That sinking feeling: why long-suffering Venice is quite right to make tourists pay | Simon Jenkins

Venice has had enough. It is sinking beneath the twin assaults of tourism and the sea and believes the answer lies in fending off visitors by charging them to enter. It is not alone. Tourism is under attack. Seville is charging for entry to the central Plaza de España. In Paris, the Mona Lisa is so besieged by flashing phones she is about to be banished to a basement. Barcelona graffiti shout, “Tourists go home, refugees welcome.” Amsterdam wants no …