Essays

The Carnival of Venice Essay

Background information
The festival is one of the respected festivals in Italy. It also falls as one of the oldest in Venice and Italy as a whole. It was said to have come into existence in the 15th century, although many historians have stated that there were traces of the practice as early as the closing stages of the 14th century. It came into existence as a result of the fact that the Serenissima laws prohibited the use of masks at night. This made people start using masks during the day. The festival was turned to what it is today by the number of people it attracted. The city also provided other avenues that people used to spend money. These included gambling dens, brothels, wine shops and other games such as rope walking. The festival took place in February with the most conspicuous element of the festival being the mask. Masked couples were also a common occurrence during the festival with the man and the woman wearing costumes that made them look like allegorical characters (Hanley and Walton, 2010).

Stakeholders in the festivals
The stakeholders in the festivals are a 60, 000 people population that make up the city of Venice, 15, 200 homeowners in the city, students and 4 million visitors who come as tourists every year (Naumann and Ouseley, 2013). These stakeholders are allowed a span of 10 days for the festivals. In most cases, these visitors are under the guidance of the locals in some things. Activities in the festival include dancing, singing, games, theatre performances, gambling, and other forms of competition (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010).

Sponsors and funding
The festival is usually sponsored by television networks and other cultural foundations.

Due to the number of tourists that the festivals attract, it is funded by the Municipality of Venice, the Teatro La Fenice and the Tourism board of Venice (Standish, 2012). These groups provide the finances needed in order to ensure a smooth process. The Municipality is concerned due to the amount of revenue that is realized from the festival (Tivers and Rakic, 2012).

Current situation
The tourism sector in Venice has both positive and negative effects. Despite this, it is important to note that the negative effects of the tourism have in recent days been found to surpass the positive ones. The positive effects of tourism include improving the living standards of the people, job creation, cultural integration and inviting investors invest in the city. The negative effects are moral degradation, loss of population, increased cost of living, and a very insecure future ahead of the city.

Learning points
There is the need to conserve the Venice heritage, which can become extinct if nothing is done. Venice has also become too dependent on tourism and has no other means to earn a living. The other leaning points is the fact that the morals of the locals are being degraded as a result of the tourism. This means that if nothing is done to save this city, the natural heritage will soon become extinct. This can only be done through coming up with strategies that avoid too much cultural integration between the locals and the tourists.

Recommendations
In order to save the city from the alienation that is being brought by the tourism, a new tourism strategy should be formulated. This should be aimed at reducing the number of tourists visiting the city in one year (Standish, 2012). The people should also be encouraged to seek for other alternatives to earn a living instead of relying only on tourism ((Donova &Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010). There should also be a distinction between the land that is to be used for tourism and the one that is to be used for settlement.

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