What you can do to help this situation:  make sure the Carnivale masks you buy aren’t made in China but are locally made.  Spend a couple extra bucks!  It’ll be worth it to make sure the Venice you remember is there for you in the future.  Get off the beaten path a bit to get that gelato or espresso; support a local merchant instead of a tourist trap.  Your taste buds will thank you in the end and you’ll see more of the city.  Visiting the city?  Get there by plane to a water taxi or via the train, and avoid cruise ships that motor through the shallow lagoon damaging local ecosystems and the infrastructure of Venice.

It seems in the future tourism will be Venice’s only real economy, and the Venetians have accepted as much–but that’s ok in a way.  It’s a city built to serve the curious tourists of the world and it can handle this task gracefully, but visitors should and can have a hand in preserving La Serenissima.