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 / cchi 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 Michaelangelos 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 boathandling 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 Harrahs 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 cant be competed. One is the real one while the other is
the artificial. Lets talk about from customer perceived or well lets 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 tourists 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 cant 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-venetianlas-vegas.html
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/authenticity.html#ixzz3u5fCYVgz