Venice Tourism Councillor Paola Mar and Venis CEO Paolo Bettio presented the system on Friday, which monitors the number of visitors to the city using 34 sensors positioned along major pedestrian thoroughfares.
As Venice’s famed Carnevale got underway on Saturday, local authorities began trialling the new system, which aims to combat overcrowding at peak times.
Mar said the system uses sensors, cameras, and wifi to “constantly monitor the situation” and sends data every 0.25 seconds to identify the number of people present at any certain moment and how fast they are moving.
“This way we can predict when pedestrians will arrive at a certain critical point and create a detour ahead of time in order to avoid blocking pedestrian circulation,” he added.
The tourist-counting system is being trialled in attempt to understand “where visitors come from, how long they stay in the city, and to distinguish tourists from commuters”.
Officials insisted the system would respect visitors’ privacy “since it will not monitor faces,” though said sensors would “interface with cellphones” to find out where people had come from.
“Soon we will be able to manage flows well, after that we will be able to get to know our visitors better and better and further equip the smart control room with more information to answer any other questions,” Mar said.
“Complete utility is not yet predictable, because we have raw data that needs to be refined.”
Tensions have long been brewing between local residents and visitors in Venice, as the city suffers the negative effects of overtourism.
Local authorities have announced – and then postponed – a number of measures aimed at combatting mass tourism in the city recently.
Proposals include charging an entry fee, now planned for July 2020, and insisting that visitors should book entry to the city in advance.
