ROME -- Venice will extend its day-tripper tax through next year, increasing the number of days on which tourists have to pay to enter the city and doubling the fee to 10 euro for last-minute visitors, city officials said on Thursday.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro stressed that the tax aims at helping the city and its citizens to battle overtourism, avoiding peaks of visitors during crowded holidays and weekends.

The new pilot system will start on April 18, 2025 and run until July 27, and the fee will apply to Fridays as well as weekends and holidays, for a total of 54 days. Tourists who do not make reservations in advance will pay 10 euro instead of the usual 5.

It's in force during peak hours, from 8.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Exemptions are granted to residents, Venetian-born visitors, students and workers, as well as tourists who have hotel or other lodging reservations.

At the end of the first test phase, last July, Venice officials said that the tax had netted 2.4 million euros ($2.6 million), accounting for about 1,000 entrances on each of the test days.

Italians accounted for 60% of visitors to the ticket website in the period, followed by U.S., German and French citizens.

Brugnaro on Thursday again responded to critics who have called it a failure and said it has not deterred as many arrivals as envisioned.

"Venice is the first city in the world that tries to manage the problem of overtourism, we obtained important results," the mayor said.

The world-famous lagoon city has long grappled with overwhelming influxes of tourists, with estimates based on cell phone data of 25 million to 30 million annual arrivals of both day-trippers and overnight guests since 2020.

The day-tripper tax, delayed by the pandemic, was heralded by UNESCO member states when they decided against a recommendation to place the city on a list of world heritage sites in danger. The city also escaped inclusion on the list two years earlier when it imposed a cruise ship ban down the Giudecca canal and through St. Mark's Basin.