In the logo representing Italy in the Calabria stand at the Holiday Fair taking place in Vienna, Sicily and Sardinia are missing. Sicilian political leaders report this by underlining that in the image representing our country, crossed by a tricolor and with the writing “Italien”, the two largest islands have been forgotten. The Italian presence, thanks to the Italian Embassy in Austria, together with Enit and the Ice Agency, is represented by the Calabria, Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia Regions as well as by an association of Sicilian municipalities to promote the artistic-cultural beauties of our Village.
Todde: “Guilty omission”
«I am deeply disappointed and surprised to see that two entire regions, Sardinia and Sicily, have been excluded from the logo representing Italy in the Calabria stand at the Vienna Holiday Fair». Thus the current governor of Sardinia, Alessandra Todde, in a post on Facebook. «It is not just a graphic mix-up – specifies the M5s exponent -, but a guilty omission that forgets our identity and the contribution of the two largest islands to the culture and beauty of our country. I ask for an immediate clarification and a corrective from the organizers and I assure you that I will follow up these words with concrete actions to guarantee the right recognition and consideration that Sardinia and Sicily deserve every time the image of the Italy”.
Figuccia (Lega): “Sicily and Sardinia out? Gaffe, let's resolve it”
«On March 14th the Holiday Fair opened in Vienna, an annual event dedicated to tourism promotion which offers leisure activities and travel offers. In addition to other regions of Italy, among the promoting bodies there are also some Sicilian municipalities, but it's a shame that neither Sardinia nor Sicily are present in the logo. It's probably a gaffe by the organizers. However, this suggests that there is probably little attention paid to the two Italian regions, which par excellence are the queens of tourism, especially foreign tourism, in Italy.” This was said by the deputy commissioner of the Sicilian Assembly, Vincenzo Figuccia (Lega). «It is sad to point out this unfortunate lack which certainly damages our region, and especially the Sicilian tourist operators, who every year make great efforts to be competitive and attractive towards tourism from European and non-European origins – he adds – I formally ask the Ministry of Italian tourism not to support what happened by making the government's voice heard so that this doesn't happen again, and that there is great respect for the Sicilian region which has a vocation for tourism in its DNA.”
Mayors in Vienna: serious Italy logo without Sicily and Sardinia
The Sicilian mayors who are present at the Holiday Fair in Vienna in the corner of Sicily, which is located right in front of the stand of the Calabria Region, where the Italy logo is represented without Sicily and Sardinia, are protesting. For the administrators of the Municipalities of Erice (Trapani), Sortino (Syracuse), Noto (Syracuse) and Piazza Armerina (Enna) «it is not acceptable that in such an important Fair for international tourism there should be the Calabrian pavilion which clearly cuts the two main islands of Sicily and Sardinia: at a time when we are trying to start a new policy on national and regional tourism we believe that this is not admissible, it is an act of institutional incorrectness and we ask the competent bodies to intervene”.
«It was said that Italy ends in Bari, in reality it is not a provocation here – add the Sicilian administrators – It is probably an error by a graph, but the graph is Italian, not Austrian. We are here to promote Sicily and seeing that the two islands are not there in this graph is not correct, we hope they mend their ways.” For the mayor of Sortino, Vincenzo Parlato, «there remains a bitterness in the mouth, we have always imagined, by promoting Italy, to promote a single package, that is, our Italy where there are Sicily and Sardinia». “Seeing this image abroad – he claims – certainly mortifies us and we ask the national bodies to plan a three hundred and sixty degree promotion of Italy”. And Massimo Prado, councilor for tourism in Noto, the Baroque capital, states: «The only thing one can think of is that it is a bad joke, because it is not possible that someone wanted to create something like this deliberately, we find it hard to believe it. Not depicting Sicily and Sardinia is something incredible, we hope that action will be taken and this lack of respect will no longer occur.”
The response of the Calabria Region
“The Calabria Region participated in the holiday fair underway in Vienna with an independent stand. In all the promotional material displayed and widely distributed by our Region during the event, the map of Italy is shown in the traditional way with Sicily and Sardinia. Only in a marginal part of the pavilion is there a small stylized image of the Peninsula without the two islands, which has the sole objective of putting the geographical position of Calabria in the foreground as much as possible. It is therefore not the reproduction of either a physical map or a political map of our country. We are proud to have represented Calabria in Vienna again this year with a much appreciated program and with a larger stand than last year, which attracted a lot of interest and received much appreciation from visitors, from other regions, from the embassy representative Austrian and Enit”. Thus in a note Maria Antonella Cauterucciogeneral manager for tourism, territorial marketing and mobility of the Calabria Region.