Turnstiles and signs had been removed from the main entry points to Venice's historic centre on Monday morning after the city wrapped up the test run of its 'tourist tax' scheme, which charged day-trippers a five-euro entrance fee on busier days.
It was unclear whether the scheme - a world first - had made any significant impact on the size of crowds in the lagoon city, leading protesters to condemn it as a failure and city officials to suggest raising the fee.
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The famous Italian destination introduced the charge in April for visitors arriving on particularly busy days, with local councillors saying it was hoped to deter some visitors and thin crowds.
But while the measure was estimated to have brought in more than two million euros in revenue for the city, it did not appear to have had much impact on issues with overcrowding.
"We hope to discourage arrivals. In this first phase of experimentation, major disincentive effects were not there, it is true," the city's budget councilor Michele Zuin told Il Fatto Quotidiano on Friday, "but we did not expect them either."
"The situation will change when the maximum ticket price is increased to €10."
Simone Venturini, city councillor for tourism and social cohesion, told Reuters the scheme would continue next year and said the council's initial assessment was positive - though he didn't confirm how much the charge would be in future.
Local news reports suggested the city was planning to bring in charges on a sliding scale, from €10 on the busiest dates to €3 during quieter periods.
Officials insisted that while visitor numbers had been higher than usual on some of the dates of the trial scheme, they were lower than others.
Full data on visitor numbers on each of the 29 trial dates was expected to be made available in the coming days, as well as further data on the pilot scheme's total revenue.
The scheme's extension was proposed as a possible solution as tourism associations said the number of visitors to Venice was expected to increase dramatically in 2025.
As Rome prepares to welcome over 30 million visitors for the 2025 Jubilee, an estimated ten percent of them will also visit Venice, according to figures presented at a round table event for tourism groups on July 10th.
Meanwhile, tourism from Asian countries was also expected to return to pre-Covid levels, bringing another estimated 800,000 visitors to the city and meaning a total increase of 25 percent on 2024.
READ ALSO: ‘It’s not Disneyland’: What Venice residents really think of new ‘tourist tax’
Any extension or changes to the scheme would need to be approved by the city council, while opposition politicians said they wanted to call a referendum on its use.
No further action was expected until later this year however, with many local councillors beginning their summer break and the city expected to spend several months analysing data from the trial phase.
Critics continued to insist the entry ticket scheme does little to dissuade large crowds and say it is not likely to improve life for residents.
Around 100 campaigners reportedly gathered outside the Santa Lucia train station on Saturday to protest the charge, as local residents complained about surveillance and the requirement to register on the platform every time they have a visitor to stay.
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