Source: press office Presidency of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso Belluno|Dolomiti
Treviso, 11 August 2022. I want to emphasise, – commented the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso – Belluno|Dolomiti Mario Pozza, – that the Milan – Cortina
2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games will take place in an area characterised by the sports chain that unites the provinces of Treviso and Belluno with the eyewear and sportsystem district.
Mountain sports are practised in the Belluno area, in scenery of incomparable beauty, where the 60 million euro turnover generated by the management of the ski lifts is by no means negligible, and
where we find the world’s best production of eyewear, with a production value of 2.3 billion euro involving more than 12 thousand employees in the area. In the joyful and industrious Marca
Trevigiana, on the other hand, lies the Sportsystem district of Montebelluna, historically centred on the production of ski boots and alpine trekking shoes with 2,700 production units
and about 15 thousand employees. If, moreover, we consider the Sportsystem supply chain as a whole, even in its extensions over the entire province of Treviso and the province of Belluno, we
arrive at a turnover of more than 4.2 billion Euros, again with reference to the pre-Covid 2019 year. These are figures that make us proud, but I would like to emphasise,’ the President points
out, ‘that this success is the result of the brilliant ideas of entrepreneurs and businesswomen who have fostered industrial agreements, shared know-how, created national and international
collaborations, created ancillary activities, and fostered welfare and corporate responsibility, which favours the institutions in the governance of the territories. I am talking about a supply
chain that is unique in the world and that represents the value of excellence that will characterise the holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Treviso and Belluno – highlights Prof. Franco Ascani, IOC Culture Commission Member and FICTS President – represents a happy combination of the beauty of nature,
entrepreneurial initiative and the dynamism of the administrations of the territory, with sport in the role of collector. A ‘summa’ of excellences destined to best represent Made in Italy on the
international scene, thanks, above all, to the role played in the strategic project to promote the territories and businesses by the Treviso – Belluno | Dolomites Chamber of Commerce,
directed with farsightedness by Dr. Mario Pozza.
Impressive’ figures: 2% of the GDP is made up of sport and its allied industries, with clothing and footwear spending (6.7 bn €), followed by actual spending on active sport (3.3 bn €) and
sports tourism (2.9 bn €). Other impressive figures: a global audience of 3 billion people at the Tokyo 2020 Games. Digital platform partners generated 28 billion video views in total, an increase
of 139% compared to the Rio 2016 Games.
The Olympic Games,- Prof. Ascani continues, – between facilities, transport, the Olympic village, commercial and health facilities, are a gigantic investment operation in urban
spaces, they are one of the most effective international marketing platforms in the world. Increased physical activity is also an important part of the legacy created by the Olympic Games for their
guests and for the host country. A country’s image emerges with the legacy, with the aftermath of the Games: experiencing intergenerational sport through the Olympic and Paralympic adventure,
capitalising on major events, leaving a permanent legacy as the IOC’s Agenda 2020+5 advocates.
Sport has become a supplier of content and spectators of strategic interest to the media and is increasingly a source of social, scientific and customary reflection and wide-ranging advertising
revenue and economic investment. Associating sport with culture and education,’ points out IOC member Ascani, ‘means recognising that sport today plays an increasingly important role in the
educational process of young people, capable of influencing the development of the collective consciousness of tolerance and understanding between different cultures.
The aim is to ‘move the country more’ and ‘awaken an athlete sleeping inside every citizen’.
Sport has always combined universal values,- says Prof. Alessandro Minello, lecturer at the Ca’ Foscari University Venice School of Economics, – that transcend
disciplinary boundaries and unite different peoples in competition in respect of rules shared by all. If you like, sport represents the first and most shared form of globalisation in history.
Sport continuously generates knowledge and new knowledge, mechanisms of international relations, formal and informal communication languages, rules of trust, often uniting ‘opposites’ in a
process of complex innovation. But the environment of sport as well as its values are applied and nourished by local cultures and values, i.e. they are realised in the territories, connecting and
fully involving the communities. In this lies the great strength of Olympism.
Sportsystem District
Over time, the district has embarked on a path of strong diversification. The product range has thus expanded to include football, tennis, basketball, bicycle, outdoor and everyday footwear.
Applied research activity around sports equipment was intensified, with the use of cutting-edge materials. Finally, clothing lines (technical and non-technical) have also been added.
In addition to this, there is a whole induced activity involving manufacturers of processing machinery, mould manufacturers and those who make plastic moulds, design and planning studios,
commercial activities and other subjects, not necessarily of an economic nature, which contribute to the maintenance of the district: incubators, associations, training organisations, etc.
In addition, we should not forget related tourism activities, which are particularly relevant in the province of Belluno, together with the management of ski lifts.
All this has a powerful economic value. Remaining with the core activities of the Sportsystem (footwear and sports equipment), at the end of 2021 there were 461 production units between Belluno
and Treviso for a total of over 5,500 employees, of which 4,700 concentrated in the Montebelluna district.
If we also consider the collateral textile-clothing and design activities, the Sportsystem chain involves almost 2,700 production units for about 15,000 employees, half of which are concentrated
in the Montebelluna district.
Looking at the analyses of the performance of the industrial districts curated by Intesa San Paolo, for the Montebelluna Sports Footwear and Sportsystem district, a turnover of over
2.8 billion euro is observed for the year 2019, still exempt from the pandemic events, referring to a very representative sample of 130 district companies. 50% of this turnover is realised in
foreign markets.
If, moreover, we consider the Sportsystem supply chain as a whole, also in its extensions on the whole province of Treviso and the province of Belluno, we arrive at a turnover of over 4.2
billion Euros, always referring to the pre-Covid 2019 year. Not at all negligible is the 60 million turnover generated in the province of Belluno by ski lift management activities. And these are
still estimates by default, because they are only conducted on joint-stock companies that file their balance sheets with the Chamber of Commerce. Moreover, tourism activities are not included,
because they are not only linked, as is easy to imagine, to sports activities, but also to the various reasons, including work, that move people around the area.
Eyewear District
According to the Intesa San Paolo Research Centre’s elaborations on the company balance sheets of a sample of 119 companies in the Belluno district, in 2020, the year of the Covid-19
pandemic, the district’s turnover will be just over EUR 5 billion, with a change compared to 2019 of -27.6% (median value). In 2019, the turnover of the sample (116 companies) exceeded 6.8
billion.
But the results for 2021, on a national level, show that the sector has regained a more than positive trend. According to Anfao data, the value of national production of frames, sunglasses and
lenses (which accounts for 75 per cent of the sector’s output) was above even pre-pandemic levels: +4.5 per cent over 2019. Much is due to the strong international propensity of the Italian
eyewear industry, which sells 90% of its domestic production of frames, sunglasses and lenses abroad. In 2021, these exports grew by +39.2% over 2020 and +3.4% over 2019.
