The Consorzio dell’Oltrepò Mantovano, the Municipality and Province of Ferrara, the Municipality and Province of Mantua, territories linked together for centuries under a historical, cultural, social and economic profile have together agreed to become promoters of common projects and actions and connecting their respective territories with the aim of further enhancing their tourist resources by signing a Protocol which establishes the strengthening of thematic and experiential itineraries, information and communication, the organization of events, the involvement of other public and private entities and project nominations.
In recent years, the Municipality of Mantua has participated in projects and actions to support sustainable and slow tourism, cycle tourism and active tourism in order to enhance itineraries and routes and qualify the tourist offer from a sustainability perspective.
The Protocol was presented on Monday 6 May in the Council Room of the Municipality of Mantua. The deputy mayor of Mantua with responsibility for Tourism Giovanni Buvoli, the president of the Consorzio dell’Oltrepò Mantovano Alberto Borsari and the mayor of Sermide and Felonica Mirco Bortesi spoke about it, in remote connection the councilor for Tourism of the Province of Ferrara Matteo Fornasini. Also speaking were the director of the Consortium Carmelita Trentini and the official of the tourism office of the Province of Mantua Lara Rigoni.
The Province of Mantua adheres to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Oltrepò Mantovano Consortium, the Municipalities of Ferrara and Mantua and the Province of Ferrara for the promotion of sustainable tourism actions and projects.
The Palazzo di Bagno body, which already contributes to implementing an integrated tourist promotion of the Virgilian territory, has decided to support the projects of institutional entities, associations and private actors aimed at achieving a common strategic objective: strengthening the competitiveness of the territory as a tourist destination.
The provincial administration, which already manages the Mantua-Peschiera cycle route and a section of the Mantua-Governolo cycle route, which constitute the backbone of connection between the strategic tourist system of Garda and the MaB Unesco “Po Grande” Reserve, thus aims to expand and optimize its tourist offer.
The Oltrepò Mantovano Consortium, made up of 20 Municipalities, is a territorial governance system with coordination functions of cultural, environmental, tourist systems and associated services of the socio-economic and rural system of the Oltrepò Mantovano and is the owner of its own portal tourism, www.oltrepomantovano.it, to promote actions for the valorisation of the cultural and artistic heritage of the territory and strategies of territorial attraction with tourist value of the geographical area of Oltrepò.
The Consortium, the operational entity that will take care of the overall coordination of the implementation of the agreement, already has activities underway that will be implemented with the indications of the Protocol that is being presented today.
Mention should be made of: the collective purchase (through the Mab Unesco Po Grande – Ministry of the Environment tender) of a fleet of approximately 50 electric bikes with the activation of an app for management (pickup and return). The promotion and communication of this service can be disseminated through the protocol partners; the activation of the mobility service with electric vans in the Oltrepò area (in order to facilitate travel within the vast area) with a reservation service; a pilot project will start soon in Suzzara (through a European project called Rural Med, which finances the experimentation) and then a stable service will be activated with the funds from the internal areas for citizens and “sustainable” tourists who arrive in Mantua or Ferrara by train they want to continue visiting the area in a slow and sustainable way; the development of an ad hoc project on this theme will involve the partners to offer an integrated and innovative service in the near future to support the development of the territory.
Furthermore, the positioning of four eco meter stations which provide the quantification of the cycling tourism phenomenon in transit every six months will represent an important indicator for investing in this target of tourists; the activation of a Museums app dedicated to Small Museums which guarantees the possibility of calling and making arrangements for visits, on which news and initiatives spread throughout the area are published, downloadable free of charge from the site; the activation of a cycle route app, with GPS tracking that identifies all the cycle paths that cross the territory, downloadable for free from the site; the creation of thematic maps (culture, museums, food and wine and cycle paths). The wide-ranging communication project for the planning of internal areas is being implemented which will give visibility to the territory and its cultural and landscape values.
