Councilor Ernesto Alecci: “We continue to live day by day with spot interventions and proclamations. No certainty for entrepreneurs and mayors. Those who should have dictated the political line have recently perhaps been distracted by a tiring electoral campaign.”
With the summer season now underway and the arrival of the first visitors, our Region is once again experiencing a very serious delay and great unpreparedness in the management of tourism. While many Italian regions plan actions on a three- or five-year basis with tenders and funding for tourism entrepreneurs and municipalities, the Calabria Region continues to proceed with proclamations and spot interventions that do not support the territories in real growth over time.
The feeling is that of navigation by sight, of a total absence of vision, which necessarily discourages entrepreneurs and mayors, such as those of “Blue Flag” municipalities. The latter, in fact, as of late June, still have no news on possible financing and are very alarmed by the need to find funds to organize events and awareness days on the environmental issue and on the defense of the marine ecosystem. Last year, in the spring, I also reported this situation but, given the results, I believe it is necessary to plan access to this funding on a three-year basis, also to provide continuity and actively support the project that each municipal administration carries out.
Another striking case is that of the cancellation of trains on the railway section between central Lamezia Terme and Catanzaro Lido starting from 10 June for at least 50 days, due to works to modernize the network. A fundamental route for all those tourists who plan to come to Calabria by train. There will be replacement buses, but apparently only 4 vehicles will be active while there were 14 trains, and they will run every 3 or 4 hours with enormous inconvenience for all passengers and extension of travel times. In the middle of the tourist season, therefore, one of the main connections between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ionian Sea and between some of the most famous seaside resorts in our region will be missing. Just as there has been a delay in the removal of the large amounts of waste from roadside lay-bys, an operation that must have already been carried out months ago, and in the reduction of construction sites on the motorway, especially in the Tyrrhenian area south of Lamezia, since the Pizzo junction .
In a region that should live on tourism, unfortunately we continue to “live hand to mouth” on tourism, without programming, without any planning. One might think that those who should have dictated the political line to the departments perhaps recently got distracted by a tiring electoral campaign. Although President Occhiuto, who (it is worth remembering!) also holds the delegation for tourism, had repeatedly declared in the past that he wanted to deal only with Calabria and not be distracted by electoral competitions, in recent weeks he has been present on all stages elections, behaving exactly like all those he had initially pointed the finger at. A great disappointment that adds to the bitterness of another lost season for our region.
