"If I have to fight past another group of glitter-painted Japanese tourists giggling at each other and taking pictures in masks, I think I'll kill somebody."
Well, yes, that can be annoying, but the biggest problem is that the Venetians have been priced out of their own traditions. The answer, I suspect, is to allow masks (and masked balls) for seven months a year like they used to, with some time and events reserved just for Venetians and their ultra-ultra special guests. The other six-plus months, masked Venetians can pursue masked foriegners and do lewd, rude, and abusive things to them to take out their frustrations, and then ask money for it. Sort of like the Venetian equivalent of Parisian mimes...