VENICE VS THE VENETIAN

INDIVIDUAL CASE – SERVICE MARKETING

KEZIA SARAH ABEDNEGO – RA 6047439

VENICE AND THE VENETIAN IN LAS VEGAS

Introduction

“Ma n'atu sole / cchiù bello, oje ne'/ O sole mio/ sta 'nfronte a te! / O sole O sole mio / sta

'nfronte a te! / sta 'nfronte a te!”

When you heard the song of “Sole-Mio” the first impression flashed on your mind is you were in

an beautiful old opera house in Italy or you were on a Gondola ride with a Gondolier and you

can enjoy the ride with sight-see the beautiful city of Venice. Yes they are. Italy is very famous

for its art and also for the pretty cities. Every angle in Italy is so perfect. Actually, there are many

beautiful cities in Italy that you can enjoy with your family or just by yourself if you have time to

travel alone as a backpacker. There are Verona which known as Rome and Juliet City, Venice

the canal city so you can enjoy your ride in the Gondola, Bologna for its leaning tower (yes the

famous Leaning Tower is not only located in Pisa but also located in Bologna), Rome for its

Colosseum, Naples for its world-famous food exploring, Florence for its Michaelangelo’s David,

Lecce lies a thousand of Baroque architecture buildings, Lucca with cobblestoned streets and

elegant palaces, Pisa, the world-famous Leaning Tower, and Perugia for its Etruscan chamber

tomb. Since in the beginning I mentioned about the Gondola, in this paper I would like to

mention about Venice. As we know, Venice is very famous for the gondola ride. Everyone

knows about it. Since Venice success for its Gondola, appear the other competitors like The

Venetian. The Venetian first located at Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Then when you think

that The Venetian Las Vegas is just far from your lovely hometown, just go to Macao. The

second sin city located in near Hong Kong has its sister casino resort. The name itself is The

Venetian Macao. In this article I would to discuss about the problem faced by Venice, how to

rendering authenticity in Venice, the marketing

Venice with its problems

Venice or Venetia is located in the northeastern Italy. Consist of 118 small island separated by

about 150 canals and linked by bridges. Even though Venice is considered one of the most

beautiful and romantic cities in the world, Venice should bear its complex problems. The first

problem is about wealthy. Do you ever think that more than half Venetian are living from the

tourism industry? It is such an irony since most of them rely their life towards tourist. The

second problem is about the loss population. An article about “A Portrait of a City being

Admired to Death” mentioned that Venice current population about 65.000 but continue to

shrink (the article has been written in 2005). Many Venetians have fled for dry land, diminishing

the permanent population in the historic heart of the city from about 150.00 half century ago

about 70.000 today (International New York Times, 2003). The way-out to this problem is,

municipal try to bolster the population by building 500 to 600 apartments in three far-flung areas,

Santa Marta, Cannaregio and Castello for rent to middle-class families, the group at the greatest

risk of vanishing because of many middle-class people migrate to the dry land. The third

problem which is the main problem and concern for Italian Government. About Flooding.

November is the cruelest month for Venetian because about two-third of Venice, the water

usually edges and lattices this improbably liquid city sloshed amok, turning Piazza San Marco

into gargantuan puddle and other low-lying areas into shin-high wading pools (source:

nytimes/2003). Even in January was a cruel month for Venice. Right at the start, the lagoon rose,

the canals swelled and Venetians slipped back into their galoshes, while tourists teetered atop

makeshift boardwalks that had been set up to bridge the dry patches too few and far between.

Italian government is struggling to solve this problem. They are planning to construct a

sophisticated system of 79 sea gates to 1 place along three openings where the Adriatic meets the

lagoon in which Venice is situated. The fourth problem is Venice crowded with tourists. Each

year Venice receives more than 15-20 million. Because of the appealing the Grand Canal, Venice

is crowded with huge of tourists come from America, Europe, Russian, Asia such as Japan.

Row-Row Your Gondola

Gondola is traditional boat. It is flat bottomed Venetian rowing boat. Gondola was mentioned

first in 1094, but the existence of Gondola became more popular in the fifteenth century.

Gondola help people better maneuver around the canals of Venice. Gondolas are designed to

navigate the shallow, narrow canals of Venice and are strictly bound by tradition. The dimension

of Gondola are 36 feet (around 11m) long, 4.5 feet (1.4 m) wide, and its weight about 1102

pound or approximately 500kg. The unique design is the left side of Gondola is higher than the

right side 9.45 inches (24 cm) and the bottoms are so flat so that Gondola can operate well in the

Venice Lagoon. What an incredible invention on that era. Gondola is operated and owned by

gondoliers. Nowadays only 425 gondolas exist. There are some requirements to be a gondolier.

Gondoliers usually a male and must be born in Venice. Being a gondolier is hereditary from one

generation to the next generation. But this may be one of the problem. The number of Gondoliers

is decreasing since many young Venetian prefer to take more lucrative and less physically

demanding jobs. To become a gondolier, the potential applicants tested to measure their boat-

handling job, knowledge of Venetian history and landmarks, foreign language skills, and the

ability to work with tourist.

Gondolas nowadays

Primary function of Gondola one of source transportation in Venice, but with the advent of faster

and less expensive motorboats and vaporetti (a form of water-based bus), Gondolas are more

interesting for tourist activity rather than a source of transportation. Since the need of Gondola is

for tourism activity, the design and operation of gondolas were adjusted in order to accommodate

more tourist and generate additional revenue. Gondolas are wider and narrower and more

elaborate oar link was developed so that the gondola could be steered by oarsman. With these

modification, it provides more capacity for passengers.

The Venetian in Las Vegas

The Venetian is a five-diamond luxury hotel and casino resort located between Harrah’s and The

Palazzo on the east side of the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States, on the former

site of Sands Hotel. The Venetian is owned and operated by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation.

The Venetian also serves as the seat of the corporate headquarters for its parents company. The

Venetian Las Vegas opened on May 3, 1999 with flutter of white doves, sounding trumpets and

singing gondoliers. The Venetian built at cost $1.5 billion. It was one of the most expensive

resort when it opened!. The Venetian Hotel has appeal design for their interior. It uses Venice,

Italy as the design inspiration and features architectural replicas of various Venetian landmarks,

including Palazzo Ducale, Piazza San Marco, Piazzetta di San Marco, the Lion of Venice and

many more. Such a great idea carrying Venice side to Las Vegas. You can just feel you were in

Venice even actually you were on Las Vegas. The Venetian in Las Vegas has some attractions

such as Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, Blue Man Theater and even Phantom: The Las Vegas

Spectacular. The astonish thing in The Venetian Las Vegas they have the real Gondola Ride like

in the Venice. What an amaze thing!. The price for Gondola ride in The Venetian Las Vegas is

various. Based on the Venetian website, price for shared gondola is $21 for each person (with 4

capacity), while private gondola (only for 2 person), the Venetian will charged $84. If you think

you want make your memory lasts just take a picture start from $22

The Venetian Macao

After success in Las Vegas, the Venetian opened in Macao. The Venetian Macao owned by Las

Vegas Sands. The design of Venetian Macao is modeled on its sister casino resort. In the

Venetian Macao there is also Gondola ride too. The ticket price start at $30.

Customer Perceived

Venice versus the Venetian is actually can’t be competed. One is the real one while the other is

the artificial. Let’s talk about from customer perceived or well let’s say as tourist perceived.

Based on the article that I got from the internet (Forbes, Gondola booking site, and also the

International New York Times). Tourists feel the good ambience in the Venice while in the

Venetian they just can have the artificial one. But the most important thing that underlies here is

about the hospitality. The hospitality in the Venice is practically low while the Venetian in Las

Vegas the hospitality is beyond tourist’s expectation. The Venetian in Las Vegas has the

competitive advantage since their hospitality is good. Venetian are too nonchalant or too short on

tort lawyers. Because Venice is the authentic one, the buildings are ancient and Venice city

layout is not friendly with elder, toddler, and disable. Environment issues become the next

problem for tourists. Compare to the Venetian in Las Vegas which has a clean and chlorine

water, Venice has smelly water. Most American Tourists are prefer to have holiday in Venice

since they can ride the real Gondola and the Gondolier in the Las Vegas feels uncomfortable

because kind of strange steering gondola not in the origin place. The Gondola ride in Las Vegas

is just go backward and forward rather than the original one which can go round to the beautiful

of Grand Canal.

Rendering the authenticity

Based on business dictionary, Authenticity is defined as Characteristic of a document or record

created by the entity represented as its creator, and preserved in its original form without any

falsification or tampering. Authenticity is purchasing on the basis of conforming to self-image.

Authenticity is the genuine and the real one that hardly enough to be copied with other.

Authenticity is like one of the competitive advantage that are costly to be copied. Authenticity in

Venice is categorized into Experience – Referential Authenticity. Based on Gilmore and Pine,

Experience Authenticity defined as people tend to perceive as authentic that which refers to some

other context, drawing inspirations from human history and tapping into our shared memories

and longings not derivative or trivial. The origin of Gondola Ride is in Venice. It shows

referential authenticity. Nature is nurtured. Cultural analyst Margaret King stated that from the

beginning of human history, society has completely reshaped nature to serve human needs and

dream. In order to achieve that, people transformed earth into a series of stage –sets for playing

out human values in three dimensions. The Venetian in Las Vegas is a mini Venice or in the

service it called as a stage-set for those who can’t visit the real Venice. Even though Venice is

not a natural descendant of an enduring city, at least Venice is the original one the first one the

natural one rather than the Venetian in Las Vegas which everything is artificial and replica from

Venice. It must be remembered that people tend to perceive an offering such as authentic it

possesses a strong sense of originality. One way to render the authenticity in Venice is the

Gondolas ride providers provide some personalization for their service such as the rider can

enjoy dinner on the ride. Such a romantic dinner. This way, makes appeal for everyone

The Best and The Authentic one is…

Based on my point of view, the best and the authentic one still the Gondola Ride in Venice.

Since we know that Venice is natural-organic ingredients, simple products, unpolished process,

untamed places, and even innate change. It is very imperative for Venice government to keep the

authenticity of the Venice. Even Venice has a lot of problem, Italian government has to maintain

so that the tourists do not feel that the authentic one is worse than the artificial one. Italian

government should provide some facilities especially for elder, toddler and disable so that they

can enjoy their holiday in the authentic place.

APPENDICES

*The Left one is located in the Venetian Las Vegas while the right one is the original one

located in the Venice

Palazzo Ducale

Piazza San Marco

The Lion of Venice Column and the Column of Saint Theodore

St’ Marks Camapanile

Rialto Bridge

Gondola Ride

REFERENCES

http://www.macau.com/en/The-Venetian-Macao-Gondola-Rides-2-22-100.html

http://www.venetian.com/hotel/attractions/gondola-rides.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondola

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Venetian_Las_Vegas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Venetian_Macao

http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2007/12/04/venice-the-venetian-macao-and-the-venetian-las-vegas.html

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/authenticity.html#ixzz3u5fCYVgz