I make no judgments on this observation, but Venice, from which we just returned after a 13 day stay is changing rapidly. We were there 11 years ago, and Venice was very much a European Tourist Destination with most shops run by Venetians selling Venetian/Italian goods catering to a European Crowd. Most of the fellow tourists we saw then were French, German, British and Russian. The rise in the Chinese Middle Class has changed that and I can see that in 11 more years, Venice will be an Asian Tourist Destination that will displace some of the Local Culture and most of anything you buy, will have actually been made in China, sold in shops run by Chinese, with some fake rebranding that it was made in Venice.
We could still find the old Venice we saw 11 years ago, but we had to go way outside the normal tourist areas. I just suggest that if you want to see and experiance a venice with Venetians still owning most of the stuff and experiencing true Venetian Culture, you should plan on going soon.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15268 posts
Those Chinese are Venetians too. They came with Marco Polo.
Posted by
point pleasant beach, nj, usa
646 posts
Venetians have been displaced over the years. Not exclusively by the Chinese. It's just too expensive for them to remain.
However, that being said, you can explore areas outside the tourist areas and experience a Venice without feeling like a lemming.
i think you are making a broad generization in your assessment. Hopefully, we will be able to enjoy Venice for many years to come.
Posted by
Centennial, CO, USA
1883 posts
I hoped the world and the people who travel and post on this site were above this type of negative comment.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
I'm not sure why the OP is being criticized. It seemed like a fairly neutral and accurate description to me of how Venice has been changing. (I first went in 2003 and went back three more times, most recently in 2013.) Donna Leon brings it up fairly often in her detective series set in Venice. See also this interesting article in the South China Morning Post:
http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1774417/how-modern-day-chinese-migrants-are-making-new-life-italy
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16401 posts
Venice isn't Prato.
Yes, there are many Chinese tourists now, but you can thank the cruise ships for bringing more tourists of every nationality. As for the imported tourist schlock you see in many shops, that has always been there. Don't blame the Chinese visitors for that. Why would they travel all the way from China to buy Chinese-made imitations of Venetian specialties like masks and glass?