A destination that stands growing upbut which still has a long way to go in the field of diversification of supply and valorisation of its excellencefundamental prerequisites for attracting high-end tourism emerging markets. The Piedmont has achieved, from a tourist point of view, unthinkable results only a few years ago and is now looking towards the new effluent basins.
The role of the international component
It was he who put the emphasis on the numbers Alberto Ciriopresident of the Region, spoke in Turin at ‘Destination Piedmont – Present and future of regional tourism’, a conference organized by Aiav and moderated by the director of TTG Italia Remo Evangelista. “The numbers – said Cirio – decree success. We have achieved positive results from post-Covid onwards, closing 2023 with a 9.3% increase in arrivals and a 7.7% increase in attendance. Particularly encouraging is the fact that 52% of tourists come from abroad. If we think that only 8% of Chinese have a passport, we realize the extraordinary things tourism potential that Piedmont has for this market, but also for the South American, South African and US markets”.
Motivational tourism
The imperative is, therefore, to continue investing in major events, such as the Giro d’Italia, the Book Fair, the Motor Show “which will return to Turin”, but not only: “Tourists want a excellent service – explained the president – and the advs can guarantee this, for this I thank them for their work. Everyone gave their contribution, the system worked.” The aim is to think of Turin and Piedmontese tourism not as destination tourism – “We are not Venice or Rome” said Cirio -, but as a motivational tourism: “The greatness of Piedmont – underlined the president – is that you can go from Stresa to Sestriere, from Turin to Alba: they are all completely different destinations. Sporting events are also a great help, but they are part of a system that has countless components, from art to history, to food and wine”.
The importance of teamwork
“The big events – he added Domenico Carrettacouncilor of the Municipality of Turin for Sport, Major Events, Tourism and Relations with the City Council – are only part of the strategy, the city must be structured to ensure that it also has different biorhythms. Turin was a city that worked and lived on peaks, such as the Book Fair. Now teamwork between the public and private sectors has led to the awareness of a destination that has extraordinary potential and energy, but we need to schedule all the events to have a twelve-month schedule, which allows Turin to always be the protagonist”.
“Teamwork is rewarding – he also highlighted Maurizio Marrone, councilor of the Piedmont Region for social policies and socio-health integration, Port-Olympic Works -. In Piedmont in 2019 the weight of tourism on the regional GDP was 7.4%, today it is 10%. An increase that should make us all proud and which is not the result of chance.”
She also insisted on teamwork Ivana JelinicEnit CEO: “We must be able to be attractive on new markets, which are becoming enormous opportunities, such as the entire basin Arabian Gulf – he underlined -. While on neighboring markets the regions can present themselves in a disjointed way, on more distant basins if there is no unitary promotion of the country, a reality will be attacked with inadequate tools”.
On the side of companies
“With the Ministry of Tourism we have changed the approach to the sector – he recalled Gianluca Caramanna, deputy and first councilor of the Ministry of Trism -. Enough just talking about arrivals and attendance, we need to start talking about capital gains on company turnover. Politics must start thinking about how much tourists spend, but to make them spend they need to work on services and therefore on the training and management of some territories”.
Priority to training
And he also insisted a lot on training Fulvio Avataneo, president of Aiav: “There is a lack of important professional figures who can guarantee quality – he pointed out -, but there is also a lack of basic professional figures, employees in advertising, hotels and restaurants. We must start from educational institutions, we must work to create these new professional figuresbring them to our sector and make them grow in a reasonable way.”
