PAVIA – Pavia is increasingly focusing on tourism, implementing joint efforts to enhance its potential. The 2023 Infocamere data reveal that the province is among the last at a regional level for tourist flows and presence of accommodation facilities, contributing only 3.9% to the provincial GDP, well below the Lombard and national average of 13%. An increase of up to 13% would mean an increase of around one billion euros in the provincial GDP, currently estimated at around 13 billion. The regional councilor on the topic Barbara Mazzali will speak at a meeting at the Pavia Chamber of Commerce on June 12th.
The Pavia Chamber of Commerce, aware of this unexpressed potential, is working intensely with sector operators to define a shared tourism strategy. The Destination Management Plan (DMP) Tourism Strategic Plan is under developmentor, aimed at creating a new territorial brand. This project aligns with the Memorandum of Understanding for the Development and Tourist Enhancement of the Cultural Heritage of the Province of Pavia, signed with the Province and the Banca del Monte Foundation.
Meanwhile the special company Paviadevelopment has presented the excellence of the Pavia area in various international events. In February, Paviasviluppo coordinated the participation in the BIT-International Tourism Exchange in Milan. In April, it promoted local products at Vinitaly 2024 and organized the “Oltrepò Wine Experience” initiative, a week of tastings of Pinot Noir from Oltrepò Pavese DOC in wine shops across Italy. In May, the province was represented at Cibus, the reference event for the Made in Italy agri-food sector in Parma, with tastings of typical products such as “Carnaroli da Carnaroli Pavese”, denomination wines, Salame di Varzi and Mortara goose salami.
In the city, the guided tours have already attracted around 200 participants, from Pavia and beyond, awaiting the reopening of the institution’s spaces in the Arnaboldi Cupola. The meeting on 12 June will serve to take stock of the tourism activities carried out in 2023 and in the first months of 2024 and to illustrate the regional strategy, summarized in the “Lombardia Style” brand. This brand promotes the excellence of each individual territory of Lombardy through various initiatives, including the publication of a collectible brochure, the creation of a docu-film and a series of branded gadgets for each province, created by Jacopo Ascari.
“The Pavia Chamber of Commerce – comments the Extraordinary Commissioner Giovanni Merlino – remains firmly committed to supporting and promoting tourism, a sector in which the territory has many distinctive skills (cultural, artistic, food and wine, landscape, naturalistic, sporting, ..) which are not fully exploited today, working in synergy with all institutional actors and private individuals involved to make our province a destination of excellence recognized nationally and internationally. The Chamber strongly believes that this sector, directly and indirectly, can substantially impact the wealth that the territory is able to produce annually”.
