From BBC: "Venice has won approval to introduce an entry fee of up to €10 (£9; $11.50) for short-stay tourists.

Italy's budget for 2019 has a clause enabling Venice to impose the fee, which will especially target day-trippers arriving on cruise ships.

Tourists already pay a similar "landing tax" when they visit Italy's tiny Aeolian Islands.

Venetians have long complained that mass tourism is swamping the city, adored for its picturesque canals.

Hundreds of cruise ships moor in Venice every year, allowing over a million passengers to see the city's sights.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said the "landing tax" would generate much-needed income to keep the city clean.

It is expected to be set at €2.50 to €5 per person, but at peak times in the summer it could rise to €10. Venice plans to have the tax in place for the 2019 high season.

It will apply only to tourists, but it is not clear whether it will replace a city tax already levied on hotel occupants. That tax brings in about €30m annually, but the "landing tax" could generate more - an estimated €50m."

I wouldn't expect it to replace tasse di soggiorno . In part the reasoning is to have the daytrippers treated like the people staying in hotels.

Are we being told that Venice government has absolutely no say in the number of ships which can dock there in the first place? And as a result of this "overwhelming" force over which it has no say whatsoever the officials have decided to levy a tax?

Dukey is right. This is a bandaid on an open wound. The only sensible solution it to drastically limit cruise ship arrivals, but that would mean less money coming in for restaurants and souvenir shops.

The plan, still up to four or five years away from being implemented, would place most of the cruise ships servicing Venice on the mainland in a new mega cruise port in an industrial area of Margera. That has some environmental and aesthetic advantages for Venice, but IMO, that will only be a magnet for more and larger cruise ships and therefore more day-trippers. This will continue to impact Venice and other popular Adriatic cruise ports. I guess if you try to regulate numbers through taxation, that may slow the growth, but it doesn’t settle the age-old debate of jobs/merchant income vs. more peace and quiet.

I don't have any problem with it as a way to raise revenue but I can't believe it's going to do a thing to cut down on the number of tourists. It's too low, for one thing, and a lot of people won't even know about in advance to plan. So I think it's fine as a way to add revenue to the city budget for upkeep.

BUt I am not clear on how this is going to be enacted. What, they are going to build walls and gates so you have to go through an entry point to get into Venice? Then it will be really just like a theme park. I haven't been to Venice and I know with the canals, perhaps it is easier, but the idea of trying to collect a tax from any person who entered the city limits of most any big city would be impossible.

I think first of all one should ban the landing at Venice cruise port to all boats running with heavy crude oil (they can go to Porto Marghera).
Secondly one should charge at least 30-50 EUR (according to the season) to everybody who reaches the Island(s) from Terra Ferma (Porto Marghera included) by train, bus, car, ferry, alilaguna, boat ot boat taxi. This amount could be refunded to people who work at Venice or who spend at least 1 night in a hotel in the municipality of Venice (Islands or Terra Ferma).

Of course, Venice and its entrances, are unlike most other cities. I believe they plan to pass this tax onto cruise ships, trains and buses, the methods that brings most people to Venice. The only other way is through car parks, and I assume they can just up the fees there too.

It will. Especially cruiseships. Amsterdam upped taxes for cruiseships a bit (a few euros), immediately Cruise ship operators announced they would pull out from using Amsterdam as a port, going to Rotterdam instead (gee, thanks, Amsterdam!)