Stay away from me, but don't fly away A dramaturgical approach to the tourist-seagull distancing during aperitivo time in Venice

Previous research on tourisfication highlights how the tourists’ identity as consumers and protagonists of the tourist experience contribute to the local inhabitants’ physical and symbolical exclusion from Venice. This chapter explores the ecological implications of maintaining distances between seagulls and humans during the rituals of aperitivo in Venice. It proposes a processual understanding of how the double identity of tourists becomes a symbolic boundary of territorial exclusion. By keeping distance from the seagulls, tourists define a specific city’s area as a tourist space and exclude any claims by the local inhabitants on that territory. This chapter reconstructs the rhythms and atmospheres intertwined within aperitivo moments by analysing ethnographic observations, photographs, and videos. Interspecific interactions are crucial in establishing the aperitivo territory that attracts tourists to visit the city. They must become competent territory members and actively produce this experience to participate in the ritual. This process highlights the relationship between internalisation and enculturation of the tourist’s self-presentation. During the aperitivo multiple symbolic boundaries separate humans from non-human actors and tourists from inhabitants. These divisions segregate participants and create a legitimate public for occupying the territory.