Las vegas authenticity

Italian-style balconies with a view of the Grand Canal, for example, host venues such as Mexican restaurants and American-style breweries, surrounded by Renaissance-style columns and other artistic elements. Observing the food court, moreover, one thinks of the original St. Mark's Square, with fewer decorations and fast-food restaurants.

Finally, since pools are key elements of the mainstream Strip experience — with every resort on the Strip offering an endless number of pool-related activities — it is noteworthy to focus on the website's description of The Venetian pool, which reads: Inspired by the Italian Riviera, the pools of The Venetian blend historic beauty with modern delights. With elaborate and lush gardens, the pristine waters of The Venetian pools evoke the charm and irresistible allure of their seaside Italian influences.

The representation of Venice's tangible cultural heritage at The Venetian is not only a celebration of the Italian city's glorious past, but also a framework for businesses and activities that are integral parts of the Strip experience but that have nothing to do with Venice or Italy. In the next section, we turn from tangible to intangible heritage elements and focus on the concept of promising tourists an authentic Venice-like experience.

Similarly, our analysis led us to the understanding that locating common retail outlets such as shops and restaurants inside the replicas of historic buildings and landmarks can be seen as a strategy to make visitors feel an immersive experience that includes both Las Vegas and Venice's traditions.

We previously mentioned that, according to UNESCO , intangible cultural heritage includes oral traditions, performing arts, social practices and knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.

Our analysis on how The Venetian uses Venice's heritage as a promotional tool led us to the understanding that intangible cultural heritage also plays a key role in three main cases: the use of Italian language, the gondola tradition and the focus on Italian social practices. Explaining the importance of language in terms of intangible cultural heritage, UNESCO declares: Constituting an essential part of an ethnic community, mother language is a carrier of values and knowledge, very often used in the practice and transmission of intangible cultural heritage.

The spoken word in mother language is important in the enactment and transmission of virtually all intangible heritage, especially in oral traditions and expressions, songs and most rituals. Using their mother tongue, bearers of specific traditions often use highly specialized sets of terms and expressions, which reveal the intrinsic depth oneness between mother tongue and the intangible cultural heritage.

In The Venetian's promotion, the Italian language plays an important role, since it is often used to give a sense of authenticity and closeness to the city of Venice. During our observations and content analysis of on-site resort amenities, we noticed that the city of Venice is always called by its Italian name, Venezia : for example, the Venezia Tower, which hosts some of the most elegant suites in the resort, the Venezia Pool and the Venezia Wedding Chapel.

Players who want to gather information about the program are invited to visit the Grazie Desk, located in the casino area. Similarly, the ticket office for the gondola rides is called Emporio di Gondola , which comes from the Latin emporium, signifying an old-Italian name for markets and small businesses.

Among the suites, for example, we find Rialto , Piazza and Bella. Likewise, the hallways that host the ballrooms at the Sands Expo are named for historically famous Italians, such as the scientist Galileo and the painters Veronese and Titian, as well as the Venice-adjacent geographical locations of Lido and Murano. Conducting analysis on the use of Italian language, we noticed that the names used to indicate the various locations are common Italian words, which often people recognize, even if they do not speak Italian.

Italian-sounding terms like grazie and bella , which means beautiful, might also evoke a sense of authenticity for the tourists. One of the oldest traditions of Venice is the skill required to build a gondola , which is still transmitted across generations. Embracing this intangible cultural heritage, The Venetian's gondola rides are one of the most famous attractions of the resort. In Venice, the construction of the traditional gondola follows a long and ancient process that is still used today.

A gondola is constituted by eight different kinds of wood, which season from one to two years Gondola, a , b. In order to give the typical curved shape to the boat, Venetian craftsmen use the heat that comes from burning swamp canes to curve the wood Gondola, a , b. Every gondola is tailored to the weight of the gondoliere — the boatman — who commissions it in advance and this feature makes each boat unique. Float beneath bridges, beside cafes, under balconies and through the vibrant Venetian streetscape as your singing gondolier[e] sweeps you down the Grand Canal for a ride like no other.

Gondolas are also important elements in the promotion of The Venetian's wedding packages: the resort offers ceremonies on its Signature White Wedding Gondola see Figure 4. The celebration of weddings on white gondolas , however, is not part of Venice's tradition. While some couples may celebrate their weddings or anniversaries in Venice on gondolas , it is not a common practice and the Italian city does not host white gondolas.

Although centuries ago gondolas were decorated and colorful, scholars note that in the s black became the only color for these boats Gondola, a , b. Once again, with the Venice-The Venetian overlapping, we understand that what matters in terms of promotion is not having a precise reproduction of the gondola — but to recreate an authentic experience.

This aspect is reinforced by another important intangible cultural heritage activity, the singing gondolier. Similar to tourists who ride gondolas in Venice, The Venetian's guests are promised a complete Venice experience, guided by a gondolier — wearing the traditional striped uniform — who sings famous Italian melodies. This is one of the oldest existing gondolas, imported from Italy, built around , and 36 feet long and 5 feet wide Jones, On display since , this original gondola is surrounded by panels that show the gondola timeline, describing the story of these boats dating back to In the previous section, we noted how The Venetian's promotional activities are used as educational tools for users who, browsing the website, receive cultural information on the Italian city.

Participants receive a gondola hat and t-shirt, a souvenir photo and a degree certificate from Gondola University. In the Gondola University activity, tourists are promised to learn first-hand the art of piloting the boat, having the unique experience to be part of a centuries-old tradition.

Differently from the tangible cultural heritage, where physical landmarks are the main protagonists, we noticed how the Gondola University is promoted to make tourists the principal subject of the activity. In other words, in the gondola case, the intangible cultural heritage experience can happen only if the tourists experience it. During our analysis of promotional material and observations, we noticed the importance of Italian social practices in the promotion of the resort's experience.

In this analysis, we followed UNESCO's definition of social practices: Social practices, rituals and festive events are habitual activities that structure the lives of communities and groups and that are shared by and relevant to many of their members. They are significant because they reaffirm the identity of those who practise them as a group or a society and, whether performed in public or private, are closely linked to important events.

They vary from small gatherings to large-scale social celebrations and commemorations. Each of these sub-domains is vast but there is also a great deal of overlap between them.

Tourists who have some knowledge of Italy might recognize that the term piazza is fundamental for social interaction in Italian culture, being the administrative, economic and religious center of every Italian city. The Venetian's food and beverage offerings also blend intangible social practices with the tangible heritage present at the resort. Food is a big part of Italian culture; Italians often refer to food as a way of life.

Seafood markets are another important tradition of Italian cities located on the sea, like Venice, recalling, once again, a social practice that is a fundamental part of some Italian urban settings. The Venetian's marketing strategies focus on social practices by juxtaposing representations of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Like Italian locals, they can stroll around the tiny streets and squares listening to famous Italian songs sung by the gondoliers or the performers situated in the reproduction of St.

And like Venice's residents, they can enjoy a Bellini cocktail or typical food while observing Italian-style decorations and people walking around in the piazza. We find the promise of an authentic Venice and, more generally, Italian experience in the case of weddings.

Throughout the online brochure that describes these wedding packages, we find suggestions of a Venice lifestyle: Celebrate your love with a kiss on a bridge that overlooks the Grand Canal amid the sights and sounds of the bustling St. It is easy to understand how The Venetian's wedding promotion centers, once again, on Italian social practices and authenticity, wherein first-hand experiences play a fundamental role. These activities would not be possible without the participation of guests, who by eating, drinking and strolling along the canals become the protagonists of a real Venice-lifestyle experience.

One of the main contributions of this research is its multidisciplinary nature, since we aim at providing a foundation for additional case studies or comparative studies in the use of authenticity both from a sociological and hospitality point of view. In so doing, we aim at translating a sociological approach based on theoretical concepts, such as authenticity and cultural heritage, to tourism and hospitality research audience.

The main point of this discussion is to answer our research questions by understanding how tangible and intangible heritage — through the experience economy and authenticity — apply to resorts marketing.

Although we are aware that theme resorts are not peculiar to Las Vegas, throughout the manuscript, we argue that The Venetian represents a unique case study, especially compared to other themed-resorts that have a more general theme. Moreover, in terms of advancement in the industry, this research should allow other resorts that do not have this sort of location-based theming to look at how the experience is promoted and consider how that might then relate to what they do.

This is particularly important if we consider those resorts that would like to differentiate themselves in conditions of market saturation or concentration, as it happens in Las Vegas. The Venetian's promotion of Venice's tangible and intangible cultural heritage is strongly intertwined with the two main frames of this study: the experience economy and authenticity.

Looking at Pine and Gilmore four realms of the experience, we noticed that our case study addresses the escapism and immersion realms, with a limited involvement of the education realm see Figure 5. Interestingly, we did not find a strong connection between The Venetian promotion strategy and the realm of entertainment, in which individuals are involved in a mere passive way. At first sight, one might think that the marketing strategies based on teaching and learning, for example, could be a passive experience, wherein customers inactively learn about historic facts and other artifact descriptions on the resort's website.

However, we observed that visitors' learning happens mainly through immersion, rather than absorption. Learning, therefore, becomes an active — rather than passive — experience. As Pine and Gilmore explain, to stage experiences means to engage the customers, rather than simply entertain them. This strategy is fundamental for companies that want to create unforgettable experiences. According to the two scholars, in fact, although companies' offering involves entertaining activities, it is necessary for them to work on the other experiential realms.

In other words, it is The Venetian's website itself that constantly invites guests to be at the center of the action, becoming active protagonists of the experience. In this sense our results suggested that replicating intangible cultural heritage is a reliable customer engagement strategy.

Several themed resorts in Las Vegas reproduce physical landmarks — such as the Luxor's pyramid or the Paris's Eiffel Tower — copying recognizable elements of tangible cultural heritage.

The Venetian extends this practice to offer an immersive experience in which guests not only visit reproduced landmarks, but are promised to live the authentic Italian lifestyle. From the Italian-sounding voices of the gondoliers to the concept of eating in the piazza, a visit to The Venetian means active engagement in the social practices of the location it replicates.

With today's themed-resorts increasingly interested in promoting authentic experiences, our findings show that a key-strategy for this practice is to go beyond the copy of physical places and expand the experience to include cultural practices.

Within Pine and Gilmore matrix, education takes place through absorption, where people's attention is brought to the mind from a distance, such as when watching TV. This could be the case of users reading information on The Venetian's website when they are at home, planning their visit to the resort.

This happens through an invitation to click on a link to uncover more information about Venice Renaissance, to reserve a table in an Italian-style restaurant, or to book one of the beautifully decorated suites see, e. As can be seen in Figure 5 , the opposite side of the absorption axis is immersion. It is through immersion that we found the majority of The Venetian's experiences taking place.

The realms of the experience that happen through immersion are escapist and aesthetic. We found that the intangible-heritage activities at The Venetian are related to escapism, which is based on the complete immersion and active involvement of the participants. This is the case of Italian cultural practices and the gondola rides, where the experience that is promoted cannot take place without tourists' active involvement.

Visitors can live the authentic Italian lifestyle, for example, by dining in one of the restaurants in the piazza or strolling along the canals. Similarly, to live the authentic gondola experience, guests have to ride the boat and learn about this ancient tradition. Visitors, in this way, not only become part of those cultural practices, but they collaborate in their production and consolidation. We also found escapism in the advertised promise that at The Venetian, visitors can be part of the authentic Strip experience — which we will further develop in this section — in which visitors are proposed several kinds of immersive activities, such as pools, nightclubs and weddings.

The third realm we encountered through data analysis is the aesthetic, involving an immersion of individuals in an event or environment but without them having an effect on it. The two resort elements best representing the aesthetic realm are the replicas of intangible heritage and the use of Italian language.

When visitors observe replicas of landmarks and read material that uses Italian words, they do not have an influence on the environment. It would not be correct, however, to strictly declare that these actions are completely passive.

Visitors are not only absorbed in the environment, since they are completely immersed in The Venetian experience, which blends together elements such as monument replicas, cultural practices and learning strategies. If, on the one hand, an analysis of the four realms at The Venetian, shows that the resort's marketing strategy aims at actively involve its guests, on the other hand, we notice how the matrix relates to authenticity.

Investigating Pine and Gilmore's realms, we observed that the promotion of authenticity is key in The Venetian's marketing activities, especially through advertising of cultural heritage and the authentic Strip experience.

The first tool that promotes authenticity in the resort are the descriptions on the website, which enhance a constant overlapping between the real and the replicas.

What The Venetian aims to recall while describing its replicas of tangible cultural heritage is not the city of Venice how tourists see it today, but the city's past as one of the most important locations in the Old World for numerous disciplines, such as art and religion.

Describing Venice's historic events e. It is noteworthy to reflect on the fact that tourists who visit Venice today have a 21st century-experience of the city, rather than a Renaissance one. Paradoxically, it might seem that The Venetian claims to offer an authentic Renaissance experience that cannot even be found in the original location today.

We therefore found that the descriptions related to the city prevail over the descriptions of the resort. By connecting The Venetian's architecture to the original tangible cultural heritage in Venice, the resort promises unique themed experiences. This strategy is even clearer in the case of intangible cultural heritage, where visitors are invited to actively become part of the authentic experience themselves.

In the case of Italian language, our findings show that it is used in a way that is similar to the replicas of tangible cultural heritage. The use of Italian-sounding names, for example, helps reinforce the genuineness and authenticity of The Venetian. Finally, The Venetian's marketing strategy often uses the promotion of theme-based authentic intangible experiences. Although elements such as the descriptions of the rooms, the casino's gambling offering and dining options occupy an important part of the resort's promotion, what seems to prevail is the goal of advertising and promising an original experience that blends Venice's and Las Vegas' culture together.

This aspect is noteworthy, especially with tangible cultural heritage working as a frame for other kinds of venues that are part of the Venetian's Las Vegas Strip experience, such as retail chains and ethnic restaurants, which have little to do with Venice.

Although these businesses are related to the Strip culture, rather than Italian culture, the fact that they are surrounded by Renaissance-style decorations helps them blend into the authenticity of the resort. Ritzer and Stillman describe how in themed Las Vegas resorts, the past, the present and the future coexist at the same time.

As we showed in our findings, the promotion of Venice's tangible cultural heritage represents a balanced blending between the Venice-style container and the elements of Las Vegas culture, such as nightclubs, stores and dining venues. In this study, we highlight how through advertising of intangible cultural heritage related elements, especially in the case of social practices, the resort promotes its shopping and dining venues. The notion of authenticity, once again, becomes fundamental to The Venetian's embrace of the experience economy, especially when we recognize that The Venetian does not promote its own authenticity, but the authenticity of a location on the other side of the world.

The experience realms Pine and Gilmore, The replica of the Rialto Bridge bottom left adjacent to the replica of St. Mark's Bell Tower right. The signature white wedding gondola in the Venetian grand canal. The experience realms Pine and Gilmore, applied to The Venetian case study. Per phone communication with The Venetian's customer service on 21 August, , Gondola University is on indefinite hiatus, though it still appears on the resort's website as of manuscript writing.

Atwal , G. Barahona , I. Actions Facebook Tweet Email. Las Vegas man questions authenticity of memorabilia Possible counterfeit collectibles for sale. By: Darcy Spears. Copyright Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Report a typo. Do you have a story idea or tip for 13 Investigates? Fill out the form below. Hendrickson will also take you to The Dwan Light Sanctuary, which is on the grounds of the college. Designed by Virginia Dwan, Charles Ross and Laban Wingert, the sanctuary provides the campus and the public with a peaceful refuge from the hectic pace of daily life.

The site was chosen to capitalize on the dramatic northern New Mexico light. The orientation and geometry of the building are derived from its alignment to the sun, moon and stars. Though the hotel closed in , a bar operated out of the building until it was bought in , by Allen Affeldt , a northern Arizona hotelier. Restoration plans are in place to bring the grand dame back to life and open it as a twenty-room boutique hotel with an upscale restaurant.

Affeldt is well-known for the restoration of another Harvey property, La Posada, in Winslow, AZ, which is now a cultural and tourism attraction. Currently, La Castaneda is a construction site; however, Hendrickson is able to provide tours of the place to interested visitors who want to take a peek inside. The brick building has a stone foundation, metal roof, stamped tin ceilings and actual steel rails used for trusses. Affeldt aims to re-purpose some of the original fixtures and equipment to retain even greater authenticity of this crown jewel.

The plaza is one of the largest in New Mexico and its major cornerstone is the Plaza Hotel, also under the ownership of Allen Affeldt. Built in as a first-class establishment, the property immediately gained recognition as the finest hotel in the state. Originally, there were 37 guest rooms, a saloon, dance hall and restaurant.

Matching walnut staircases wind elegantly from the lobby to all floors. The place is also known for its resident ghost, Byron T. Mills, a former owner of the property. He reigns in Room and seems to fancy young, single women, especially redheads. Others have noted the sensation of having someone sit down next to them on the bed and even touch them on the shoulder.

The Plaza Hotel has starred in a number of movies and TV shows, from silent pictures to current productions. Hollywood came calling to Las Vegas as far back as the early s. Among the first documented productions were those of actor-director Romaine Fielding. Cowboy great Tom Mix arrived in and shot over twenty Westerns in the area. Later, Red Dawn set the standard by being the first major motion picture to establish shop primarily in Las Vegas. The s brought Wyatt Earp, Speechless and Vampires , among others.

In more recent years, Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen came to town to do Astronaut Farmer , an offbeat flick that showed off the local Dairy Queen and a bank building.