Venice officials defend day-tripper tax, but delay decision on extending it

Activists gather outside Venice’s Santa Lucia train station (Colleen Barry/AP)

Venice city officials say the day-tripper tax netted 2.4 million euros (£2 million) during a test phase this summer, and that decisions on how to proceed would be made in the autumn after a full analysis of the data.

According to the city, the five-euro tax was paid 485,062 times over the 29 test days, mostly weekends and holidays, from April 25 to July 14.