Meanwhile, a young couple promotes authentic experiences

As the con­sult­ants and spin doc­tors of the world lick their lips — and insti­tu­tion­al book­shelves and cloud serv­ers standby to sup­ply stor­age for their expens­ive out­put — in Venice a social enter­prise run by a 30-some­thing couple is walk­ing the talk by pro­mot­ing authen­t­ic exper­i­ences and sup­port­ing loc­al businesses.

The Itali­an port city groans under the weight of over-tour­ism, and protests by the dimin­ish­ing num­bers of Vene­tians are becom­ing more fre­quent and more ser­i­ous. Last sum­mer angry loc­als plastered the city with fly­ers read­ing “Tour­ists go away! You are des­troy­ing this city.”

Loc­al res­id­ent and social entre­pren­eur, Sebasti­an Fagarazzi, whose fam­ily had to close down its tex­tiles shop due to the pres­sure cre­ated by mass tour­ism, takes a more prag­mat­ic approach: “Tour­ism is the prob­lem, but it’s also the only solu­tion. Every­one protests [against excess­ive tour­ism], but no one has done much to try to have an imme­di­ate pos­it­ive effect.

“Venice is a one-industry city,” he said. “It relies on tour­ism, like our bod­ies rely on food to sur­vive. But in order to thrive, you need to have the right kind of food; the right kind of tour­ism. The wrong kind can mean death.”

Authen­t­ic exper­i­ence. A Vene­tian artis­an works on a mask while a young girl watches. Source: Venezia Autentica via The Loc­al

Fagarazzi and his part­ner, France-born Valer­ia Duflot, believe there is plenty of the right kind of food avail­able. They reck­on most vis­it­ors to Venice want a more authen­t­ic exper­i­ence, so they are doing some­thing about sup­ply­ing it. Their social enter­prise Venezia Autentica aims to pro­mote more authen­t­ic exper­i­ences by sup­port­ing loc­al businesses.

The pair are skep­tic­al about recent meas­ures intro­duced by city author­it­ies aimed at pro­tect­ing the city’s her­it­age, includ­ing bans on new hotels and takeaway food joints in the his­tor­ic centre.

“They’ve basic­ally closed the stable door after the horse has bolted,” says Fagarazzi. “The bans only apply to new estab­lish­ments when there are hun­dreds already, and there will be excep­tions when it suits the authorities.”

Instead, Fagarazzi and Duflot reck­on sup­port for Vene­tian-run busi­nesses and loc­al res­id­ents, such as tax exemp­tions for entre­pren­eurs or hous­ing sup­port for young people, would be much more meaningful.

Nev­er­the­less, the two young Vene­tians hope their busi­ness will offer some sup­port to loc­al entre­pren­eurs and artis­ans by high­light­ing their shops to vis­it­ors and edu­cat­ing tour­ists on the tra­di­tion, skill, and long hours that go into mak­ing authen­t­ic products.

Author­it­ies at all levels, includ­ing UNESCO and the World Bank, would do well to chat to loc­al social entre­pren­eurs like Fagarazzi and Duflot before mak­ing costly decisions.

Source: This post was based on very brief sum­mary of an art­icle in The Loc­al. Please read the full story.

Fea­tured image: Throngs of tour­ists flood the streets of Venice by Venezia Autentica via The Loc­al.