Treviso, October 29, 2024. It was held in Treviso, at the Conference Room of the Chamber of Commerce in Piazza Borsa, the event “Models of sustainable tourism and inter-linguistic communication for the enhancement of ‘internal areas’“, promoted by the Department of Economics of Ca’ Foscari University Venice, in collaboration with the Treviso Campus and the Treviso-Belluno|Dolomiti Chamber of Commerce.
After a summer during which the debate was monopolized by the phenomenon of “overtourism,” or hasty and massive tourist consumption, the event aimed at reflecting on functional strategies to enhance a tourist-cultural offer spread throughout the territory: attentive to specificities, to lesser-known areas, but still referable to an overall vision, to a common narrative thread, which allows tourists to grasp what distinctive experience they can live in a given context. So as to incentivize him to stay, to choose that context as the preferred destination of his travels.
Within this framework, reinforced in the institutional greetings by the President of the Treviso-Belluno Chamber of Commerce, Mario Pozza, the program was full of interventions, involving professionals and representatives of the tourism, cultural and economic sectors.
In the first part, a concrete case was presented, such as that of the Jewish Museum of Lecce, an example of cultural enhancement and sustainable tourism development, thanks to the interventions of Prof. David Katan of the University of Salento and Dr. Michelangelo Mazzotta, co-founder of the museum.
Among the key issues addressed was the role of digital technologies in the development and promotion of inland territories, treated by Dr. Alfonso Santaniello, president of Conform S.C.A.R.L., under the moderation of Prof. Mirella Agorni of Ca’ Foscari University Venice.
One of the most awaited moments was the Round Table titled: “Tourism and tourists, widespread enhancement of territories, territorial data intelligence: what is being done?”, in which Mario Pozza President of the Treviso-Belluno | Dolomites Chamber of Commerce also participated directly.
Pozza pointed out the importance of collaboration between public bodies, local operators and academic institutions to meet the challenge of a more shrewd segmentation of the offer, which should not mean parceling out and overlapping initiatives. For the province of Treviso, Pozza says, the goal is to keep tourists in our area for more days, not only because we are close to Venice, but also because they discover an integrated offer of places, themed visits, outdoor sports practices, cultural and food and wine proposals that are truly wide-ranging. Even for the province of Belluno – the president continues -, we must be able to compendize the strength of the traditional mountain attractions with a widespread offer that succeeds in becoming, precisely with reference to the so-called ’inland areas ‘, community tourism, an authentic experience of the territory, of its natural environment, of its typical food and wine, and of its crafts. And this, if you like, Pozza closes, is also the challenge connected to the legacy of Milan-Cortina 2026, which we will be able to say has been won the moment the ski enthusiast returns to our territory, also attracted by the beauty of the more secluded villages, but not without services and connectivity.
Essential, for this challenge, is a data-driven approach to tourism planning: Stefano Marchioro, Directorate of Tourism of the Veneto Region, contact person for the Federated Regional Tourism Observatory, a true territorial data intelligence tool for a fine-grained analysis of tourist flows, needs and feed-back, segmented by destinations, spoke immediately on this topic.
The Round Table then continued with contributions from Emanuela de Zanna President of the Dolomiti Bellunesi DMO Foundation, Giulia Casagrande President of the Marca Treviso Foundation, Florian von Stepski-Doliwa of the Association for Venetian Villas, Giovanni Cher President of Federalberghi Treviso, Federica Montaguti Senior Researcher at CISET, and Mario Volpe Professor at Ca’ Foscari University Venice. The discussion was moderated by Federico Callegari, director of the Treviso and Belluno Social Economic Observatory.
