Venice, Italy is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world, but if you want to visit the city this year, it’s going to cost you extra to enter it.

City officials have announced that they will be charging tourists an extra €10 ($12) per day to visit Venice, which is full of breathtakingly beautiful tourist attractions. This was announced last week in their 2019 budget, which stated that the tax will be implemented beginning during the high tourist season in the spring. The tax will initially range from between €2.50 and €5 ($2.85 and $5.70) per person, but during peak summer tourism, it could rise to €10 ($12).

Venice has a population of around 50,000 people, but the Italian tourist bureau states that it attracts anywhere from 25 to 30 million foreign visitors per year. Less than a third of these visitors spend the night in Venice, as many of the tourists come from cruise ships.

Officials have raised environmental concerns about these cruise ships and the impact they could have on the fragile lagoon’s ecosystem, which has been eroding fast.

On top of that, cruise ship tourists often sleep and eat meals on the boat, meaning they are not contributing much money to the tourist industry in Venice.

For the past seven years, an overnight tax has been in place for overnight visitors in Venice, and it has brought in €30 million ($35 million) per year. Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro estimated that the new tax will bring in an additional €50 million ( $58 million), which he said will “protect those who live, study and work in our territory.”

What do you think about this tax? Let us know in the comments section.