Valdobbiadene April 18, 2025 – The hills of Prosecco of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a cultural landscape, were the protagonists of a training and project initiative that involved an international class of students of the Master in Strategies and Marketing for Agrifood Businesses of the Venice School of Management – Ca’ Foscari University.
From 14 to 17 of April, thanks to the collaboration between the Association for the heritage of the Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene and the academic team led by professor Christine Mauracher and Vladi Finotto, seventeen students from different countries – Italy, France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, El Salvador, Mauritius – took part in an immersive hackaton. The objective: to get to know the territory, understand the reasons for its growing attractiveness and propose strategic visions for its future. The participants, divided into three working groups, had an intensive experience in the field, including visits to wineries, interviews with producers, residents and sector operators, meetings with the designers of the Cammino delle Colline (Walk of the Hills) and moments of confrontation with local institutions. The tour ended with the public presentation, at Villa dei Cedri, of three strategies for sustainable development, innovative and consistent with the cultural identity of the UNESCO site.
“We wanted to give these young people the opportunity to know our territory not only as visitors, but as active protagonists of a process of reflection and proposal. – says Marina Montedoro, president of the Association for the heritage of the Hills of Prosecco of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene – 2024 was an extraordinary year: attendande exceeded quota 528,763, with an increase of +9.7% compared to 2023 and +18.7% compared to 2019, and an international component in constant increase, now more than 25%. These numbers speak of a dynamic, attractive territory that must be guided with vision. Initiatives such as this help us to reflect on the future challenges and opportunities offered by integration of culture, nature, enogastronomy and innovation.”
The initiative comes at a time of great ferment for the territory: according to the latest ISMEA data presented at Vinitaly 2025, wine tourism in Italy involves more than 13 million people and is worth about three billion euros. The Hills of Prosecco in Conegliano and Valdobbiadene are continuously growing and represent a natural laboratory for experimenting with new forms of sustainable tourism. Among the projects presented by the students, there are ideas for the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence tools for a more personalized narrative of the territory, the integration between nature, culture, sport and enogastronomy, and the creation of engaging experiences designed also to keep young people in the area, generating opportunities for work and professional growth.
“The project is an effective representation of the fruitful dialogue between universities and territories – says professor Christine Maraucher, Director of the Master in Strategies and Marketing for Agrifood Businesses. Young students, thanks to the comparison with operators, communities and institutions and through immersion in the hills, have been able to value what they learned in class and from research, adopting innovative methods and close to “practice”. Their creativity mixed with the experience and input of the operators and the Association, has allowed us to imagine lines of development for the UNESCO site that seemed feasible both in the short term and over longer horizons”.
The Association will carefully welcome the proposals, which will arrive in the coming months, considering them a valuable contribution to the elaboration of future strategies for the promotion and valorization of the UNESCO site.
