“Putting the historic villages of the Marche back at the center of the region’s tourist attraction by relaunching the cultural, food and wine and hospitality tradition of the regional territory”. An ambitious project, desired by the President of the Region Francesco Acquaroli, which thanks to the resources deployed, 24 million euros from the ‘Welcoming Village’ call, out of a total of 60.2 million overall “can transform the potential of the territory into opportunities”.
“The village factor – Acquaroli explained during the presentation of the tenders in a crowded assembly of local administrators today in Senigallia – is a factor of identity and territorial authenticity. The resources deployed are a development driver that allows a heritage, currently dormant, to emerge, to redesign it and make it alive and attractive for national and international tourism”. The president explained this to the numerous mayors present in Senigallia ready to take advantage of the opportunity to “rehabilitate their small municipalities” and put them on the tourist market.
An essential condition for “transforming the great heritage now abandoned into welcoming and attractive places, equipped with accommodation facilities and cultural and food and wine offers – underlined the President – is networking, working in synergy and not in competition, creating a real circuit of villages”. It is no coincidence that the call for small historic villages requires the municipalities to come together, no more than three per province, thus allowing the rebirth of as many as 50 villages in total, returning them to that original identity which makes the Marche a very particular.
Thus reversing “the trend that has led to the abandonment and impoverishment of historic and unique places for the heritage they possess, and offering tourists, but also the population that lives there, opportunities for hospitality, economic and employment development”, is the objective of the Region, aware that the Marche “has nothing to envy of Tuscany and nearby Umbria”.
The funding guaranteed through the tenders “opens a channel – said Acquaroli – which can change the destiny of the territories. However, it takes the collaboration and planning of the municipalities and private individuals who together build the change. They are not spot tenders – he insisted clarify – but they represent the beginning of a path included in a more overall strategy which will be supported by other funding in the future”. Because “change cannot be made in a day, it cannot be made alone and, above all, tourism cannot be relaunched if there are no adequate accommodation facilities and interesting cultural offerings”.
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