More Opposition to the Cruise Industry!

[Mary229]

Off topic for sure but airports are first built to aid commerce, ie the business traveler.  Tourists are beneficiaries of those activities and are secondary.  If tourism becomes the primary economic activity then yes that would be the underlying commercial consideration but that likely only accounts for 10% of the world’s airport  

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, ldubs said:

Right, romantic nature fits well with Venice.  Someone enjoys the song to enhance the mood, have fun, enjoy, etc, then go for it.   Knowing or not knowing the origin of the song wouldn't matter, except to those who disapprove.  

 

Trust me, it matters to Venetians. You have to understand Italian culture. 

 

First, Italy is really more like a loose collection of regions than a homogeneous country. Italian loyalty is first to their own "campanile" (bell tower, e.g., their parish), then to their region. No other region compares to their own. Including musically.

 

Second, most northern Italians really look down on southern Italians. It's just the way it is. Southern Italians are regarded by those who live in the north as backwards, poor, crime-ridden and a big drain on the rest of Italy (i.e., the north).

 

You may think this is just a "cultural correctness" thing run amok, but it's been a hot button issue in Venice for quite awhile. The earliest article I found -- in which there was a movement among Venice's town council to forbid gondoliers to sing "O Sole Mio" -- dates back to 1986:

 

VENETIAN GONDOLIERS GET AN `OH NO` TO `O SOLE MIO  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-08-07-8602260879-story.html

 

Through 2010:

 

https://www.scotsman.com/news/ice-cream-wars-as-gondoliers-snub-cornetto-tune-requests-1702011

 

And onward:

 

"O SOLE MIO"'...OR NOT?

https://www.indulgedivulge.com/o-sole-mio-or-not/

 

which concludes with this:    If you are hankering for a serenade, ask first. If you’ve had the good fortune to hire a musician and are yearning for a spot of ‘O Sole Mio’ (which comes from Naples), well that’s like asking a Jazz singer to sing Waltzing Matilda. Instead try requesting  ‘Un canto Veneziano? (sing a Venetian song?) – ‘Venezia La Luna e Tu?’ (a Venetian song), and you may just be rewarded.

[DarrenM]

On 9/17/2023 at 2:14 AM, Toofarfromthesea said:

 

And yet you cruise?

 

As the wise man said: I'll believe in climate change when the people preaching about climate change start acting as if they believe in climate change.

 

The same goes for the people who gnash their teeth about, eg, Venice yet still go there.  Be the change you want to see.

I agree with K Numbers yet I love cruising.

 

But there again, I got married in a church and have zero faith in any religion.

 

A self confessed hypocrite me.

[ldubs]

9 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Trust me, it matters to Venetians. You have to understand Italian culture. 

 

First, Italy is really more like a loose collection of regions than a homogeneous country. Italian loyalty is first to their own "campanile" (bell tower, e.g., their parish), then to their region. No other region compares to their own. Including musically.

 

Second, most northern Italians really look down on southern Italians. It's just the way it is. Southern Italians are regarded by those who live in the north as backwards, poor, crime-ridden and a big drain on the rest of Italy (i.e., the north).

 

You may think this is just a "cultural correctness" thing run amok, but it's been a hot button issue in Venice for quite awhile. The earliest article I found -- in which there was a movement among Venice's town council to forbid gondoliers to sing "O Sole Mio" -- dates back to 1986:

 

VENETIAN GONDOLIERS GET AN `OH NO` TO `O SOLE MIO  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-08-07-8602260879-story.html

 

Through 2010:

 

https://www.scotsman.com/news/ice-cream-wars-as-gondoliers-snub-cornetto-tune-requests-1702011

 

And onward:

 

"O SOLE MIO"'...OR NOT?

https://www.indulgedivulge.com/o-sole-mio-or-not/

 

which concludes with this:    If you are hankering for a serenade, ask first. If you’ve had the good fortune to hire a musician and are yearning for a spot of ‘O Sole Mio’ (which comes from Naples), well that’s like asking a Jazz singer to sing Waltzing Matilda. Instead try requesting  ‘Un canto Veneziano? (sing a Venetian song?) – ‘Venezia La Luna e Tu?’ (a Venetian song), and you may just be rewarded.

 

I trust you.   Letting rivalry turn into laws about what music is allowed is silliness and not to be tolerated.  If someone wants to seriously get insulted by the origin of a beautiful song, well, they won't get much sympathy from me.  If that makes me "clueless", so be it.  

 

Listen to this guy (from Tuscany) sing and maybe question why anyone anywhere would want to ban this song.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by ldubs

[ilikeanswers]

14 hours ago, ldubs said:

I cannot imagine tourism isn't part of the equation when many airports are being developed.  Further, I suspect it is a major consideration depending on the location. (like Honolulu Int'l).  

 

Hawaii is an archipelago state so I would assume based on my experience with island countries the airport was built with the goal for islanders and goods to be able to get on and off the islands. I am sure there is always hope for tourism when building an airport but I think it would be a heck of a gamble to build an airport to try and attract tourists. If you build it they will come only works in the movies😂. 

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

Hawaii is an archipelago state so I would assume based on my experience with island countries the airport was built with the goal for islanders and goods to be able to get on and off the islands. I am sure there is always hope for tourism when building an airport but I think it would be a heck of a gamble to build an airport to try and attract tourists. If you build it they will come only works in the movies😂. 

But it was a great movie based on a great book. 😊

[slidergirl]

Maestro Bocelli sings this song in concerts, especially in the US, because it is one of the few "Italian" songs that Americans know,  He does the song to the visual backdrop of Enzo Caruso, video/photos of the area around Napoli,  

When I saw him in concert last summer in Italy, he did not sing it.  But, when I saw him in the US in the Fall, he did sing it.  He probably doesn't sing Neil Diamond's "Coming to America" or the theme from "The Godfather" in Italy,  At least he didn't at my concert, but did in the US.  

[ldubs]

15 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

Hawaii is an archipelago state so I would assume based on my experience with island countries the airport was built with the goal for islanders and goods to be able to get on and off the islands. I am sure there is always hope for tourism when building an airport but I think it would be a heck of a gamble to build an airport to try and attract tourists. If you build it they will come only works in the movies😂. 

 

I think your original point is, unlike cruise terminals, airports are not developed solely for tourists.  That is obviously true.  I am not sure what island experience drives your assumption.  The reality is HNL was built for economic development and tourism was a major component (that is why I used HNL as an example).  Believe what you like, but trying to attract tourists was exactly what they were doing.    

[SelectSys]

It is not surprising that opposition to cruising is increasing in today's world. Much of this opposition is based on the general trends that we see in society at large where individuals will glue themselves to the street with religious fervor in the name of "sustainability" and other such notions.   

 

All of these calls for reduced tourism will only creates shortages and thereby results in higher prices.  Cut off large ships by fiat (i.e., creating a negative shift  in supply) and the result is simply higher prices.  Sadly all of these coming  restrictions will fall most heavily on the less well to do if mass tourism is restricted by government policy/intervention.  It will also impact negatively those whose livelihoods are dependent on tourism as well. 

 

This type of "higher price" effect has certainly been the case in California where extra mandates and restrictions related to "sustainability" have raised the price of everything from electricity to gasoline to food to housing.  The sad thing is that all of these efforts really have no material impact on anything and only serve to benefit the connected and wealthy at the expense of the working poor.

 

Bottom lime for me - I am going to travel and not worry about any of this until I get priced out of the market.