Effects of Tourism and Hospitality in Venice

This article explores the effects of tourism and hospitality in Venice, including the environmental impact on the fragile ecosystem, the social-cultural changes and challenges faced by the locals, and the economic benefits and drawbacks. It also offers recommendations for sustainable tourism practices to mitigate the negative effects.

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Tourism and Hospitality
Name
Institution

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TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
Introduction
Tourism is one of the growing sectors throughout the globe. Most countries that have
good tourism destinations have been affected by tourism and hospitality activities. Tourism has
brought both negative and positive effects to the host country. Tourism has led to increased
employment in different sectors like the hospitality sector and the transport sector. These factors
have contributed to economic growth. Venice in Italy is one of the tourist destinations and it has
reported a high number of tourist every year. The city is considered to be one of the most
beautiful cities in the world. The city is developed with great art and architecture, the canals
which are the major ways of transport, movie locations, double take pigeons, and famous bridges
are the main tourist attraction sites. This has led to a high number of tourist in the city which has
resulted to social-cultural impact, economic, and environmental impact.
Environmental factors
Tourism in the marine and coast areas has been one of the fast-growing tourism
destination in the world. However, tourism and hospitality have impacted the environment in
different ways. If the rate of tourism is not controlled, it causes threats to many natural sites in
the world (Campopiano, Minola & Sainaghi, 2016). Tourism and hospitality may lead to
increased pollution, soil erosion, loss of natural habitats, discharges in the sea, and increased
pressure on the endangered species. On the issue of depletion of natural resources, tourism and
hospitality have impacted water resources particularly fresh water. The tourism and hospitality
industry uses excess water resources for hotels, golf, swimming pools, and personal issues. This
may lead to water shortages and producing large volumes of wastewater (Miller, Merrilees &

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Coghlan, 2015). The tourism and hospitality sector has created pressure on local resources which
include fossil fuels, minerals, forests, fertile soils, and wildlife. This is due to the increased
development of tourism and recreational facilities. Due to the provision of tourist facilities, it has
led to a direct effect on non-renewable and renewable natural factors in order to provide facilities
such as good infrastructure and building material (Raza, Sharif, Wong & Karim, 2017).
Moreover, tourism and hospitality activities have brought pollution such as noise, the release of
sewage, oil and chemicals, and solid waste.
Social-cultural impact
Tourism and hospitality may bring about positive and negative social-cultural effects on
the specific area or nation. It may bring changes in the community structure, rituals, ethics,
family relationships, and traditional lifestyle. Tourism has led to the provision of a better
education system (Deery, Jago & Fredline, 2012). This has led to high investment in the leisure
facilities and organizing often social events which have assisted the local people to acquire a
better lifestyle. On the other hand, the tourism and hospitality sector has created employment to
the locals in the hotels and accommodation facilities which has reduced the unemployment of the
citizen, on the contrary, high number of tourists has resulted in poor sanitation which has
resulted in many contagious diseases due to overcrowding (Eid & El-Gohary, 2015). Moreover,
the influx of tourist in some areas has distracted the local culture and developed unrest among
the locals. This has led to the loss of local cultures due to the assimilation of the foreign culture
by the locals which has eroded the traditional customs of the locals (Tajeddini & Trueman,
2012). Another negative impact of tourism and hospitality is the increased rate of criminal
activities. The locals take advantage of the innocent tourist hence robbing them money and
conning them.

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Economic impact
Tourism and hospitality have contributed immensely to the economic growth of different
countries with tourism destinations. The presence of visitors in a country has led to foreign
exchange since foreign tourist change their currencies into local currencies (Peiró-Signes,
Segarra-Oña, Miret-Pastor & Verma, 2015). Due to this, the host nation gets more currencies to
finance its needs such as providing better educational facilities, medical, and infrastructure.
Another impact that of tourism and hospitality is the creation of new jobs and employment
chances. People that have acquired employment as a result of the expansion of the hospitality
industry contributed to economic development by paying taxes which are used in providing
essential facilities to the citizens. Further, tourism and hospitality have led to trade activities and
entrepreneurship services due to the high number of tourist. The tourist activities have brought
about the invention of business ideas to accommodate the needs of the tourism and hospitality
sector. In addition, the tourism and hospitality effect has led to a multiplier effect in the host
country (Cárdenas-García, Sánchez-Rivero & Pulido-Fernández, 2015). This is due to the issue
of tourist money being spent in the host nation in areas such as restaurants, taxis, and hotels.
The first sustainability program that Venice has implemented due to the negatives effects
that tourism and hospitality have injected into the city is the construction of residential houses.
Most of the residents were migrating to other countries because of the high cost of rent and
overcrowding in the city due to mass tourists and tourism activities. Although the housing
development project is still incomplete, it will act residential places to prevent the immigration
of Venice citizens. On the other, another sustainability adopted by Venice is the creation of a
new harbor site for the sailing boats (Lopez-Sanchez & Pulido-Fernández, 2017). This will assist
persons to leave their boats and also have the chance to spend time in the island part of the city

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with a natural environment near Venice. The project will attract more tourist that are aware of
the significance of sustainable tourist programs. However, Venice has introduced another
sustainable project of keeping high water for from San Marco square. This will be a better
possibility to secure and save the square for the locals and tourist. The MOSE project will protect
Venice from high water and prevent the water from coming inside the lagoon and rather salty in
the sea. This will protect Venice and maintain its beautiful tourist scenarios.
Tourism and hospitality in Venice
Malandra, (2019) in his article looks at different effects of tourism. The high of tourism
and are reported in Venice has impacted negatively on the environment. Venice has narrow path
walks. Therefore, the tour buses, cruise ships, heavy air traffic, and thousands of tourist and
locals storm all over the natural places. Venice is founded on a fragile ecosystem which consists
of canals in a natural lagoon. The mass tourism has led to the environmental crisis to the city. As
per the Italian architecture, the city gets almost twice as much human traffic as it should.
Considering the fact that three-quarters of the transport system in Venice is aquatic has led to the
disruption of the fresh ecosystem due to congestions. This has led to the destruction of the
lagoon system due to the ship propellers. The destruction of the lagoon has made it become
almost salty as the near Adriatic Sea.
This article talks about how tourism and hospitality have affected the economic situation
of Venice. Venice & Venice, (2019) states that the high of tourist in Venice has led to increased
investment rate for selling souvenir which has led a rise in the price of shops and rents which
made it hard for the locals to management the rents. Therefore, the foreign investors have
decided to take advantage of the situation by taking over the shops on busy paths and display

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their cheaper merchants. Moreover, the high number of tourist inflow has resulted in a high cost
of living to the citizens. This has led to the high cost of housing and commodities. The local
hostels have increased charges on which makes it hard for local to afford food.
According to this article, the tourism and hospitality sector in Venice have been impacted
negatively. Tourism has led to criminal activities in Venice. Criminals and pickpockets have
been attracted to specific areas flooded by tourists. Another social-cultural impact is the loss of
authentic culture. Tourism has led to an increase in global fast food, chain hotels, and mall
shopping style ("What social impact has tourism had on Italy?" n.d.). This has led to the
disappearance of the town’s local brands and small businesses in the historic core. According to
this article, the mass tourism in Venice has resulted in overcrowding. The overcrowding has led
stress to tourists and local since the town uses narrow walk paths which are congested by the
tourist during the peak seasons.
Recommendation
Venice should reduce the high cost of living by cutting the cost of rent to prevent massive
migration of Venice citizens. Another way of saving venire is through is to increase the number
of paths in the city by constructing footbridges to reduce the congestion on the narrow paths of
the city.
Conclusion
Tourism and hospitality is a key sector in tourist destination countries such as Venice.
The sector has led to economic effects which include the creation of employment, foreign
exchange, and the multiplier effect. However, tourism and hospitality have led to social and

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cultural factors such as criminal activities and loss of traditional culture and norms. Looking at
Venice as the tourist destinations, tourist activities has done more harm than good. Tourism has
led to an increase in the cost of leaving, migration of the locals, and overcrowding in the city.

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