proposing payment to enter the city, the focus is now on tour guides.

The Venice City Council has decided to reduce the number of people in groups accompanied by tour guides to 25 members, that is, half of the passengers of a tourist bus, for the visit to the historic center of the city and the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello, according to a press release.

Tourism professionals will be prohibited from using loudspeakers that may cause "confusion and annoyance." The occupation of narrow streets, bridges or passageways will also be sanctioned. The occupation of narrow streets, bridges or passageways will also be sanctioned. The measure, which will have to go through the City Council, once approved will come into force on 1 June 2024.

This decision is the result of its last meeting last Saturday, in which it approved a resolution modifying the Urban Police and Security Regulations.

For the Councilor for Security, Elisabetta Pesce, "this is an important measure aimed at improving the management of organized groups in the historic center, promoting sustainable tourism and guaranteeing the protection and security of the city."

For his part, the Councilor for Tourism, Simone Venturini, has highlighted that it is a measure aimed at improving and "better" managing tourism in Venice, guaranteeing a greater balance between "the needs of those who live in the city, whether as residents or as workers, and those of those who come to visit her.

With the introduction of this new article in the police and urban security regulations, the administration not only wants to give precise rules to respect the fragility of Venice, traffic and coexistence, but also to give a signal about the presence of unauthorized tour guides, which with this new article will no longer be tolerated.

"Regulating the groups that visit the city will also and above all serve to guarantee the certification of the guides who accompany them," explains the Councilor for Commerce, Sebastiano Costalonga.