Tourists stunned at eye watering £14 charge for Coca-Cola at holiday hotspot
A group of friends were distressed to be landed with a huge bill at the end of a meal in a holiday hotspot.
The Spanish pals were visiting Venice and decided to stop in at a restaurant in St Marks Square for a bite to eat. They ordered four drinks and some snacks. Despite the modest meal, the tourists were stunned by the steep bill that landed on their table at the end of the meal.
For a Guinness, two beers, a Coca-Cola and a few bowls of crisps and olives, they were charged €70 (£60). The group were seen laughing in a shock in a TikTok video of the encounter, having realised that they had been billed €16 for a single Coke.
In the clip one of them can be heard joking “I’ll take the beer mat to remember this by", while another said that the small array of snacks would have to stand in for their dinner that day. The price of the drinks and nibbles caused shock, dismay and fury on TikTok.
One person said: "€16 for a coke? When I see them in the supermarket I promise I won't complain about the price." Another recalled their own experience being scalped in Venice. "They charged me a lot of money for a pizza and on top of that they charged me €5 for the table and €5 for the cutlery that I did not ask for for the pizza," they said.
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Another person added: "I sat down, saw the prices and got up and left."
As eye watering as the prices may be, St Marks Square is known as one of the busiest tourist hotspots in the world, in one of the most popular cities to visit. In a bid to cut the number of people coming to the city and mitigate their impact, Venice is looking to start charging visitors to the city €5 (£4.30) per person, per day from Spring 2024.
The scheme, which will run for 30 days initially as a trial, is designed to reduce over tourism in the city, which some fear is literally and figuratively eroding the Queen of the Adriatic. First due to start in June 2022 and then January 2023, the scheme has faced a series of delays as visitor numbers struggled to recover from the pandemic. When it comes into force next year, it will apply to visitors who visit the 'old city'.
This is the part of Venice that most people think of in the centre of the lagoon, as opposed to the smaller, lesser known islands such as Burano and Murano. Locals and those commuting through the central area will be exempt from the payment.
People staying in the city for one night or more will also be excused from the fee, as will those with a second home in Venice, although they will have to register their visit online like everybody else. After the trial period, the fee is likely to apply on various days across the high season. It is not expected to turn a profit, but simply to cover the cost of the booking system. The idea is not intended to make money, officials say, but to deter excessive numbers of visitors.
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