“For Italy: tourism as an economic and social driver for a real restart”

Sviluppumbria plays a role at the national conference “For Italy: tourism as an economic and social driver for a real restart” - 4 March 2021

Sviluppumbria’s President Michela Sciurpa took part in the live streaming of the national conference “For Italy: Tourism as an economic and social driver for a real restart” organized on 4 March by the Associazione Internazionale dei Cavalieri del Turismo, chaired this year by the CEO of Fiera Roma Pietro Piccinetti.

The event was opened by the Italian Minister of Tourism Massimo Garavaglia and welcomed all the Italian players in the sector to take stock of the situation and gather concrete proposals to restart the sector. With a turnover of 25.6 B€, 283,000 jobs, and 52,000 companies, this sector, one of the hardest-hit by the pandemic, accounts for 15% of our GDP and is an essential driver of the Italian economy.

Many issues were at the centre of this important initiative, which was conceived as a real working group on tourism: to intervene immediately with more support, to preserve the sector’s skills, to improve structures and physical and digital infrastructure, to invest in training and, above all, to relaunch a new phase of concerted action between the public and private sectors within the framework of enhanced coordination between the various national and local players.

“I would like to thank the organisers for inviting us to such a high-level debate on an issue of fundamental importance for relaunching the economy of our regions. Sviluppumbria, the economic development agency of the Umbria Region, follows the priorities indicated by the Tourism and the Economic Development Departments, and is an example of how to support the recovery of the sector by leveraging an integrated approach: support for tourism businesses and related supply chains, creation and enhancement of innovative tourism products (such as outdoor tourism, walking routes, cycle paths, slow tourism), support for the enhancement of the territory with physical infrastructure, support for the digitalisation and sustainability of the tourism offer and, last but not least, the relaunch of important regional assets such as Umbria Fiere and the San Francesco d’Assisi International Airport. We will work alongside Umbrian companies to prepare a new start capable of taking advantage all future opportunities together with all the regional players and the Italian System, starting with Enit, Simest, ICE, Italian Cultural Institutes and our Embassies abroad.”

“I also gladly accept the invitation to meet again in 100 days,” concluded Sviluppumbria’s President, “to continue along this path of sharing and moving from ideas to actions together.”

The conference was live-streamed and can be viewed here. View Dr. Sciurpa's comments.