Instagram tourism Vs Invisible City: a research about Venice’s artisanal activities

In the western world, city centers are going through a gentrification process in the last years, in which, often local merchants are being replaced by international firms of goods. As a result, cities are becoming more and more alike, struggling with identity issues as most of their local components are disappearing each day. On the other hand, people visiting these spaces see always the same shops in the city centers and living the same, consumption – oriented, experiences, which are being “shared” on social media in order to testify particular experiences in specific places. Tourism has become something that “I want people to know I am experiencing” rather than getting to know new places, cultures and local stories, which is called the invisible part of a city. One part of this particular invisible part, for Venice which is our case-study, are its artisanal activities, which for centuries sustained a strong urban economy and made Venice famous for its products around the world. Helping survive local elements such as the artisanal activities, is all about maintaining the real local identity of Venice, the invisible city, something that a visitor can’t experience anywhere else, contributing to a unique experience which can’t be similar anywhere else. Policies that help protect those activities would help in maintaining a certain diversity in city centers, offering images and experiences to the visitors that are different for each center, and contributing in keeping alive the local identity.