ROME (AP) -- Tourist-flooded Venice approved guidelines for testing a new fee for day-trippers on peak visitor weekends next year.
The city council gave the go-ahead for the guidelines, tweaking earlier plans for a fee that was announced a year ago. Final approval of the plan will come up for consideration on Sept. 12.
The fee, initially 5 euros ($5.50) per day-tripper, is "not a tool for making cash," the city said in a statement.
Instead, the strategy aims to improve the quality of life for Venice's dwindling number of full-time residents as well as overnight visitors, who already pay a lodging tax and so will be exempt from the fee.
The test will last about 30 days and take place in 2024 on spring weekends spanning Italian national holidays and on summer weekends. The exact days of the test will be set by the city in the coming weeks.